by: bill kaufmann
when dani pohn’s recovery from a first wave bout of covid-19 stalled four months later, worried exasperation set in.
while relieved her initial illness didn’t require hospitalization, the calgarian’s fear she’d become one of many so-called covid long-haulers became a new frustration.
“i’d notice an improvement every two weeks and then that plateaued in october (2020),” said pohn, 37, a respiratory therapist.
“i wasn’t improving anymore, no matter what i did, i couldn’t increase my (physical and mental) capacity.”
last may, she was diagnosed with having autonomic issues associated with covid-19, symptoms that leave the disease’s survivors with symptoms such as shortness of breath, rapid heart rates, fatigue, memory and concentration loss, and depression.
until that diagnosis, “at first, you feel it’s all in your head,” said pohn.
sixteen months after contracting the virus in an outbreak at a downtown calgary condo building, pohn said she struggles with daily episodes of fatigue, nausea and mental fog rendering her unable to work, a condition dr. satish raj can’t guarantee will ever be reversed.
“once you reach a year with this . . . i’m not sure it’s all going to go away,” raj said to pohn, who sat a few steps away hooked up to monitors displaying her heart activity and blood pressure.