Confined to her recliner chair for more than nine months, an Australian woman has shared the onslaught of illnesses she has had to battle with after having had COVID-19.
Elizabeth, who requested for her surname to not be used, is middle-aged and has diabetes but apart from that describes herself as a relatively healthy person.
Prior to having contracted the deadly disease, she said she had never had repeated sickness.
However, that all changed when she presented to her doctor with flu-like symptoms in February last year after having had her four COVID-19 vaccinations.
"I'm in a choir and I remember the person who was sitting next to me had COVID and four days later I got it (COVID-19)," Elizabeth said.
"From then on I just had complications one after another; I would say I only had about a week of wellness between February to December."
Elizabeth said among the infections she had it was the "fatigue that really got [her]".
"I was having things I've never had before in my life like infected sinuses, then there were urinary tract infections that I hadn't had in decades," she said.
"I then had laryngitis and then I had bronchitis and the fatigue was going all the way through it, not to mention I had a prolonged cough which I just got over just before Christmas."
She said what most alarmed her was the fact her regular two-yearly electrocardiogram (ECG) test, which she had had done at the end of last year, revealed she had likely suffered a heart attack.
"I get my heart checked out because there have been a few heart problems in the family and when I got the ECG my doctor said there's an indication there that I had had a heart attack and I couldn't believe it."
Thinking back, she said the abnormal ECG reading could be attributed to a time last year when she had a painful "burning sensation in the upper chest".
"I was thinking at the time 'what is this?'," Elizabeth said.
"I hadn't eaten anything to give me really bad indigestion but a lot of females make the mistake of thinking any heart issue is a digestive problem like bad heartburn, but that must've been my heart attack.
"It only went on for about a minute but it was really severe, and this was about in August, 2022."
A scientific journal article published this month in Nature Reviews Microbiology about Long-COVID found the infectious disease has the "capability to damage many organ systems".
"Long-COVID encompasses multiple adverse outcomes, with common new-onset conditions including cardiovascular, thrombotic and cerebrovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome and dysautonomia, especially postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome," the journal article wrote.
"A long-lasting reduction in vascular density, specifically affecting small capillaries, was found in patients with long-COVID."
It also mentioned symptoms from COVID-19 could "last for years" which also included evidence of gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, heartburn and constipation.
While Elizabeth did not receive an exact diagnosis for long-COVID from her doctor, she said her doctor did not rule out the possibility.
"I went to my doctor and I said 'I think I might have long-COVID' and he didn't know and a lot of doctors still don't know," she said.
"But I thought 'what else could it be?' - I've never been sick like this in my life."
Research also showed while "at least 65 million individuals worldwide are estimated to have long-COVID, with cases increasing daily", this figure was likely "much higher" due to "many undocumented cases".
"I couldn't stand up for long periods of time and I could hardly do anything around the house," Elizabeth said. "It was a real shock to my system."
While Elizabeth has come out the other side of COVID-19 and is almost a 100 per cent better, she said at the time she thought she "was gonna die".
"I thought I would never feel healthy again and I was a bit concerned that I would actually be sick for the rest of my life," she said.
Elizabeth said she was, however, thankful to have not also acquired depression as she recovered from her symptoms.
"I was hoping I wouldn't get depressed with COVID because I've heard a lot depression happens with COVID, and I didn't, thank goodness, but I now don't go anywhere without a mask," she said.
To those suffering with unknown symptoms after having had COVID-19, Elizabeth said she wanted to assure people there was a positive ending.
"I'm feeling a lot better finally and, speaking from experience, you can get better from it," she said.
The lasting impact arising from the after-effects of COVID-19 has contributed to a "scale of newly disabled individuals" which has contributed to "labour shortages", the report states.
Academics have said more research "that builds on existing knowledge and is inclusive of the patient experience, training and education for the health-care and research workforce, a public communication campaign, and robust policies" are needed to ensure an "adequate response to the long-COVID crisis".
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