Covid: In it for the long haul
A Kiwi marathon-runner contracted Covid-19 in March. Eight months on, the virus still has a profound impact on the 32-year-old, writes Hannah Martin.
More than 230 days after contracting Covid-19, Alice Banfield is celebrating being able to help do the dishes.
Other days the 32-year-old is grateful to walk a few hundred metres without becoming so tired she needs to nap.
The South Auckland woman is grappling with the effects of ‘‘Long Covid’’ – a term used to describe profound fatigue, persistent pain and other symptoms, which can last for months after contracting the virus.
For eight months, post-viral fatigue has kept Banfield largely housebound. She left the house twice in October.
Before getting sick Banfield was able to run amarathon and hopes sharing her story can help others avoid.
There is no official medical definition for Long Covid although crippling fatigue appears to be a common hallmark as are breathlessness, headaches, muscle pains, chest pressure, heart palpitations, fever, and smell and taste problems.
Banfield returned to New Zealand from Israel in March and started coughing five days later and, despite not having a fever or shortness of breath, was tested for Covid-19 that day.
Given her mild symptoms, she was ‘‘so shocked’’ when health officials called the following day, March 22, to say it was positive.
Banfield ‘‘totally expected to be fine in aweek or two’’ but, eight months on, she remains unable to work, study, or ‘‘do much of anything, really’’.
She’s not alone. Banfield is among 97 members of an online support group for Kiwi Covid ‘‘longhaulers’’.
Not everyone caught Covid-19 in New Zealand and not everyone is dealing with the same issues, but Banfield says it is likely a bigger issue that is yet to be realised.
Since contracting Covid-19, Banfield has been diagnosed with postviral fatigue.
If Banfield does too much or pushes herself too hard, ‘‘it can take it out of me’’. She has been advised to use 80 per cent of her energy and put the other 20 per cent towards healing – a far cry from where she was pre-Covid, a keen runner who went to the gym five or six times aweek.
A couple of weeks ago, Banfield drove five minutes to a ha¯ngi, spending about an hour on her feet. The following day she developed a sore throat. Banfield says she may have picked up an illness, but believes she lapses back into feeling viraltype symptoms when she overdoes it.
She recently drove a few hundred metres down the driveway where she is staying, walked about 100 metres to a creek, laid there for awhile, and got back to the house without having to nap. This wouldn’t have been possible a few months ago.
‘‘I’m slowly improving, but
that’s how incremental it is.’’ She still has people cooking dinner for her every night, and has started helping with dishes in the past few weeks, which was previously ‘‘too big a task’’.
But the fallout from the virus is not just physical for Banfield.
She lost her job as a researcher, and has gone through a ‘‘grieving process’’ having to put her PhD – which she was ‘‘98 per cent’’ of the way through – on hold.
She came back to New Zealand to start the next level of her te reo studies, but had to give that up too,. ‘‘It basically affects everything ... it feels like so much has been taken from me.’’
A couple of weeks ago she felt she had ‘‘plateaued’’, and was brought to tears looking through photos of someone hiking, wondering when she would be able to do that again. But she is ‘‘super well-supported’’ by her family, friends and her church.
The literature on the longterm repercussions of Covid is ever-evolving.
The Royal Society in the UK says much remains unknown about Long Covid – including its duration and sequelae (impacts), and ‘‘satisfactory treatment is lacking’’. It says these difficulties are compounded by a lack of public awareness.
‘‘It is becoming apparent that Long Covid may impose a significant health burden worldwide.’’
Recent research suggests the virus can even cause organ damage after reports a third of hospitalised patients sustain heart damage – including those with seemingly mild infections.
A separate study of 100 patients, many of whom had relatively mild symptoms, revealed 78 showed abnormal structural changes to their hearts on an MRI.
Scans show Banfield has avoided heart damage from the virus. But not knowing how long she would be sick or what new researchwould come outwas a constant concern.
She counts herself one of the ‘‘lucky ones’’, as she is only dealing with fatigue, and isn’t in pain or struggling to breathe, as so many others are.
Banfield wants to prevent other people from ending up how she is, by showing people what it has been like.
Given New Zealand has largely eliminated the virus, it may be difficult for people to understand why the sacrifices people have been asked to make are ‘‘so important’’, she says.
‘‘They feel the pain because they’re losing their businesses, and losing jobs, but it’s hard to see because you don’t see what we’ve averted. There could be thousands of people like me if we hadn’t done all those things.’’
In September, six months after contracting the virus,
‘ It basically affects everything ... it feels like so much has been taken from me.’ ALICE BANFIELD
Banfield posted ‘‘one of her most vulnerable shares yet’’ to Facebook: alongside a photo with no makeup, no filter, in her dressing gown, making no attempt to cover her ‘‘sadness with a smile’’, Banfield wants to help people understand why it was important to continue being vigilant.
Feeling anxious amid an outbreak in her South Auckland community, she urged people to take government precautions
‘‘as aminimum’’ – asking people to think whether they could work from home, or whether they really needed to meetwith friends. The post was shared more than 1800 times.
She also wants people to understand that as well as the tragic loss of life caused by Covid-19, there was a ‘‘huge proportion’’ of people who may not recover for some time.
Ultimately, Banfield wants New Zealanders not to ‘‘underestimate’’ the virus. She says it is important to ensure people continue to use the Covid Tracer App, and get tested as soon as they show signs of illness.
These efforts ‘‘are so worth it, and will literally save lives’’.