Covid long distance holder: A year later, this mother is afraid to take a shower because of the amount of hair she has lost

The worst part of a year of symptoms, she told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, is the amount of hair she lost. In August, she said it was as if she had shaken a small bird’s nest off her hair.

The mother of four said she, her husband and their 18-year-old son are among the growing number of people suffering from long-term Covid or long Covid. Although experts still know about this condition, they say that even those with mild cases may have symptoms that last for months.

After being active for years, Mandel said three weeks ago she was diagnosed with asthma. Although her doctors are not sure if the virus caused her condition, she says she has not been able to breathe easily since the first day she experienced her infection.

“Only when I sit and watch TV can I sometimes not breathe like that,” she said.

She pushes herself to harness more energy, she said. She started walking the elliptical path for 2.5 minutes in the new year, she told CNN. Now she’s up to 15 minutes.

What people feel

The long condition in Covid is still a mystery, but doctors say they are learning more all the time.

More than 100 of the symptoms were reported by patients, including fatigue, headaches, brain fog and memory loss, gastrointestinal problems, muscle aches and palpitations.

“I’m just as amazed at what comes through daily,” said Dr. Dayna McCarthy, who deals with Covid’s long-term importers on Mount Sinai in New York. She hears a long list of symptoms, including brain fog, rapid heartbeat and irregular blood pressure.

It is not just people who were seriously ill and hospitalized with the virus who still suffer months after becoming ill.

“New or prolonged symptoms can occur for more than four to six months in patients with Covid-19, regardless of the severity of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the CDC’s Alfonlso Hernandez-Romieu said during a webinar for doctors in January. said.

Doctors and therapists say they treat people of all ages and those who were extremely healthy before receiving Covid – including marathon runners, athletes and coaches.

What long distance riders can do

Those suffering from long Covid, who called themselves long-term caregivers, turned to support groups and clinics to get through their condition.

Facilities are being opened across the country to meet this growing need for assistance.

Mount Sinai in New York was the first to open a specific clinic in May when it opened its post-COVID care center.

The center has seen more than 1,600 patients and appointments are awaited monthly because demand is so high.

The pulmonary COVID recovery clinic in Piedmont, Atlanta, opened in November and already has about 600 referrals, says Dr. Jermaine Jackson, the medical director.

“We are learning more and more about this virus from day to day,” he said. “I would like to say we build the plane while we fly it, or we put on the wheels while driving.”

Currently there is no specific treatment for long Covid. For now, physicians focus on treatment based on the symptoms reported by a specific patient, especially because patients have different symptoms.

Initially, many patients who experienced symptoms months after the infection said that doctors had to reject their symptoms, but now they say that they are being taken seriously.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a webinar last month to help physicians identify the signs and symptoms of long covid and learn how to treat these patients.

Those who suffer, as well as researchers who want to understand their condition, benefit from online support groups.