Kim

I spent four months bed-bound. I had a temperature part of every day for five months. Finally, I was prescribed a steroid inhaler which helped the horrible, suffocating chest tightness. But until recently, everything that I found to help, I had to find myself with the amazing help of covid support groups online.

ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA: I often say that except for being unlucky catching Covid so early in the pandemic in Minnesota (where at the time there was not high community spread) that I am lucky in everything else. I was a stay-at-home mom whose kids were older; I had health insurance and the ability to rest while I was sick. And if Americans had been given correct information, maybe I wouldn’t have been unlucky in that either. We were told Covid was spread from droplets when they knew it was extremely contagious and airborne. So while I was being good at washing my hands, I wasn’t given the correct information to truly protect myself.

My first symptoms of headache, fatigue and congestion were similar to a cold. However, even at the beginning, I had these weird bumps on my tongue that caused me to be concerned. And it was not just a cold. For the first month, I kept getting worse. However, as long as many OTC meds and steaming kept my lungs clear, I didn’t even try to see a doctor. But once my heart rate increased, I knew I needed help.

But help wasn’t easy to find. When I told the ER about my symptoms, including sleep disturbances, tachycardia, lung tightness, and many more, they seemed to latch onto sleep disturbances and attribute it only to anxiety. But even the sleep issues I had, if they had listened, were not consistent with anxiety.

Even after multiple ER and doctor visits, no one was listening to me. When my capillaries started inappropriately constricting, a doctor changed a medication but attributed this to something other than Covid. I also had two cases of cellulitis a month apart when I had never had cellulitis before in my life. I gave many doctors all the information they needed to let them know I was sick, but most of them didn’t listen. Please, listen to us!

The doctors finally convinced me this was all in my head. So I started taking an anti-anxiety medication which actually gave me bad, physical side effects. So I was made sicker by a medication that I did not need. All because no one was listening.

I spent four months bed-bound. I had a temperature part of every day for five months. Finally, I was prescribed a steroid inhaler which helped the horrible, suffocating chest tightness. But until recently, everything that I found to help, I had to find myself with the help of great COVID support groups online.  In 2021, I found an integrated medicine doctor that listened. And believed! And while I am not 100% yet, we have found things to help. Not because he was a Covid expert. But because he listened to his patient. So it took a while. But I was finally lucky again and found a doctor that was willing to listen.