A 25-year-old woman who has been living with coronavirus for two years has revealed that the treatments she found helped her condition, and the ones that didn’t.
It was estimated last month that nearly a million people in the UK had been living with Long Covid for at least a year.
Lily Seibert
25, first tested positive for Covid-19 on March 24, 2020. She started to have flu-like symptoms, which are expected to go away in a few days.
After three weeks
Her flu-like symptoms were gone, but eight months of shortness of breath, dizziness and a fast heart rate meant she couldn’t walk for more than 15 minutes without feeling exhausted. As soon as she went up the stairs, she felt as if she was on a night shift.
She started trying inhalers
Antibiotics and breathing exercises to treat shortness of breath – but they didn’t help. Eight months later, she had a breakthrough with some acupuncture — and slowly got better over the year before she stopped working.
Now she says « much better than before » but she still has symptoms.
The Brooklyn
N.Y.-based account manager said she was « defeated » but was learning to make peace with the new woman.
« In the beginning
It was a loss of identity for me. I’ve always been a sports and exercise person for a long time, so I used to connect with people and that changed completely, » she said.
« Since childhood
I’ve had chest pains, breathlessness and fatigue. For about three to four weeks, I thought I should be fine, and the symptoms didn’t go away.
« It’s not exactly the severe discomfort we associate with acute illness
But over time the symptoms go away and then reappear — it’s like a roller coaster ride. »
Prolonged coronavirus symptoms have made many of Lily’s daily activities difficult
Before contracting Covid, she described herself as an active person, but since Covid she has not been able to fully recover.
« For me
It’s a night shift, » she said. « I was living a normal life and the next day I couldn’t do what I was doing before. Getting back to where I was was slow progress, it was an ebb and flow. »
Lily has undergone a range of treatments and medications in recent years
And says that while some of them helped manage her symptoms, none of them managed to get rid of them completely.
She said
« It has changed a lot in treatment over the past two and a half years. In the early stages, I was given an inhaler, antibiotics and breathing exercises to ease my shortness of breath.
Then I did acupuncture for about a year eight months after Covid
I found it to be a success, it got me back to normal as I noticed some improvements, but it stagnated over time.
« J’ai consulté de nombreux médecins différents
D’abord le fournisseur de soins primaires m’a prescrit, puis j’ai vu le cardiologue. J’ai eu un client post-COVID-19 à New York et j’ai vu un médecin là-bas qui avait J’ai observé des patients post-COVID-19. ».
Elle a dit que voir un médecin était un « processus continu »
« J’ai essayé de réduire ma consommation au cours de la dernière année parce que je n’ai pas l’impression de tirer beaucoup d’avantages, je ne pense tout simplement pas qu’un médecin ait le magie pour savoir quel est le problème spécifique. » « .
En repensant aux deux dernières années
Lily a déclaré que c’était un processus de redécouverte d’elle-même.
« C’est un long processus pour réaliser sa propre valeur
Et il est difficile pour quiconque a vécu quelque chose comme ça de transmettre à quoi ressemblait l’expérience, et il est difficile d’obtenir le même niveau de compréhension », a-t-elle déclaré.
« Espoir un jour
Déprimé le lendemain, l’humeur monte et descend. Il est difficile de garder une humeur ou un état d’esprit stable car vous ne savez jamais comment vous allez vous sentir un jour donné. ».
💡 Ressource et référence
« independent.co.uk » de : Une femme atteinte de Covid-19 à long terme pendant deux ans révèle un traitement efficace mais qui a échoué.