COVID-19 Long term Effects

 

July 7, 2021



Although it appears that everyone is tired of talking about COVID-19, I felt it very interesting to discover the long-term effects it was having on so many people. Gwen Ophus came into the Mountaineer and quickly visited me about some long-term effects she is still experiencing. She wondered if anyone in town is still struggling with the same issues she is or if they are struggling with different effects. She has joined an online support group and hopes that she’ll be healing quicker than later.

She got COVID in the second week of November 2020, eight months ago, and is still affected by the long-term effects. Gwen has researched it, and people still struggle two years after COVID in with this “nasty.” Gwen said she would instead go back to her first symptoms, which were no taste, no smell, then what she is struggling with now. It’s just putrid, nasty, chemical, and it constantly changes. A week ago, I could eat some fruit and now bananas –you just want to throw them up.

“When I go by the hole they are digging by the Motel, I smell that rancid putrid smell I taste when I eat.” She shakes her head, “They say it’s still healing.”

“It was so weird I could smell the cinnamon raisin bagels, and I could eat it. It tastes good. I went to GF, and I had a small steak, and that night I cooked a pork chop, and I literally threw it up.”

“It’s never the same food. Meat is huge, and for me, it’s pork. I was avoiding it, but after researching it, you have to have protein. What taste tolerable is carbs and sweet stuff. But you can’t just eat carbs. You have to have protein. For a long time, I couldn’t have vegetables.” She can currently eat vegetables. Protein drinks are currently ok at least for the last two weeks. “Salt is good. I can taste salt.”

Bart Bitz, who was hospitalized with COVID, says laughing, “My breathing is way better, but my brain is still a little foggy; of course, that might be just because of my age.”

Lainey Gregory has had the same symptoms as Gwen, although she was starting to smell again just last week.

Amy Terry had it over Christmas. She had a lot of the effects. “Food just doesn’t taste good, and Big Sandy water is metallic tasting.”

Melanie Swchwarzbach told me she had a lot of exhaustion and some brain fog, but right now, the only long-term effect is she can’t stand the smell of Big Sandy water.

Gwen is checking for antibodies to COVID, and she still has them.

Gwen has Parosmia, and it is one of several COVID-related problems associated with smell and taste. The partial or complete loss of smell, or anosmia, is often the first symptom of the coronavirus. The loss of taste, or ageusia, can also be a symptom.

They are now calling it “Long COVID.” Long COVID is a range of symptoms that has lasted weeks up to years after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 or can appear weeks after infection. Long COVID can happen to anyone who has had COVID-19, even if the illness was mild or had no symptoms. People with long COVID report experiencing different combinations of the following symptoms: Tiredness or fatigue, difficulty thinking or concentrating (sometimes referred to as “brain fog”), Headache, Loss of smell or taste, Dizziness on standing, Fast-beating or pounding heart (also known as heart palpitations), Chest pain, Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, Cough, Joint or muscle pain, Depression or anxiety, Fever, and Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental activities.

“Before COVID, parosmia received relatively little attention, said Nancy Rawson, vice president and associate director at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, an internationally known nonprofit research group.”

“Today, scientists can point to more than 100 reasons for smell loss and distortion, including viruses, sinusitis, head trauma, chemotherapy, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, said Dr. Zara Patel, a Stanford University, associate professor of otolaryngology and director of endoscopic skull base surgery.”

“In 2020, parosmia became remarkably widespread, frequently impacting patients with the novel coronavirus who lost their sense of smell.”

It is possible to be infected with COVID and developed Parosmia again five months later. Gwen said she would rather have the original COVID symptoms rather than this development.

“Kelly and fellow British researchers have produced numerous articles exploring the impact of the coronavirus on the olfactory system.”

“Several other groups have emerged in Europe over the years, including Fifth Sense, also in England, founded in 2012, and groups in France and the Netherlands.”

“The pandemic also spawned the Global Consortium for Chemosensor.”

Read more at:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/parosmia-haunts-covid-survivors-as-fruits-start-smelling-like-soaps-and-coffee-like-gasoline/articleshow/83634635.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

 
 

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