About an hour ago
When Kristin Giron Stewart was discharged from the UPMC St. Margaret hospital after a 13-day battle with covid-19 in the summer, she thought she was recovering well.
Lower Burrell’s 47-year-old wife became frustrated and frightened as the days went on and continued to struggle with accelerated heartbeat, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, brain fog and depression.
In mid-October, on sick leave from her job as a high school English teacher at Franklin Regional Senior High School, Stewart discovered she was among the ranks of the greedy patients of 19 known as long-haulers.
Experts estimate that long-haulers – individuals who continue to suffer from a series of symptoms long after the disease has run its apparent course – account for about 10% of those infected with the virus.
In Stewart’s case, it was more than three months from the time she contracted covid-19 before she felt strong enough to return to school.
Although many people recover from covid-19 relatively quickly, experts began to notice a subset of patients who did not. They have a variety of persistent conditions ranging from shortness of breath and heart palpitations to joint pain, extreme fatigue and neurological problems, among others.
Long-distance syndrome can last for weeks or months and is known to attack those who had only mild symptoms of covid-19 and those who needed weeks of hospital treatment.
In the past few months, the mysterious post-greed syndrome has spawned several blogs and Facebook groups in which thousands of survivors discuss their problems.
Stewart, who grew up in Hempfield, had no chronic health problems before testing positive for covid-19.
His greedy journey began in August. After a road trip to Maine to visit her sister, Stewart, her husband, Chris, a civic education teacher in Plum, and their children, Bella, 14 and Jake, 13, all tested positive for coronavirus.
Chris and the couple’s teenage children showed only mild symptoms.
That’s how things started for Stewart. She started having a mild fever as her family returned home from Maine on August 4.
“I slept all the way home, and this is a 12-hour trip,” she said.
Once at home, his fever persisted. She had no appetite. His tiredness was unbearable.
When a friend called a week later and asked how she was doing, Stewart was honest. Her friend, a nurse, asked if she had a pulse oximeter to measure blood oxygen saturation.
“She told me she was going to send one with her husband and asked me to take a picture. When I told her I was 58, she told me to call an ambulance right away, ”said Stewart.
Although blood oxygen levels can vary from 75 to 100 throughout the day, doctors consider 95 to 100 to be normal. Anything under 60 is considered dangerous. Oxygen-deprived organs can begin to shut down and cognition is affected as oxygen-starved brain cells struggle to function.
The doctors put Stewart on oxygen. Two days later, when her doctor suggested that she be put on a respirator, Stewart refused.
“I thought about Chris and my family. I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up again if they did that, ”she said.
His respiratory therapist and nurse went to defend Stewart. They eventually prevailed with a plan to put Stewart face down while she was treated with remdesivir, convalescent plasma and steroids. Finally, his condition began to improve.
When she was discharged, Stewart discovered that any movement would leave her breathless and exhausted.
“It took me just 40 minutes to get up and go to bed,” said Stewart. “My oxygen would drop for the 70s. I would have to sit at the top of the stairs and rest. And my heart rate was racing. It was 130 when I was sitting at times. ”
Eventually, his hair started to break and fall out.
The doctors couldn’t tell Stewart why his recovery was taking so long – that’s the mystery of long-distance syndrome. But after tests ruled out other problems, they attributed their hair loss to the trauma and stress of dealing with covid-19.
Restless and confined to her home for weeks during her recovery, Stewart, who was a reporter for the Tribune-Review before moving to school 19 years ago, dusted off her research skills. She quickly learned that she was not alone. There were thousands of other long-haulers looking for answers.
In early December, as soon as Stewart returned to the classroom, the National Institutes of Health convened the first national workshop to shed light on what some had previously rejected.
The New York Times cited Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments to experts gathered for the conference that the long-distance syndrome is real and deserves serious study.
Stewart said he made his condition public, posting about it online in October in the hope that other people experiencing problems would continue to know that they were not alone.
Today, his energy level is improving. Her hair is growing back and there are only a few fine spots that she carefully hides when she combs it.
She was thrilled to return to her classroom on December 2nd. “I never thought I’d be gone that long,” she said.
When she returned, Stewart shared her story with her students.
“I told them how important it was for you to wear a mask covering your mouth and nose. … They have been very good, ”she said.
Deb Erdley is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Deb at 724-850-1209, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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