Health. She has suffered from long-term Covid for 4 years, this “invisible handicap”

For most of us, the pandemic is nothing more than a (bad) memory.

But not for Justine and thousands of people who have suffered or are still suffering from long Covid, defined by the WHO (World Health Organization) as the presence of symptoms

beyond three months after the acute episode.

Varied symptomsFin 2022 they were still 2 millions in this case, according to Public Health France. Headaches, stomach aches, dizziness, chronic fatigue, respiratory problems, muscle pain, memory loss, hyperacusis…, these symptoms arenumerous and varied

. They come and go without warning. “It comes in waves, there are days when you feel good, and then for several weeks, you’re sluggish, it doesn’t work anymore,” describes the bubbly thirty-year-old,mother of two children

.

“I ran a polling station”

For her, this has been going on for four years.

Justine, from Cherbourg Once she got home, she called her mother (“she’s ourhealth referent because she was nurse in his youth”), who said to him: “Go to theEMERGENCIES

you must have an embolism…” Once in the emergency room this famousSunday in March the young woman remembers going through many doors, then being separated from her husband. “The doctor that I see tells me that they are going to keep me. I am taken to the contaminated wing, which has eight beds. There are people dressed as Shadoks! I spend the night in aisolation room and I go out the next day. Before leaving, the emergency doctor tells me: I don’t know what you have, but you don’t have Covid!

»

Spot on the lungOn March 17, 2020, the p remier confinement starts. “For my part, I’m lying down. I can’t eat. And to shower, I take my Ventolin before and after. My mother then advises me to contact the emergency room again. There, someone tells me: You definitely have Covid-19. Didn’t they tell you last time that you had a spot on your lung?

No, I wasn’t told that…”It is then that themedical wandering

After this episode, Justine returned home, where she was bedridden for six weeks.

Justine, Cherbourgeoise InJuly , she has an appointment with her doctor. “After describing my symptoms to him, he considers that I am having panic attacks and prescribes meantidepressants . » The disease is still very poorly understood, and Justine is not the only one to be confronted with the psychiatrisation

of the problem from a practitioner.

70% less respiratory capacity “It was only after a year and a half that he arranged for me to go on a date with apulmonologist . When I meet her, she tells me that I have lost 70% of my respiratory capacities and asks me why I didn’t come earlier. I tell her that my doctor is prescribing antidepressants for me. She then says:He doesn’t know about long Covid

(we also talk about prolonged symptoms of Covid)? The diagnostic will be confirmed by a cardiologist consulted a little later. “There, we were two years after the onset of symptoms, and with two specialists! After two and a half years, I have an appointment this time with aneurologist because in the meantime, headache

appeared. The MRI detected an abnormality. I have a lobe of the brain that has grown and moved a little, I am told. The neurologist gives me beta blockers.

An important step After three years, Justine asks her general practitioner

to stop antidepressants.

Justine, Cherbourgeoise HASfall 2023 the thirty-year-old starts having problems againstomach problems

. She then sees a gastroenterologist. Verdict: sensitive stomach. Today, Justine still hasn’t left the hostel, but she has taken an important step. Inmars 2024

The health status of patients with long Covid may require multidisciplinary explorations or additional assessments.

“Take care” She stays there hospitalized for a month and a half, notably to do somepulmonary rehabilitation

.

Justine, Cherbourgeoise

“This hospital stay also allowed me to accept that I was ill and to find solutions in my everyday life.”

^{At this point, she doesn’t know if and when this will ever end. She has to deal with…}