Bedridden for three months due to long COVID

Two and a half years after the appearance of COVID-19, approximately 5% of Quebecers still present with its disabling version, long COVID. A third of them will have persistent symptoms for more than a year.

Since June, Bianca Drysdale has not been able to leave her room. She doesn’t have the energy to get up or speak. When she turns over in bed, her pulse increases sharply, as if she were running a marathon. No medicine can overcome his migraines. Bianca has long been diagnosed with COVID-19.

It’s a Sunday evening in September. The weather is gloomy. Michael Grenier Delorme has just gone to bed with his three young children. He is ready to tell the story of his wife, who is unable to do so herself. “It’s important to talk about it, because these people need to be taken care of and so that their suffering stops,” he says straight away.

Bianca Drysdale, 31, contracted COVID-19 last April while out hanging out with friends. For the first few days, the doubly vaccinated mother was doing well. “It was very mild symptoms, like a sore throat,” recalls Michael.

The nightmare began three weeks later. “She had palpitations. She was falling to the ground and shaking,” he said.

She went to the emergency room, where she underwent CT scans (scans) and had blood drawn. The results of her medical tests were normal, but her condition continued to deteriorate: extreme fatigue, continuous headaches and migraines, dizziness, sudden increase in her pulse on the slightest effort, hypersensitivity to sounds .

Since June, Bianca Drysdale has been bedridden from morning to evening in her room without the slightest stimulus, otherwise her condition will worsen.

She barely spends 10 minutes a day with her children. “It’s excruciating for a mother,” says Michael. When her three small children come to visit her in her bedroom, she wears earplugs, closes her eyes and clings gently to them. “A sound or a movement that is too abrupt, it comes to attack him,” he says.

To save what little energy she has left, she carefully chooses the moments when she speaks. “Calling the pharmacy for information or canceling an appointment is his day job,” explains Michael. Leaving his bed to take his portrait with the photographer of The Press represented a colossal effort.

Every time she has to go to a medical appointment, her condition deteriorates. She struggles to get services.

Not uncommon

“Cases like these, they are not uncommon,” says the D^r Alain Piché, infectiologist at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie – CHUS and director of the post-COVID ambulatory clinic in Sherbrooke.

The doctor follows several patients who have severe functional impairment.

In December 2021, before the fifth wave and the arrival of new variants, the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that approximately 23,000 people had long COVID.

Two and a half years after the appearance of the virus, the long COVID continues to claim new victims daily. “Currently, taking into account the vaccination and the variants present, 5% of cases will give a case of long COVID-19”, indicates Simon Décary, professor and researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Sherbrooke University.

“In January, we wondered if long COVID would disappear with the arrival of Omicron, since it was very different from previous variants. It has not disappeared,” says Mr. Décary.

Vaccination failed to eradicate the disease, although it did prevent a few cases.

This is the case of Valérie Bergeron, who contracted COVID-19 last February, during a workout at the gym. Despite his three doses of vaccine against COVID-19, the virus has left serious consequences. The 48-year-old woman, who loved to do her daily morning jog, now has to learn to live with extreme fatigue, muscle pain and memory problems.

Her family doctor has no idea what treatment is needed that could help her. “It’s a lot of trial and error. Blood tests are fine. Doctors don’t know what to do with it,” she says.

Following her infection, Valérie Bergeron contracted pneumonia which caused her to lose her voice for four months. “To this day, I sometimes lose her,” she says. She used push-ups, eight times a day, until the end of May.

“I continued to work, but still being extremely tired and not doing any more physical exercise,” says Ms.^me Bergeron. Not seeing her symptoms improve, the financial director fell off work last month.

The gaze of others weighs heavily.

Public Health says someone with long COVID is not contagious and cannot transmit the virus.

Even his assurances seem to doubt his condition. “They are extremely suspicious. They say they will cover me for a month, but they are not sure for the next month. It adds to the stress. It’s tough mentally,” she says.

One thing is certain, “there is still a lot of education to be done with health professionals and the population to make people aware of this new problem,” concludes Dr.^r Piche.

“COVID-19 has mortgaged me a lot”

Although some people with long COVID have recovered naturally over months, others see no signs of improvement even two years after their infection. Their chances of recovering naturally are increasingly weak, specialists fear.

When asked how she is, Nathalie Boucher does not go through four paths. “It’s bad. I am starting my second year shortly. I try to be positive, but there is no improvement, she said, swallowing back her sobs. COVID-19 has mortgaged me a lot. It cut me off from everything. »

Nathalie contracted the virus at work, in December 2020, in a private residence for seniors in the Outaouais. In the days following her infection, she had palpitations, pain in her legs and arms, headaches, nausea, brain fog and loss of taste. Almost two years later, she still has all of these symptoms. “It never got better,” she says, her breath hitching.

She is not alone. About 30% of people with long-term COVID will have significant symptoms after 12 months, says professor and researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke, Simon Décary.

Studies are not encouraging for people who have had symptoms for more than two years.

long absences

Between March 2020 and the end of August 2022, 1,252 workers were absent for more than three months due to long COVID, according to CNESST data obtained by The Press. Of these, 733 workers remain on sick leave.

In addition, 766 workers received income compensation from the CNESST for more than six months. Among those returning to work, their average length of absence was 320 days.

However, these data only represent part of the work stoppages, since the CNESST only covers people who have contracted the virus in the course of their work.

Group insurance remains discreet on the number of workers covered for long COVID. At Desjardins Assurances, it is indicated that 2% of claims related to COVID-19 are over 90 days old. Beneva, Industrial Alliance, Sun Life, Manulife, Canada Life and the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association did not provide data on the number of claims.

Unable to work

Cäcilia Lauenstein has been receiving compensation from the CNESST for two years. When she contracted COVID-19 in September 2020, she was a master’s student and music teacher. “I had a thousand projects at the same time,” says the 46-year-old woman.

In the first days after her infection, she had normal flu symptoms. “I expected to go back to school,” she says. Two weeks later, she woke up in respiratory distress, then developed heart problems and high blood pressure. Since September 2021, she has been in a wheelchair when she leaves her home. Inside the house, she uses an office chair with wheels.

Of patients who still have symptoms a year after infection, 25 to 35 percent are unable to work, says Dr.^r Piche. About 75% must reduce their working hours by at least 50%.

This is the case of Jessica Harvey, a special education teacher who contracted COVID-19 in March 2021. Today, she only works two mornings a week. “I want to go back to work. I love my job. But my body is not capable of doing more than that. »

She has to live daily with headaches, dizziness, body aches and hypersensitivity to noise. “I put on plugs to work to cut out as much noise as possible,” she says.