The migraines came first.
Two or three weeks after recovering from covid-19 in August, Jennifer Gorzock said she began to experience intense headaches, along with fatigue and disoriented mental fog. She noted that her experience with the disease in progress was relatively light. She needed medication to get through it, but was not admitted to the hospital.
The symptoms have continued for the past eight months. More piled up: hair loss, persistent loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath and an increased heart rate, even with minimal effort. Gorzock was a healthy, energetic 40-year-old nurse and mother. She is now using six medicines, cannot return to work and cannot be as active in caring for her two children, one of whom has special needs and needs ‘a lot of care’, she said.
“It’s hard to be limited,” says Gorzock, who lives in Big Beaver, Beaver County. “It seemed like one symptom was emerging from the other and making it difficult because it’s a new normal for me.”
Gorzock will soon be a patient of Allegheny Health Network’s new clinic dedicated to patients experiencing the long-term effects of covid-19 – which many experts call ‘long-term symptoms’.
The AHN Post Covid-19 recovery clinic, based at the Respiratory Disorder Center at the AHN Wexford Health + Wellness Pavilion, is headed by the network’s lung and critical care department. A variety of specialists – in pulmonology, cardiology, integrative medicine, neurology, psychology – work in the clinic to address the long-term effects associated with covid-19. Gorzock heard about the clinic from the cardiologist she started seeing, dr. Indu Poornima.
“Across the country, doctors are seeing an increasing number of patients recovering from covid-19 but still experiencing a myriad of problems, from lung, heart and vascular problems to chronic fatigue, headaches and post-traumatic stress disorder,” he said. Dr Tariq Cheema, divisional director of lung, critical care, sleep and allergy at AHN and chief physician at the clinic. “The effects of the pandemic will continue to be seen in this new patient population, and we look forward to helping these individuals diagnose their symptoms, navigate their treatment, and alleviate some of their problems.”
A February study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that approximately 30% of the 177 people with mild covid-19 cases reported persistent symptoms up to nine months after the original disease – 43.3% for patients older than 65. The study estimates as much as 8.4 million people fall into the long-term category.
“I want others to know that there are others like me,” Gorzock said. “It’s a real disease, but with no known cure. With this clinic, I hope that breathless like me can get the help and answers to return to our normal, everyday lives. ”
Long-distance symptoms vary. Patients reported breathing problems, brain fog, anxiety and depression, severe body aches and many more ailments.
“A lot of it is related to inflammatory response,” said Dr. Meilin Young, a pulmonologist working with the clinic, said.
She said doctors noted that many of the inflammatory markers that normally increase during infection or other times of stress are even higher during covid-19.
“And at that point, it’s almost like you’re running on fumes for a very long time, and covid does that to you,” Young said. “You’re actually been on an adrenaline rush for days and days, and suddenly it’s back and your body is burnt out.”
Young said the idea for the AHN Post Covid-19 Recovery Clinic arose after practitioners worked independently in the network that they were dealing with far more long-term patients than expected. Discussions began in the fall and winter to arrange a more collaborative, multidisciplinary approach.
At this point, Young said the specialists do not have a fixed number of patients that they expect or will accept in the clinic.
“We are prepared to see almost anyone and everyone who does fit the long-distance picture,” Young said.
The AHN Research Institute will also be reviewing and analyzing data collected from patient reports and outcomes.
Teghan Simonton is an author of the staff of Tribune-Review. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, [email protected] or via Twitter .