I ran across a remarkable article on a young woman who became a "Covid-19 Long-Hauler". Could have been written by so many members here on Phoenix Rising. Below is the introduction...
"I used to go to sleep thinking: Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll start to feel better. I don’t really do that as much anymore. I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that this virus isn’t something I’m about to get over. This might be it. Maybe this is who I am.
I wake up every morning, and I brace myself. What’s it going to be today? I’m what they call a “long-hauler,” where covid takes over your body and won’t go away. Doctors think there might be tens of thousands of us, but nobody really knows.
It’s a medical mystery. It’s like a random grab bag of symptoms. You reach in, and you never know what you’re going to get. How about some nausea and severe dizziness? Or would you prefer a migraine with a side of joint pain? Some issues are constant, like body aches and head-to-toe fatigue, but the weirder ones seem to randomly come and go: ringing ears, sore ribs, heart palpitations, ear popping, numbness in my fingers, excessive mouth watering, lightheadedness, brain fog.
My memory loss is so bad sometimes that it’s like I have amnesia. The other day, I woke up and wanted to put on running clothes. In my head, I thought I was going for a jog and then heading in to work, but as soon as I stood up, my heart rate started spiking, and it was like: Oh yeah. I can’t even walk around the block by myself. I don’t have a job anymore. I’m on disability. What am I thinking?
A lot of times I hardly get out of bed. The day never starts or the night never ends. It’s a black hole. I wait for the hours to pass..."
