People with long COVID-19 may experience symptoms such as headaches and brain fog for an average of 15 months after first becoming ill.
Physical therapist Emily Caffee works with a patient on building strength and tolerance in her shoulders at PT Solutions, May 23, 2022, in Bloomingdale. Caffee had long COVID-19 with symptoms lasting almost two years.
“This is something people need to know about because it impacts a very large population in the U.S.,” Koralnik said. The average age of the participants was 43, and nearly two-thirds were women. More than two-thirds were vaccinated, but they were vaccinated after they began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms because the vaccines were not yet available when they first got sick. The vaccines did not seem to worsen or improve their cognitive function or fatigue, according to the study.
After her initial bout with COVID-19, she returned to her then-job as a physical therapist for Northwestern, but her symptoms soon worsened, to the point that she took a three-month-long medical leave from work, starting in May 2020. In August 2020, she returned to work, slowly ramping up her hours. By September 2020, when she saw Koralnik, she was feeling about 50% better, she said. Koralnik told her to continue doing what she was doing, slowly resuming her activities, she said.
Like Caffee, about half of the patients in the study never tested positive for COVID-19. But Koralnik said it was important to include them because, like Caffee, many likely had COVID-19, based on their symptoms, before testing was readily available.