For Some Sufferers, The COVID Battle Carries On

"Most of us had been expecting this. There is no way something like this goes through the population without a number of people being left with severe disability."

"These are people in their 40s who cannot make it up a flight of stairs without becoming exhausted."

"Everyone would rather be back at work. These people are struggling day to day. There are emotional consequences. It wears you down."

"Ir really does affect people. I am seeing people who probably don't recognize their lingering symptoms are COVID-related who might benefit [from treatment]."

"We have data showing that patients do improve, and rehabilitation is a big part of it."

Dr.Shawn Marshall, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, The Ottawa Hospital

 

Long following the acute phase of the global pandemic has worn its way through the global population and settles into its future as a seasonal recurrence that can be controlled through updated vaccines year-to-year to account for mutations just as occurs with the seasonal flu, the condition now recognized as Long COVID will continue to plague some people. Fatigue, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, coughing, joint pain, chest pain, memory problems, sleep or concentration problems, muscle pain or headache and racing heartbeat represent the most common of Long COVID symptoms.

 

COVID does not finish with many people, leaving them free to resume their normal lives once its expected course period has run out. COVID has a way, not yet quite understood by the medical-science community of affecting multiple organs. As a result, rehabilitation requires complex treatments. Some studies conclde that twenty percent or more of those who contract COVID-19 will be left with lingering health effects. Recently, a study in the United Kingdom found that 14 percent of children can be expected to suffer long term adverse effects from COVID.

 

As many as 1 in 7 children may have symptoms linked to the coronavirus months after testing positive for COVID-19, the authors of an English study on long COVID in adolescents. The study was conducted by University College London and Public Health England.

Health workers represent many patients whom Dr.Marshall treats through WSIB Ontario, the provincial workplace compensation board. Rehabilitation's purpose is to aid in improving breathing, mobility and the capacity to complete routine daily tasks in everyday life, aiming toward normalcy, following COVID. Up to 20 percent of all cases across Canada throughout the first pandemic wave have been people in the healing arts who continue to be infected at a high rate.

A nurse who is a young mother and before COVID struck was healthy and capable of working and looking after her child, is now incapable of picking up a bag of groceries without experiencing severe heart palpitations. Personal support workers, fit before contracting COVID-19 are being treated by Dr.Marshall for their Long COVID condition which leaves them barely able to climb a flight of stairs. In many instances Long COVID sufferers face the frustration both of their stubborn ill-health symptoms and the struggle to be taken seriously by doctors they consult.

Dr. Marshall who specializes in their rehabilitation, speaks of patients who will be forever changed by Long COVID. Many people long after their infection, suffer from a high heart rate, fatigue and nerve pain, along with lung damage. Many are unable to return to normalcy; to work, much less perform the most basic, once-normal functions of life. An impact that leaves many with serious financial losses -- alongside their health issues.

Involved in opening and staffing Long COVID clinics, some doctors work on improving patients' breathing, mobility and capabilities in pursuing a normal lifestyle. Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome -- the medical term for Long COVID -- describes persistent symptoms or long-term complications of COVID-19, the expression of which remains puzzling to the medical community.

More research and funding would help, states the COVID Long Haulres Support Group Canada founder, Susie Goulding. In the  United Kingdom and the United States funding has been committed in setting up specialized clinics as well as research funding to achieve an improved understanding how Long COVID can best be treated. The presence of the more virulent Delta variant, dominant across Canada, adds extra urgency to the situation, as Goulding hears from greater numbers of concerned people on a daily basis.

There are over 14,000 Canadians with Long COVID symptoms who have joined the longhaulers support group. Sixty percent of those surveyed last May by the support group spoke of having to take work leave, 60 percent to reduce working hours, and 25 percent had to be placed on disability leave resulting from their continuing health issues. 

"There are so many people who are looking for a practitioner who will actually believe that they have Long COVID. There is still a lot of denial."

"The magnitude of issues caused by the constellation of Long COVID symptoms is not well understood. Long COVID clinical guidelines, treatment protocol and resources are critically needed to manage and support families."

Susie Goulding, founder, COVID Long Haulers Support Group Canada