COVID-19 long-hauler describes life after virus
“I had more symptoms post-COVID than I did during the actual time I had the COVID.”
Theresa Camarena
Theresa Camarena used to be able to workout and walk her dog in the same day. She used to be able to unload the dishwasher without experiencing shortness of breath. She used to be able to work four days a week.
Camarena, 63, works as a respiratory therapist and started the pulmonary rehabilitation program at Franciscan Health Crown Point more than 30 years ago. She has worked there for 43 years.
On July 20, 2020, Camarena, a mother of three who lives in Hobart, tested positive for COVID-19, she said. Camarena strongly believes she caught the virus from a patient at work, she said.
Her initial symptoms were cold-like symptoms, aches and pains in her body, fatigue and she lost her taste and smell, Camarena said. A few weeks later, Camarena said she wanted to return to work, so her daughter suggested they go on a hike to see if she can handle it.
“I could hardly breathe. We had to stop five or six times. I exercised prior to this four or five times a week,” Camarena said. “My heart was pounding and so from that point on things just started happening.”
Following her initial diagnosis, she had a dry cough, chronic fatigue and brain fog, she said. Her blood pressure had been impacted by the virus, and her heart rate “would jump up” into the 120s and 130s and she’d get shortness of breath while doing simple tasks, such as unloading the dishwasher, she said.
But, things got even more serious, Camarena said, when she noticed something on her leg that indicated she could have a blood clot. Camarena said her daughter took her to the emergency room, and she was there for four days to treat the blood clot, which doctors determined was caused by COVID-19 pneumonia.
Since her hospital stay, Camarena said she still feels the symptoms of COVID-19 most days, mostly chronic fatigue and brain fog.
Now, Camarena said she has to pick between working out or taking the dog on a walk because she can no longer do both in a single day.
She can’t sit and watch her daughter’s softball games in the humidity without having shortness of breath, and standing to cook a family dinner causes fatigue, Camarena said. She used to be able to take a 2-hour walk but “there’s no way (she) could do that now,” she said.
“I had more symptoms post-COVID than I did during the actual time I had the COVID,” Camarena said. “It’s been a long haul.”
Camarena is part of the Franciscan Health long hauler program, which patients can attend with a physician referral, said Dr. Kami Strong, the medical director of the COVID19 long hauler program. Once a patient is referred, Strong said she talks with the patient about his or her symptoms and then refers them to a therapist.
The therapists’ patients are referred to either a speech therapist, occupational therapist or a physical therapist to help with their symptoms, Strong said. For example, patients who have brain fog are assigned to a speech therapists who works with them on memory functions, she said.
“Many patients feel like they are a different person after having COVID,” Strong said. “Their quality of life has definitely changed.”
Camarena said as a respiratory therapist she helps patients who are COVID19 long haulers and they describe similar symptoms.
The patients have been spaced apart amid the pandemic and stations have to wiped down between patients, she said. While at work, Camarena said walking around between patients and sanitizing stations triggered her symptoms.
“Patients would ask me if
I was OK because my legs felt like they wouldn’t move anymore and I was just that out of breath,” Camarena said. “It was kind of embarrassing, on my part. Here I’m supposed to be taking care of them and helping them with their symptoms and how to cope with them and here I can’t even (catch my breath).”
When she talks with the long-hauler patients, Camarena said they share her same feelings of “going crazy” because some days patients report feeling good and then fatigued a few days later.
Camarena said she’s had similar shifts in energy, which have forced her to change her work schedule from four days a week to three days a week.
“It’s like you’re on a roller coaster. A couple days you feel like ‘Oh this is great, I’m finally feeling back to myself ’ and you don’t have that brain fog. And then boom, it hits you and you’re just so exhausted and so tired,” Camarena said.
Camarena said she received her COVID vaccines and booster shot, and she hopes more people get vaccinated so the pandemic can end. Even though she experienced symptoms after the vaccines, Camarena said getting vaccinated was worth it because it protects her, her family and her patients.
“It’s really kind of sad because working in a hospital setting you see these people and their struggle for life,” Camarena said. “Anybody that touches their care ... they’re burned out and it’s very sad.”
When she views comments about people not believing in the virus or refusing to get vaccinated or wear a mask, Camarena said it upsets her.
“My life has totally changed. The stuff that I used to be able to do, it’s not that I can’t (do those things) but I can’t do it to the level that I did,” Camarena said. “If they would see these people that are fighting for their lives and these nurses that are running around crazy trying to help these patients live, they need to see that.”