A New Brunswick woman who has been diagnosed with “long COVID” is speaking out about the long-lasting effects that COVID-19 has had on the quality of her life.
“There is constant pain 100 per cent of the time,” said Debby Clements.
The 49-year-old from Shediac Cape spent four weeks in the ICU and almost died of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020.
Eighteen months later, she is still experiencing shortness of breath, neurological pain, memory loss and emotional trauma after being diagnosed with what health experts are calling long COVID, she said.
“Lots of therapy for the PTSD that comes with being that sick for that long and still the fear and anxiety,” said Clements.
Clements said long COVID has had an emotional toll on her life. She can gingerly walk down her front steps but lacks the strength to make it to the mailbox down the street and to run around and play with her five-year-old granddaughter.
“I wanted to take her for a walk on the beach but I can’t go for more than a few hundred feet because I have so much pain,” she said.
According to a recent study by Oxford University and the National Institute for Health Research, at least one long-term COVID-19 symptom was found in 37 per cent of patients three to six months after they were infected by the virus.
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Clements said the condition has been life-limiting in the most heartbreaking of ways.
“I could not make pancakes with my granddaughter the other day because I would not remember how,” she said.
A Halifax doctor says even patients who have had a milder case of the virus are being diagnosed as long haulers.
Dr. Christy Bussey is the head of COVID-19 Inpatient Unit Central Zone at the QEII Health Services in Halifax.
“Patients who have had very mild disease and never required hospital admission during their acute infectious illness and they will have debilitating symptoms many months after,” said Bussey.
Bussey said it is still unclear how many maritimers are suffering from long COVID or how many will develop it in the coming months. She says symptoms range from mild to severe, with some people also feeling extreme exhaustion for months after recovering from infectious COVID-19.
“Everything from heart palpitations to extreme fatigue. It really is quite variable,” said Bussey.
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Bussey said that doctors are still learning about the condition and that getting vaccinated is the best prevention.
Bussey said that caring for long COVID patients in the months to come is going to put an added strain on the medical system, “especially within our rehabilitation groups,” she said.
“When you think about primary care physicians and nurses practitioners being the first point of contact for these patients in the community and having the resources that they need to be able to either support those patients themselves or refer them on to proper sub-specialists,” she said will be a challenge.