“I really have a lot of bad anxiety, a lot worse than I’ve ever had in my life,” Dunlop says. “The anxiety I feel now is different from any kind of anxiety I have ever felt.” From the moment she wakes up to the moment she goes to bed at night, Dunlop’s thoughts run with questions like: When will I fully recover? and do I have unnoticed heart damage?
It does not help that Dunlop feels short of breath and excessive after she exercises. ‘Not being able to exercise is probably the hardest for me, because intense exercise controlled my anxiety. Without being able to do that, that level of control is gone, so it was also a struggle for me, ‘says Dunlop. Now she rather practices yoga, and it helps to temper some of her anxiety.
Then there is the monetary tension. Chronic illness can reduce your money on medical expenses and reduce your salary if you are unemployed. The Mount Sinai program requires daily rehabilitation work, and there is no knowing if anyone will improve in three months, six months, or longer. “We are in talks with the Social Security Administration because it is a full-time job for people,” says Dr. Putrino.
The fact that insurance approval is often required to help pay for medical treatment can create an impossible financial situation for people with COVID-19 in the long run. About 28.5 million people in the United States had no insurance in 2017, according to a 2018 U.S. Census Bureau report. The same report showed that about 10.6 percent of black individuals and 16.1 percent of blacks Spanish people in 2017 had no health insurance. This lack of insurance can cause a huge financial strain for people who get sick in some communities that have the greatest burden of the virus. .
To make the insurance situation even more complicated, some people with long-distance coronavirus have never received a definitive positive diagnosis. At the beginning of the pandemic, coronavirus tests were limited throughout the country. Some people who thought they had COVID-19 just could not get confirmation. What then happens to people who cannot prove that they had the coronavirus but who believe it has the consequences?
‘We have been working all the time to plead for the fact that you can not refuse access to care on the basis of test status. The World Health Organization has published guidelines for presumptive positive diagnosis based on symptoms, which is why we follow these guidelines, ”says Dr Putrino.
What’s next for long guards?
It is too early to know if everyone with post-acute COVID-19 syndrome will fully recover. It’s only been about a year since medical experts in the US treated patients with COVID-19; they had even less time to determine what the post-acute COVID syndrome is, what causes it and how to treat it effectively, says dr. Putrino. “We still do not have a good answer if it is something that people have to watch for the rest of their lives,” he says.
But he is encouraged by the success of his patients. ‘At this point I would not say that we have someone who says’ I’m 100 percent where I was before COVID-19′, but we’re seeing again people running careers and people who can exercise at a fairly heavy level without it is then wiped out for two to three days, ”says dr. Putrino. That being said, some patients have setbacks, and there is no idea whether noticeable improvements will last.
Dr. Bunnell’s sentiments are similar: ‘I do not yet have the exact numbers on the trajectory, but anecdotally most of our patients make improvements, and I would say that patients who were not in the ICU were busy after about three months to do much better. “
As more people get COVID-19 and the number of people with post-acute COVID-19 syndrome increases, our knowledge about the condition and who affects it will grow, says Dr. Putrino. A national study called INSPIRE funded by the CDC will study the patient’s long-term outcomes of the new coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will study the effects of COVID-19 in 9,000 veterans who have had the disease.
For now, everyone should be vigilant to protect themselves from the coronavirus. This is just another good reason (on a long list) to follow the local health department’s recommendations, social distance and masks. ‘There are all these young people all over the country who think,’ It’s good when I get COVID-19; I am young and healthy, ” says dr. Putrino. You may have a lower risk of death, but you are susceptible to this new, life-changing condition. “We still can’t figure out who is going to get the post-acute COVID-19 syndrome and who is not,” says Dr. Putrino.
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