A Valley teen is still battling the symptoms of COVID-19 more than a year after contracting the virus.
Lydia Pastore, a 16-year-old junior at Red Mountain High School, became incredibly ill in February 2020. For the past year, she has experienced intense fatigue, physical pain and a host of other symptoms, ranging from burning eyes and face to hand. vibrations.
“That was the worst illness I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Lydia. “It’s just been constant muscle aches and fatigue that I just can’t get out of. Walking to the end of my driveway would exhaust me so much that I have to recover for two days.
Throughout the year, Lydia was plagued with chronic fatigue, sleeping an average of 15 hours a day. After several doctor visits, she started a diary as a therapy for her hand tremors that turned into a tracking method for her own symptoms.
“I did a monthly symptom tracker just because there were so many symptoms to track,” Lydia said. “I wish I had had such a resource at the start of my infection because every specialist I had visited asked me, ‘What’s changed? What’s new? What are the symptoms you’re experiencing?’ And it was always frustrating to remember all that. ”
Lydia decided to give her ailments a chance to connect with other teens who are fighting the long-term effects of COVID-19. She created the website chronicconnections.org, where teens can share their personal journey with COVID-19 and request a symptom tracking diary that Lydia sends to anyone in America for free.
“I hope it’s a place for teens to connect with others who are going through the same thing as them. To find comfort in parable,” says Lydia, who has already received four letters from teens about their struggles. “I’m already so happy with these four stories that I’ve had so far and that I’ve given these magazines to, but I just feel like there are so many more teens out there.”
What is “Long COVID?”
Lydia said she’s seen eight different health specialists discover why she still experiences COVID-19 symptoms months after her illness. Her Valley fever tests were negative. Although she has never been tested for COVID-19, her doctors believe Lydia has “Lung COVID” when someone experiences COVID-19 symptoms long after contracting the virus.
“This post-viral syndrome occurs when you are done with the initial infection, but for some unknown reason, we continue to have some of the symptoms that you had before for a long time that doesn’t really make scientific sense,” said Dr. . Gary Kirkilas, Spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
To doctors, Lydia is considered a “long-distance operator”. Dr. Kirkilas said that once the virus disappears in long-haul vehicles, there is a residual effect of COVID-19 that could be caused by the remaining small amounts of the virus that are not detectable by COVID-19 testing, but still require a response from it immune system of the body. system. Another reason could be that the original virus caused internal organ damage that is still not healed.
On Tuesday, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced a new initiative to study “Lung COVID” to “identify the causes and ultimately the means of prevention and treatment of individuals who have become ill from COVID-19 but are not recovering. completely over a period of a few weeks. “
According to the NIH, the symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, “brain fog”, sleep disturbances, fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, anxiety and depression.
“What separates them is this brain problem, this brain problem from this fog,” said Dr. Frank LoVecchio, Emergency Physician at Valleywise Hospital. “In the hospital we call it encephalitis (or encephalitis). They also cannot concentrate properly. They are often more forgetful.”
In December, the United States Congress provided $ 1.15 billion in funds to the NIH to study the long-term effects of COVID-19.