A year ago, 26-year-old Rachael Lackner would fasten Nike sneakers, put on Lululemon tights, and then perform 24-hour fitness for a five-day fast ECG treadmill sprint And jogging training, interval training on the stair machine and weight training, and then at home after get off work yoga class. She works full-time, studies her real estate license at night, and sleeps comfortably for a few hours each night.
Then, in June, Mission Valley residents visited an office. None of them was wearing a mask, including herself, who were infected with COVID-19. She is the sickest in her life. Nine months later, the disease is still haunting her body and mind. Every day she struggled with fatigue, brain fog, headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, depression and chest pain. So severe, she said: “It feels like my lungs were stabbed by a needle.”
Lackner is one of approximately one in ten patients with COVID-19, and this type of patient is called “long-distance syndrome” or simply “long COVID”. Early research shows that in these patients, the symptoms of the disease persist for at least one year.
“It’s ruining my life. I’m just my shell now,” Lackner said. “It’s hard to explain my condition because I’m not the kind of complainer. I’m not Eeyore. I’m not Debbie Downer. I’m Rachael and I’m very positive and optimistic. But I used to have airplane energy storage. Box, now my energy storage box is only the size of Fiat.”
Lackner, who lives alone, said that she wanted to say that she was getting better, but setbacks were happening all the time. Instead, she focused on being patient with herself. Due to memory retention problems, she gave herself another six months to pass the real estate exam. She devotes herself to weekend naps and long walks because she is exhausted by exercising for more than 10 minutes. She thanked her compassionate boss and parents, because she did not have the energy to cook, she visited her apartment on weekends and prepared meals for them.
But one thing she is impatient with is people her age who don’t take COVID-19 seriously or wear masks.
She said: “I am very satisfied with other people’s role models.” “Let me be your reason to wear a mask. This may happen to you.”
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