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Kari Gray, a registered practical nurse and crisis intervention worker with the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, has suffered from protracted COVID-19 symptoms after contracting the virus last November. Also pictured is Gray’s husband Dan. Photo by Cory Smith /The Beacon Herald
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Kari Gray used to walk two miles a week, taking turns on a section of the Avon River or the indoor track at the Rotary Complex in Stratford.
Kayaking, paddling, and a change in diet helped the 48-year-old Perth County nurse lose 90 pounds in more than 18 months.
Now, seven months after contracting COVID-19, Gray can’t even drive for half an hour without taking a break. The dinner and conversation makes her lethargic and wondering if she will ever get her old life back.
She is one of many Canadians reportedly suffering from long-term COVID complications and there are still more questions than answers.
“Multitasking and trying to be normal just doesn’t exist anymore,” said Gray. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to become a nurse again. I couldn’t work the way I am now. “
Gray has not been a crisis intervention officer with the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance since November 2020 when she was diagnosed with the virus. She had been transferred to help with a COVID-19 outbreak in the city and was taking a test to ease coworkers’ fears and because she sometimes worked with seniors. The first test was negative, but the second was positive, “which was scary in itself,” she said.
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Gray was asymptomatic until day seven or eight when she developed extreme shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, and chest pressure.
“It felt like someone was putting a belt around my chest and pulling on it,” she said. “I wanted to do things, but physically I couldn’t.”
Gray was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance in early December when she was unable to relieve symptoms. The tests came back normal, even though she felt everything else.
“It’s all really frustrating because I’m not as independent as I used to be, and independence has always been very important,” she said.
A recent survey of more than 1,000 Canadians with long-haul COVID found many were suffering from the same symptoms as Gray. Cognitive impairment, also known as “brain fog,” was high on the list and is something that also affects Gray, whose brain functions as if it had post-concussion syndrome.
“The survey underscores previous observations that COVID-19 can cause neurological damage that lasts months after initial infection,” said Deanna Groetzinger, manager of Neurological Health Charities Canada, in a press release. “It clearly shows that Canada needs brain health action in COVID and post-COVID contexts.”
More than 80 percent of the survey respondents – conducted by Viral Neuro Exploration, COVID Long Haulers Support Group Canada, of which Gray is a member of Facebook, and Neurological Health Charities Canada – suffered for more than three months and nearly 50. of symptoms percent experienced symptoms for 11 months or longer.
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“We hope the data gathered from this survey will reveal the effects of COVID on brain health,” said Susie Goulding, founder of COVID Long-Haulers Support Group Canada, in a press release. “Raising awareness through lived experiences and working with patients will increase the urgency of taking action to fund research and rehabilitation of long-haul vehicles.”
Gray doesn’t know when she’ll be able to go back to work. She goes to physiotherapy, occupational therapy, counseling, massage therapy and speech therapy three times a week. There were some improvements, but the process was slow.
“Every time I talk to a specialist they have a new diagnosis or they don’t know what to do with it,” she said. “When your tests are back to normal but you feel shitty and people in the community are saying it’s a government conspiracy and COVID doesn’t exist, and you can’t say my test results are (otherwise) because they don’t everything is displayed … it’s very frustrating. “
We were supported by many in the community, such as Gray and her husband Dan’s shopping when they both had to take turns being quarantined in the days following the COVID diagnosis. Dan Gray avoided the virus, but admitted that “it was quite a change” taking care of his wife, nearly 24 years old.
He had to wash and brush Kari’s hair once, and he still does most of the housework and other chores that Kari could otherwise have done.
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“It looks like their independence is all but gone,” he said. “It’s difficult. I love taking care of her, but that’s the kind of care I expected when we’re in our 80s … not when she’s that younger. It’s hard to see. Before.” she was much more sociable. “
It is estimated that 25 to 35 percent of COVID-19 patients worldwide have long-term effects from the virus. That means 352,500 to 493,500 Canadians have been or are living on long-haul Covid flights.
While Gray successfully fought for WSIB coverage, Elisa Roy was not so lucky. The medical lab assistant at Stratford General Hospital paid for treatment out of pocket after contracting COVID-19 in March 2020. Roy was the first hospital worker to get the virus, which also affected three others in the lab.
“It’s stressful,” she said. “Now my savings are almost gone and I don’t know when the WSIB will step in to help.”
Roy only took one day off with migraines in her first two years in the lab, but she hasn’t returned to work in 15 months.
The 33-year-old from London initially had many of the same symptoms as others – cough, chest pressure, shortness of breath, muscle aches and cramps – but these got worse over time.
She suffered from pneumonia after COVID and both of her lungs partially collapsed. Roy was bedridden for about four weeks last spring.
“It never really got better.”
Roy is still dealing with respiratory and cognitive problems, and she also has liver and abdominal problems. Kidney stones are constant even though you’ve never had one before.
MRIs, tests and blood work showed nothing abnormal, and Roy participated in a study by the Robarts Research Institute and is now part of a COVID clinic at London University Hospital where doctors are trying to help patients with long-distance symptoms.
“It’s like I’ve been holding my breath the whole time in everything I’ve done,” she said. “I’m sick of being sick.”
cosmith@postmedia.com
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source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/local-health-care-workers-dealing-with-effects-of-long-haul-covid/
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