1/🧵🎥 Former ICU Nurse with #LongCOVID👇 describes disabling #POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)
“I'm an Ivy League grad & former ICU nurse who got COVID a year ago (before #vaccination). I had no medical problems & now suffering Long COVID so badly…”
2/ …”that I can’t work in the ICU and basically have a desk job. POTS & Long COVID gave me a racing heart, dizzy head & inability to function adequately in life. It’s horrible. My brain fog makes it impossible to execute tasks to care for patients. Life as I knew it seems over.”
3/ …she said, “It irks me to hear people downplay this disease when I'm suffering this badly a year later. I’ve been vaccinated myself now. We are surging again. People are scared. Let’s talk this out & find a way out of the €%£! pandemic.”
4/ Heart involvement in #COVID19
This study in 43 ICU pts showed 50% had heart injury on admission & 70% by 3 dys. This included disease of the pericardium sack, electrical rhythm, plus the heart muscle itself. What does all this mean? @CHESTCritCare
bit.ly/3bu87R3
5/ Studies show the heart muscle, electrical system & the area around our heart (sack + fluid) can all be involved early in #COVID19. The CHEST study👆found there was more right-sided 💔problems especially when there is lung destruction, which happens a ton in #COVID…
6/ To understand POTS in #LongCOVID, we have to 🧐 about a crossover disease involving BOTH heart & nervous system. This paper proposes 4 mechanisms: hypovolemia, destroyed peripheral neurons, brainstem problems, and immune problems. Fascinating & Scary.
bit.ly/37ibTuh
7/ The type of 💔 failure this nurse has leaves the pumping fxn of the heart preserved, but the relaxation gets damaged. It leads to shortness of breath & “tachycardia” that disables her. This can help explain many pts #LongCOVID symptoms. She’s on two powerful meds to help.
8/ 🎥 Our nurse has ongoing ankle swelling, heart racing, anxiety, and her life is totally topsy-turvy because of #LongCOVID heart failure. It’s been ~1 YEAR & this has likely changed her life forever. She has chosen to share her story to help others. Listen to Jennifer!👇
9/fin
Please do not neglect your own health after #COVID19 or discount another person’s #LongCOVID symptoms just because they “look normal” on the outside. Remember what the boy said to the mole & the horse to the boy…@CharlieMackesy
@Dr2NisreenAlwan
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