My Glimpse into Long Covid
My Glimpse Into Long Covid
By: Stefanie Billette, M.S., ACE-CHC, ACE-FNS
I have had pre-syncope many times over the years—that feeling that I just might pass out. My blood pressure runs very low, and I used to battle low blood sugar, so fainting always seemed like it was just around the corner. Back in my 20s when I was teaching high school, I was sick with a sinus infection and was put on antibiotics, Sudafed, and a steroid shot. My BP dropped to near-death (75/40), and paramedics were called. Even then, I didn’t quite lose consciousness.
In April 2023, we took our kids to Universal Studios for the first time. They were both obsessed with Harry Potter and we figured we could make this happen while visiting the grandparents over Spring Break. We spent 90% of the time outdoors, sanitized constantly, and still managed to pick up Covid. My husband and I joked that we spent $800 to bring home wands our kids will never use again and to pick up the newest variant of the coronavirus (a virus we had successfully avoided for over three years).
Due to my son's metabolic disorder and both my and my daughter's autoimmune disease, we wore masks, homeschooled, and limited our activities for the first two years of the pandemic. My husband and I got the J & J vaccine, and I had a severe and long-lasting reaction. I had myalgia, high fever, sore eyeballs (yes, you are reading that correctly), and a rash for one-week post-vaccine. My IGG remained elevated for six months (this is not normal), no doubt due to my autoimmune disease wreaking havoc. But, after the first two years, we decided it was time to go back to living an unmasked life. For a whole year, that worked well for us.
I was the first to fall the day after we returned home to NC (not surprising with my autoimmune disease). I came down with all the symptoms I had when I got the vaccine- including the sore eyeballs! I awoke in the middle of the night, and I felt my BP dropping. I called for my husband who evidently kept me from bumping my head on the way down. He says I lost consciousness for ten seconds. It took 4 hours for my blood pressure and body temperature to regulate. My Raynaud’s disease flared up as well, giving me white, numb fingers and toes that turn painful as circulation returns as well as purple and blue mottled legs.
A few days later, I lost my sense of smell and taste. Thankfully, it began to return a few days later and fully returned after one week.
My husband and daughter followed with mild symptoms and then my son developed fever, myalgia, and his eyes and cheeks turned pink, all of which lasted only 24 hours. I started my usual research and found that the new variant out of India can cause pink eyes in children:
https://www.everydayhealth.com/coronavirus/itchy-eyes-and-conjunctivitis-might-be-the-latest-covid-19-symptoms/
We did not go to see a doctor and treated our symptoms at home; however, I did let my son's pediatrician, his geneticist, and my family physician know we all had Covid and that we had interesting symptoms. No one captured any of this, so I wonder where/how data is being collected as our own family's experience is not a data point in the current research.
My syncope episode and brief loss of 40% of my senses gave me a glimpse into the torture that those with Long Covid have been living with for the past three years. Those who have Covid-related POTS and Covid-induced loss of taste and smell are suffering in so many ways. This crazy virus, while milder in the acute stage than ever before, is still causing debilitating chronic symptoms for many people. We aren’t hiding in our houses and wearing masks anymore, but we do have to realize this virus has a different effect on everyone. If you have underlying autoimmune and circulatory conditions like me, you are more likely to have crazy and wild symptoms like I did. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if I were not on an autoimmune/anti-inflammatory diet. It took me about a month to feel normal again. But, my labs are still off. This is not your typical virus and the road to recovery can be windy and long.
By the way, it has been two months and my kids have not taken those wands out of the box.