[ad_1]
| Republic of Arizona
Symptoms of COVID-19 compared to symptoms of the flu
We answer the often searched question: “What are the symptoms of the coronavirus compared to the flu?”
PHOENIX – As Riley Behrens lay in a hospital bed connected to tubes and wires, he opened up his Twitter to find that his story had gone viral overnight.
“Aren’t you taking this pandemic seriously? Read on,” the 23-year-old wrote to Tempe on Sunday evening. thread detailing five days of worsening illness. It had reached nearly 150,000 likes and 45,000 retweets on Tuesday afternoon.
Parents responded to tweets that they were going to show them to their older children, who still dated unmasked friends. Some shared kind words and sympathies.
Behrens was very surprised to see, however, that there were other people in their early 20s who commented that they experienced the same symptom after contracting the COVID-19 that he had – a mild stroke.
A week ago, Behrens had no idea young people around the world had TIAs, or transient ischemic attacks, as complications of the new coronavirus.
Several studies, including one from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, have shown evidence of neurological complications from COVID-19 in people who have no risk factors for them and who are otherwise mildly symptomatic.
“I never heard it was a thing, I never heard of other people having it,” Behrens told The Arizona Republic, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, Tuesday. “You say stroke, and I think, ‘Grandpa, grandma can have a stroke, I can’t. There is simply no way. “
But on Wednesday night, the 23-year-old went to bed with a headache. Three days later, he was admitted to the hospital. He knew something was wrong, but he never expected brain damage.
‘I’m 23, that doesn’t happen’
Ahead of his trip back to the San Francisco Bay Area scheduled for Thanksgiving, Behrens said he made sure to quarantine himself for two weeks at his apartment in Tempe, Arizona. Her father is immunocompromised.
When his friend lost his home, Behrens offered him somewhere to crash as long as he took care to adhere to sanitary precautions.
Both were tested on the Sunday before Behrens’ trip. Their results came back on Wednesday: positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
Before coming to stay, Behrens’ friend had gone to a family wedding and was exposed.
Behrens had a headache that night that he thought was just stress. On Thursday, he began to have difficulty breathing and chest pain. It got worse on Friday.
On Saturday, he woke up with extreme weakness on his left side. He couldn’t balance himself on his left leg or open the door with his left hand. He was dizzy. His vision was also patchy through his left eye. Her father and doctor told her to go to the hospital immediately.
Doctors suspected a stroke, but at the time, Behrens couldn’t believe it.
“It was a surprise, as I didn’t really know the symptoms of stroke. Honestly, when I hear the word “stroke” I think of people my father’s age. My dad is 62, ”Behrens said.
Behrens was admitted overnight. An MRI the next morning showed he had a TIA or a small blood clot in his brain.
Over the next two days, he said he underwent several tests, screenings and injections. He was finally released on Monday with a series of medical appointments scheduled over the next few days.
Behrens said her only pre-existing condition was exercise-induced asthma, which mostly resolved in college.
On Tuesday, Behrens, a Harvard student and former semi-professional rugby player, still had some symptoms, including dizziness and exhaustion. He also has new restrictions on his lifestyle.
“I don’t take my dog on long walks,” Behrens said. “I don’t get too tired of cleaning my house. I am not allowed to drive until I have been cleared by a neurologist. I cannot play sports because the risk of another head injury increases the risk of stroke.
Some things are still too difficult for the former athlete.
“You never imagine at 23 that you get tired of walking a dog, “he said.” I don’t want to admit that I can’t do this. It’s really difficult.”
Neurological complications of COVID-19
Behrens isn’t sure what to expect now. Typically, TIAs resolve quickly and do not cause permanent damage, according to the Mayo Clinic.
However, about one in three people who have TIA will eventually have a stroke, and half of those people will have one within a year.
Dr Luay Shayya, a neurologist with Neurology Consultants of Arizona, said Behrens’ case is not isolated. Shayya did not treat Behrens but spoke about the disease in general.
Doctors initially thought COVID-19 was primarily a respiratory disease, but as the virus spread, they learned that many patients also had neurological symptoms – “COVID-brain, if you will,” Shayya said.
Loss of taste and smell is an example of a neurological symptom, as the virus affects the sensory pathways to the brain, Shayya explained. Stroke is a more obvious neurological symptom.
“There have been several published case reports … of young patients with significant strokes due to COVID,” Shayya said, although he did not treat a case himself. “It is very unusual for young people to have stroke initially.”
One explanation for this situation is that COVID-19 causes blood clots to form which then spread to the brain, Shayya said.
With a little rehabilitation and therapy, young people generally have a good prognosis for recovery after TIA.
More: Young people are also dying from COVID-19, though many engage in denial
Road ahead: Why this Harvard doctor is optimistic that the United States is overcoming COVID-19 despite an ‘epidemic of mistrust’
Young people must “ wake up ”
Behrens struggled to find the words to describe the virus that hospitalized him. In the end, he opted for “unpredictable”.
This disease, he says, does not discriminate. It can affect people in ways we still know little about.
That’s why he decided to tweet about his experience from his hospital room. He wanted to show other young people that serious complications can also happen to them.
As Arizona cases start to rise again, the majority of new infections are in people between the ages of 20 and 44. Most hospitalizations are people 65 years of age or older.
“They literally injected blood thinners into my stomach because it worked faster than the pills. It’s not something that I want anyone to go through, ”he says.
“Wake up,” he said. “It’s real, and you have to start paying attention to it.”
Follow Emily Wilder on Twitter @ vv1lder.
[ad_2]
Source link