Saundra Lemaster

As of this date I have been sick for 1,342 days. I caught Covid Thanksgiving weekend in 2022 and I have never recovered. Long Covid has ruined my life. At age 65 I was hiking the NC mountains and camping in the woods. At age 66 I was struggling to get from the couch to the kitchen. Every single day I wake up I feel as if have the flu, the doctors call it general malaise which seems to be too benign a label for this disease. I was officially diagnosed with Long Covid at a Long Covid clinic in the summer of 2023. The clinic has since closed because they had no answers and had no idea how to treat this disease. It took me 5 months to get that appointment. I couldn't breathe, my heart was racing and I could barely get up a flight of stairs without feeling like I climbed a mountain and was starved of oxygen. I thought I was suffocating. The pulmonologist ran tests, including a contrast CT scan of my lungs. Everything presented normal even though I couldn't walk and talk at the same time. The cardiologist did a stress test and my systolic reading was over 225 yet she couldn't find anything wrong with my heart. Resting heart rate was in the 80s when it used to be in the low 60s. I have extreme fatigue and can no longer do most daily tasks. I have post-exertional malaise, some activities will shut me down for a day or two. The brain fog is real and it's embarrassing. You cannot access words or thoughts. Simple math has become complex and my memory is shot. I have developed tinnitus, it sometimes keeps me awake at night. I have shortness of breath and a fast heart rate when engaged in simple activities. I have unexplained body pain and it occasionally keeps me up at night. My joints hurt, my muscles hurt and sometimes my head hurts. I have a change in my food preferences, my diet used to consist of 70% vegetables. Now I rarely eat vegetables. I have developed 3 autoimmune diseases in the last year, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus and Lymphocytic colitis. I cannot bend over to tie my shoe without feeling bad. I am an extrovert and was extremely social and active until Long Covid. Now I either don't make plans or end up cancelling plans. This has caused depression and anxiety. I just started counseling to grieve the life I have lost. I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars from my retirement fund seeking treatment that insurance won't cover. Functional Physician, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, chiropractic. I spend hundreds of dollars a month on supplements. I can't afford many of the recommended treatments such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy. My husband is now doing the heavy lifting both figuratively and literally. I cannot spend an entire day with my grandchildren. I cannot plan a 6 hour car ride to see my 95 yo mother. I cannot plan a vacation. I cannot garden or hike. Some days I cannot get from one room to another. I'd like a part-time job to cover the cost of Long Covid but I would not be reliable because I don't know when I'll have a crash. I have an appointment at a clinic at UNC in Chapel Hill, NC next February It took me 5 months to get this appointment. Not a single doctor has given me a solution or affective treatment to help me feel better and improve my life. The system is broken and it seems as if no one is listening.