My first Covid-19 symptoms appeared on March 14: a low-grade fever, profound leg pain, malaise, and loss of appetite. More than 100 days later, Covid-19 is still with me. Some days I wonder if it will ever leave.
In the early days, as my symptoms fluctuated, I was determined not to go to the emergency department or urgent care because it seemed like there were too many people who needed the help more than I did. Maybe I was especially sensitive to overcrowding in emergency departments because I’m a physician. But it turns out that this strategy was a common one.
In New York City, where I live and work, there were more than
5,000 excess deaths not directly linked to Covid-19 between March 11 and May 2, likely because people were delaying care or not going to emergency departments or urgent care due to fear of contracting Covid-19 or oversaturating the medical system.
I did eventually go to the emergency department one day when the abdominal pain and nausea were severe. Routine testing showed that the level of liver enzymes in my blood was higher than it should have been, but not much more, and I was sent home.
Once day 14 had passed, my fear of an impending respiratory collapse turned into an uncertainty about the trajectory of my disease and a desperation for answers. I contacted my doctors regularly, hoping their responses would bring relief in the form of some intervention. Yet most of their efforts did little to significantly change the course of my symptoms.
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I’ve now logged nearly four months of symptoms, with little sign of returning completely to my pre-Covid self. As a physician, I was aware of the concept of post-viral syndromes; as a patient, this concept brings a dismal new meaning, signaling the possibility of a new disease and everything is unknown — especially how long the symptoms will last, and which of them might be permanent.
I am lucky not to have the debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, and fevers others have been experiencing. At this point I’m still experiencing intermittent gastrointestinal symptoms, persistently high liver enzymes, which a liver specialist is trying to figure out, and an odd and continuous discomfort in my leg, which may be
paresthesia. I’m able to go to work and go about my life just fine. Many others can’t do that.
I write with the hope that even one more patient who has been struggling with prolonged Covid-19 symptoms may not feel so alone. I write with the hope that one more physician, friend, family member, or supervisor may see this article and realize the importance of support since there’s currently a lack of treatment options.
So far in the pandemic, clinicians have focused nearly exclusively on managing respiratory symptoms and preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. As we enter the next phase, increasing evidence points to a significant proportion of us
with prolonged symptoms, and this warrants attention.