What It’s Like When COVID-19 Lasts For Months

Enlarge this image

Most people with COVID-19 get over it relatively quickly. Marjorie Roberts has been living with COVID-19 for months.

Marjorie Roberts

hide caption

toggle caption

Marjorie Roberts

Enlarge this image

Natalie Nowell with her husband and three children. She’s been suffering from COVID-19 for months and still has trouble breathing.

Ashley Veneman/Javen Photography

hide caption

toggle caption

Ashley Veneman/Javen Photography

Shots — Health News
After The ICU, Many COVID-19 Survivors Face A Long Recovery

Long-haulers are often left out of the COVID-19 narrative. Data sheets count cases, hospitalizations, recoveries and deaths, but Roberts and Nowell don’t fit neatly into any of these categories. Neither woman initially tested positive for the disease: They both went to the hospital for a test when their symptoms became too much to bear, both tested negative, both were told to go home and just rest. Both women dealt with doctors who didn’t believe them until finally both got confirmation they did have the virus.

Many long-haulers say their doctors doubted their symptoms were as severe as they were saying. Roberts says her original primary care physician insisted it was just stress and suggested she watch Lifetime movies and do puzzles to calm down. «I know stress, Roberts says, «this was not stress.

Nowell, who at that point couldn’t form words to read bedtime stories to her children, begged her doctor to help. «He said, ‘Well, maybe you have a UTI. Or maybe it’s a stomach infection. Let’s call it a sinus infection.’ «

Both women eventually found doctors who believed them, and that made a huge difference.

«I was relieved because I felt like I was going to get taken seriously for how sick I felt, Nowell says. «And then the other part of me was terrified. Because the whole world is dealing with this, and now all of a sudden it’s in my home, it’s in my body and that was scary.

That was a few months ago. More than a hundred days from their first symptoms, Roberts and Nowell still struggle to breathe through constant congestion. The headaches come and go, and so does the nausea. Roberts’ lungs are so scarred she had a biopsy in early August to get a better picture of her prognosis. She’s still waiting for the results.

Nowell says she’s doing better, but it’s been slow going.

The heartbreaking loneliness of the pandemic has been difficult enough for healthy people. But it’s been a terrifying challenge for those like Roberts and Nowell who also must live with the foggy minds, intense fatigue, and continual fear of erratic symptoms. Roberts says she’s still afraid to go anywhere because the worst symptoms still come on so fast.

They both get through the day with a mixture of hope and prayer. Nowell has Bible verses she relies on. And Roberts says, «I pray they find a cure.