Member-only story
Living with long-haul COVID turned my world upside-down
In June of 2020, after three scary months of increasing COVID cases, I noticed I couldn’t smell while driving my son back to college from Northern Virginia to North Dakota. Outside Duluth, I lost my sense of taste and once we arrived in Grand Forks, I couldn’t stay awake which I marked up to my thyroid medication.
At that point, loss of taste and smell hadn’t been added to the list of symptoms; we were looking for a cough, breathlessness, and fevers. I had none of those. But when I returned home, I developed breathlessness, so I scheduled a test and had to wait three days. My oxygen levels were at a 91, and the nurse testing me said to get a monitor for home and if I dropped below 90 to go to the hospital. I waited ten days for my results, and by then, my taste and smell had returned, and I felt better.
Over the next year, strange things began to happen. I gasped for air while climbing stairs, had crushing headaches, and most alarming, my life-long blood pressure of 110/68 jumped to 125/92 or higher even though I exercised 180 minutes a week on my Peloton (my doctor suggested it as a way to combat my breathlessness), did strength training, yoga, and Pilates, and walked 10,000 steps a day. I should have been in the best shape of my life, but I felt like I was falling apart.
In December, on-again-off-again brain fog permanently took hold. Writing and editing became difficult because I couldn’t remember where I was in the text or concentrate, and some days, I spent an hour or more on one paragraph. I’d also start making dinner, forget I had food on the cook top, and take my dog for a walk. I grew increasingly frustrated with seemingly little tasks and struggled to follow conversations. My symptoms reminded me of my husband’s traumatic brain injury, but I hadn’t suffered a blow to the head.
Fast-forward to June of 2021, a year after my infection. While walking my dog at 5:30 am, I experienced an uncomfortable pressure radiating from my mid-chest and through my back between my shoulder blades. Nausea overwhelmed me, and I fell to my knees in front of my neighbors house in a cold sweat. Somehow, I made it home, got a cool glass of water, and sat down. I felt fine shortly after.
