https://www.texasobserver.org/long-covid-texas-clearing-the-air/
"Most people survive the Coronavirus with their kidneys intact. But not
34-year-old Austin resident Vanessa Ramos.
An experienced community organizer with nonprofits like the Sierra Club, Ramos
was healthy and active before she got infected. Then she caught the COVID-19
virus in December 2021, and symptoms lingered through the new year despite her
efforts to focus on healing and recovery.
“I was trying to prioritize my physical health because I couldn’t lift things;
I couldn’t open things,” Ramos recalled. “I didn’t understand why I was getting
weaker.”
In 2022, she kept getting sick over and over. Colds progressed to sinus
infections. She had fluid in her ears after an infection, which required
surgery. She even came down with walking pneumonia.
“I was getting an infection every month—different bacterial infections,
different parts of my body,” Ramos said.
Initially, doctors didn’t dig deeper, perhaps because Ramos was uninsured. As
with any chronic, debilitating condition, accessing medical care can be
challenging; quality healthcare is most often tied to employment, and those who
are chronically ill may no longer be able to work for long stretches of time.
It wasn’t until last year that a nurse finally gave her a diagnosis: long
COVID. But by then her kidneys were failing. Ultimately, COVID—which can attack
any organ, including the circulatory system itself—was likely the trigger for
her to develop a rare form of vasculitis, a chronic swelling of the circulatory
system that destroyed the functioning of her kidneys and continues to threaten
her heart and lungs.
Ramos is out of work, spends up to nine hours a day hooked to a dialysis
machine, and is awaiting a kidney transplant."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: March 28, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-101221362
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
