Mondays with Mike: It’s a long haul for some of us
August 10, 2020 • 15 Comments • Posted in Mike Knezovich, Mondays with MikeEvery time we leave our condo, Beth asks two questions of me:
Do you have your mask?
Do you have your cane?
They are related questions. I wear the mask because it’s required in our building and in Illinois, yes, but more because I want to be part of the solution—and help stop the coronavirus.
And part of my motivation is I don’t want anyone to have the lingering after-effects of coronavirus that I do—recurring dizziness and loss of my sense of balance.
The cane is mostly a security blanket—I rarely need it—but I do need it sometimes. I’ve identified triggers and I try to work around them. If I go from a wide open sidewalk to a narrow passage, that’ll do it. If I pass from deep shade to bright sunshine, that does it. Turning my head up, down, or over my shoulder does it. Downslopes at curb cuts sometimes do it.
I feel like I’m going to tip over.
It really sucks.
I also still get winded very easily. Part of that is the inability to exercise vigorously during my hospital stay and recovering at home. But that’s not all of it. I still have a tightness in my chest that comes and goes. And for a month, crushing fatigue made multiple naps a necessity, not a luxury.
But I still count myself as lucky. I’ve learned from many sources—friends as well as news media—that there are a group of us coronavirus survivors called “long haulers.” Our friend Lynne is one of them—she suffers from the same loss of balance that I do.
But my lingering symptoms pale compared to some of my fellow travelers. From this NPR story about two women who are still suffering long after first diagnosed:
According to reports earlier this year from the World Health Organization, about 80% of coronavirus infections are “mild or asymptomatic” and patients typically recover after just two weeks.
That hasn’t been the case for Roberts or Nowell. Months later, both women are still experiencing symptoms of COVID-19: shortness of breath, chest pains, vomiting, and neurological symptoms that range from headaches and fatigue to hallucinations and jumbled words.
It’s a good story—I hope you’ll read/listen.
I can tell you that all aging jokes aside, the neurological stuff is real. I’ll be mid-sentence and then just go blank. Not losing a word blank, blank like I forgot what I was talking about.
Now, that and dizziness could be a leftover from my fall. But I have had an MRI that showed nothing problematic. And well, I only fell because of the virus.
So, if I see you out and about you better be wearing a mask. Otherwise I’ll whack you with my cane.