\n

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 \u201cMore than 99% will survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the flu.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those are the beliefs about COVID-19 that Lisa O\u2019Brien is tired of hearing as several months after having the disease, she continues to experience serious \u2014 and mysterious \u2014 health issues. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien is one of thousands of people across the U.S. calling themselves COVID-19 \u201clong-haulers\u201d \u2014 those considered recovered from active infections but still suffering chronic conditions that doctors are only just beginning to look into. Many long-hauler support groups have cropped up on social media, including one created by O\u2019Brien for Utahns.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us started realizing we weren\u2019t getting better, and our bodies were doing crazy stuff \u2014 heart issues, neurological issues,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just all about life or death. There\u2019s this middle ground that some of us get stuck in, and it can last for weeks or months, and we don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll ever go back to who we were. There\u2019s just a lot of uncertainty and unknowns, and it\u2019s scary. It\u2019s not like the flu at all. This isn\u2019t like any flu I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n

The 42-year-old Roy woman first experienced the symptoms of the novel coronavirus after returning to Utah from a trip to Hawaii in March. After being told she didn\u2019t need to get tested and to assume she had the infection \u2014 advice many received early in the pandemic when testing capacity was lower \u2014 O\u2019Brien finally received a test two weeks after the onset of symptoms. She tested negative. <\/p>\n

Though false negatives are common, that has made getting doctors to take her situation seriously more difficult, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I had the hardest time getting doctors or anybody here to believe me,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s not alone. About 40% of the long-hauler population in the Facebook support groups O\u2019Brien belongs to say they tested negative, \u201cso it\u2019s just the tests are not reliable,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

But the former mail carrier \u2014 who says that for 20 years she would walk miles a day, who goes on monthly trips and has no history of heart problems or any previous underlying conditions \u2014 soon started experiencing blood clots in her lungs and arms, and would wake up with an elevated sleeping heart rate. When she went into the emergency room, doctors often suggested she was simply experiencing anxiety \u2014 until they ran tests and found the blood clots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some people in my group that used to run miles a day, and now they can barely go for walks. Some just have the fatigue, some are still having the heart issues and neurological issues. And we really have like nowhere to turn, because our general practitioners don\u2019t know what to do with us,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of the ones that were managing our symptoms at home, so we\u2019re not in any statistics,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of lumped in with the recovered stats, but we\u2019re not really recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the help of patient-driven advocacy, some researchers and hospitals are starting to look into long-haulers\u2019 conditions and figure out how to treat them. <\/p>\n

After New York City-based health care system Mount Sinai recovered from the brunt of the city\u2019s first surge of the disease, it established a center for post-COVID-19 care, said David Putrino, director of rehab innovation for the Mount Sinai, speaking to long-haulers\u2019 group Survivors Corps<\/a> on Facebook Live. <\/p>\n

Common long-haul symptoms include an erratic heart rate, palpitations, exercise intolerance, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and gastrointestinal issues, Putrino said. <\/p>\n

Putrino said some who had a COVID-19 infection later experience a condition that is like dysautonomia, a syndrome that causes a dysfunction of nerves that regulate body functions including heart rate. <\/p>\n

\u201cEffectively, all of these things, all of these conditions are syndromes. Which means there\u2019s no blood test that tells you that you have them. The physician will count the different symptoms you\u2019re having, and if you check off seven of the nine boxes, you have this syndrome,\u201d Putrino said.<\/p>\n

A survey conducted by the Indiana University School of Medicine and Survivor Corps found that symptoms experienced by long-haulers are \u201cfar more numerous than what is currently listed on the CDC\u2019s website,\u201d researchers wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the impact of COVID-19 on the lungs and vascular system have received some media and medical attention, the results of this survey suggest that brain, whole body, eye, and skin symptoms are also frequent-occurring health problems for people recovering from COVID-19,\u201d according to the report. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien is also participating in a study being conducted by Mount Sinai on long-haulers.<\/p>\n

Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not released extensive information about long-term effects of the disease, the centers say that \u201cnonhospitalized COVID-19 illness can result in prolonged illness and persistent symptoms, even in young adults and persons with no or few chronic underlying medical conditions.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIn contrast, over 90% of outpatients with influenza recover within approximately two weeks of having a positive test result,\u201d according to the CDC. <\/p>\n

Though at the onset of her illness it was difficult for her to find information or health guidance \u2014 and be taken seriously \u2014 the condition is starting to be recognized nationally and statewide, O\u2019Brien said, expressing gratitude for the work taking place in the medical community to understand and treat it. <\/p>\n

She said she hopes a Utah clinic for post-COVID-19 survivors will eventually be created, as Mount Sinai has done in New York. <\/p>\n

New Utah cases <\/h4>\n

Utah health officials reported the lowest daily number of new COVID-19 cases in two months on Monday, as well as a decrease in hospitalizations. <\/p>\n

Monday brought 242 new cases of the novel coronavirus out of 3,268 tests, with a 7.4% positive rate, according to the Utah Department of Health. The last day when fewer than 250 new cases were reported was on June 8. <\/p>\n

Now, Utah has confirmed 46,894 cases since the pandemic began out of 601,795 people tested \u2014 an overall positive rate of 7.8%. <\/p>\n

The rolling seven-day average for new cases is 354 per day, and the positive test rate is 9.6%. Currently, 139 patients in Utah are hospitalized with the disease, 25 fewer than on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Two additional deaths due to the coronavirus were also reported Monday: a Salt Lake County woman between ages 65-84, and a Utah County man older than 85, both of whom were hospitalized when they died. <\/p>\n

One death was removed from the state\u2019s total for further investigation of its cause, health officials said. The state\u2019s death toll now stands at 364. <\/p>\n

Just over 38,000 of Utah\u2019s cases are considered recovered after surviving the three-week point since their diagnoses. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 \u201cMore than 99% will survive.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s just the flu.\u201d Those are the beliefs about COVID-19 that Lisa O\u2019Brien is tired of hearing as several months after having the disease, she continues to experience serious \u2014 and mysterious \u2014 health issues. O\u2019Brien is one of thousands of people across the U.S. calling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[8214,4513],"class_list":{"0":"post-65479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-long-haulers","9":"tag-suffering"},"yoast_head":"\n