"Totally harmless..."

[blitzen]

https://www.chron.com/news/medical/article/What-they-don-t-tell-you-about-surviving-15356605.php

The lucky ones — if you can call them that — recover, but not in the sense that their lives are back to normal. For some, the damage is permanent. Their organs will never fully heal.


“When they say ’recovered,’ they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant,” Antoinette wrote in a Twitter post. “Or that you may come back after discharge with a massive heart attack or stroke, because COVID makes your blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life.”

Antoinette’s tweet prompted a flurry of responses from former COVID-19 patients, family of patients and nurses working on the frontline of the disease.

We have selected some of their tweets and are running them with minor editing for clarity. SFGATE makes no claims to their authenticity.


I'm currently in the hospital after having a heart attack caused by clotting that resulted from COVID 19. I have a stent in my heart and need to wear a heart monitoring vest at all times. Now I face months of recovery including physical and occupational therapy. I'm only 29.

—Dan

I went into acute kidney failure and needed dialysis. I now have asthma, chronic cough and an irregular heartbeat. I have conditions I never had before, plus I’m wiped all the time. I hope this gets better, but you [Sherie] are on the money. And, mine was considered a low-moderate case.

— Stephanie McCarroll

These are my observations (of hospitalized patients):

1) Everybody is so swollen their skin has blisters and is so tight it looks like it’s about to burst, from head to heel. And skin so dry peeling and flaky that to slather Vaseline on every shift is almost necessary — all over.
2) Everybody’s skin is weeping clear fluid and has sores and the skin just slides off with slightest turn or rub, all over the body.
3) Everybody’s blood is thick as slush. Can’t figure out what’s making it clot like that, but it’s dark and thick.
4) Everybody’s kidneys are failing. Urine dark or red, which could contribute to the swelling, but we don’t know yet.

5) Everybody has an abnormal heart rhythm. Not sure of the cause. But even without underlying heart problems, it’s not beating normally.
6) Seems counterproductive, but the ones that are not breathing on the ventilator have to lay flat on their stomachs to breathe better. And even some on the ventilator are on their stomachs. And the slightest turn for some is what leads to their almost immediate death. Bathing, cleaning and turning to prevent skin breakdown causes most to code blue, so a decision has to be made on which is most important.
7) Everyone has a Foley catheter and a rectal tube — incontinent of bowel and bladder.
8) Everybody on tube feeding. Everybody.
Never before in my entire career have I seen a disease process attack in this way.
— 20-year veteran nurse in NYC via Dr. Dee Knight


I spent 10 days on a ventilator last March with ARDS [Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome] and I'm still on oxygen. Going home is just the beginning of the next steps in recovering. Every aspect of my life has changed for the worse. Please support and help anyone you know who survived. And wear a mask!
— Nurse @liveV4Vendetta

I'm just getting over a "mild" case after over two months. There's scarring in my lower right lung and my stomach and digestion are a mess like never before. But I'm coughing way less and can take walks again.
And, btw, this is the third time in two months that I've "gotten better." I'm just hoping it's the last and it doesn't all come back AGAIN.

— Eli

I’m a nurse on a COVID floor, I caught it. I am a relatively healthy 24-year-old and could barely walk up a half flight of stairs. My blood pressure skyrocketed, chest pain was debilitating. I’m 8 weeks out and still feeling the chest pain and shortness of breath. This is no joke.

— Alicia

I had COVID for over 60 days. I’m 33 years old, was super healthy, pescatarian, 125 pounds, and ran and did yoga every day. I couldn’t walk for two weeks besides a couple steps. It was the worst illness of my life.

I didn’t realize I had COVID symptoms for weeks. Here were the early signs:
- Waking up sweaty (I normally don’t sweat at night).
- Slight sporadic chills but no fever (or I thought I had no fever bc I only took my temp during the day).
- I could smell fine but would have weird smells like metallic or gas. Also, tasted metallic in the past 2-3 weeks. Apparently, a metallic taste or smell is related to lung problems.
- Loose stool but not terrible.
— Covid teacher (To read more about her symptoms and treatment, see her blog.)

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[Wawannabe]

1. ...

😷

Fuck

[Turbineguy]

2. Trump supporters want this.

And after they get it, they want to spread it.

[cyclonefence]

3. Paranoia, hallucinations

A woman on CNN this morning who had recovered from covid-19 described horrifying psychiatric disturbances that continued after she was presumably over her illness. The physician (not her doctor) who was also interviewed said that he saw these symptoms in many of his patients.

See articles in The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30203-0/fulltext and from the NIH https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7152874/

The first link (to The Lancet) doesn't work. Try this one:

www.thelancet.com › PIIS2215-0366(20)30203-0 › fulltext

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. I got an error message in the first link

[cyclonefence]

6. I did too

Try this one:

www.thelancet.com › PIIS2215-0366(20)30203-0 › fulltext

[MustLoveBeagles]

7. It worked

Thank you

[EleanorR]

5. A colleague got it back in March and finally tested negative after two months, symptoms are ongoing

And now, 3 plus months later, he's beginning to have cognitive issues as well.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. tRump needs to keep his damn mouth shut!

[Newest Reality]

9. That's overwhelming.

C19 is so much NOT like the flu it's incredible. The early references to it being like the flu were way off base as we now see.

This is sounding more and more like a horrible, science fiction outbreak type of disease what with the contagion factor, the debilitating, long-term effects for survivors and the death rate.

This kind of information needs far more exposure so that the people who resist efforts to curb the spread realize just what they are getting into. C19 is certainly not just a matter of risking low odds you might die, that's for sure. Even though dying is a factor, the idea of transplants and long-term even indefinite disability and treatment is a game changer for them that they may live to regret for literally, the rest of their lives, (or a loved-one's life).

[Warpy]

10. The reason they're on their stomachs isn't counterintuitive

Most of the alveoli, the thin air sacs where oxygen and CO2 exchange takes place, are toward the back, the tubes (trachea, bronchi, bronchioles) are toward the front. Putting people face down reduces the pressure of their innards on the alveoli so they can open more fully.

The hell of this disease is that we just don't know who will get horribly ill and who will get milder cases.

And as much as we wish it, it will not be apportioned fairly and restricted to scofflaws and other idiots.

[Heartstrings]

11. Covid19 is now a pre-existing condition

which the repubs want to eliminate...damn them all to hell!

[futureliveshere]

12. $uck $uck $ucking $uck!

I had no idea it did all this to the body. Damn!!

[Kablooie]

13. The NY Times Daily podcast said it's a blood capillary disease.

It attacks the lungs because of the capillaries but spreads to other organs that have capillaries and infects them. It creates small blood clots. That's why some fingers and toes turn red.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/podcasts/the-daily/coronavirus-science-indoor-infection.html?action=click&module=Briefings&pgtype=Homepage&showTranscript=1

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. This is possible the most dangerous and deadly lie Trump has told.

His millions of fans will take it and run with it to the nearest crowded bar or Walmart and hug and kiss all their neighbors. We must somehow make him retract this statement via pressure on his supporters in Congress.

It has no possible basis in truth. The most glaring reason is because there is no long-term scientific research data on long-term health effects of this virus. Period. That's because there is not yet a "long-term" for this novel virus.

Even loosely assembled short-term data proves it to be a horrible lie.

Thanks for the post, blitzen........

KY......

[lamp_shade]

15. Thanks. This is well worth sharing. I just did. nt

[blitzen]

16. kick for morning folks n/t