Young, healthy Tallahassee COVID long hauler thanks vaccine
Rose McBride spent 22 years living an active lifestyle, including working out six to seven days a week.
She could lift weights at the gym, run a mile in nine minutes and go about her day afterward. “I was in really, really good shape,” McBride said.
“I have no underlying conditions. I never had the flu or bronchitis or pneumonia. I’d never been sick in my life,” she added. “So my thought process was, ‘Oh, I’m too healthy to get the virus.’ “
But in May 2020, she tested positive for COVID-19. Local cases at the time were in the 200s.
She then became what health officials have called “long haulers” — people who experience symptoms for longer than 28 days, according to a Nature Medicine study. Her symptoms went away for the most part after she was vaccinated, but she still struggles with mild headaches and dizziness a year later.
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McBride, an insurance specialist at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, had visited her family in Tampa for a weekend gathering without masking and social distancing. Then, one by one, family members started testing positive for the virus. Her brother had been feeling unwell that weekend, and she said she believes he may have passed it on to the other family members.
McBride’s symptoms started on Mother’s Day and persisted for 10 months. She said she felt like there were weights at the bottom of her lungs. Taking a breath was akin to inhaling cold winter air. She described having fatigue, brain fog and severe headaches.
Eleven days after testing positive, she had what was described as a “mini-stroke” and was taken to TMH, where doctors monitored her for two nights. One doctor confirmed that he believed the mini-stroke, also called a transient ischemic attack (TIA), was caused by COVID-19.
Joseph Mazziotta, a doctor at TMH who specializes in family medicine, said roughly 10% of his COVID-19 patients are long haulers.
In some cases, Mazziotta said, people develop symptoms months after having the virus. He said one of his patients developed fibrosis in the lungs long after having COVID-19, leading to symptoms like shortness of breath later. He said this was “probably precipitated by the initial COVID infection.”
Others, like Rose, experience their symptoms for extended periods of time, even after testing negative. Rose said the month of December was the worst for her: “I went the entire month without having one decent day.”
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McBride said she still experiences symptoms long after her initial infection. And she said she still doesn’t know if or when they’ll finally go away.
“No one knows if I will end up having these chronic symptoms for the rest of my life. And that’s kind of scary to me,” she said. “No one has any answers for me. No one knows how to help me. And that’s not comforting at all.”
“I do feel like the vaccine did help me”
At first, McBride was hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine. She had heard misinformation about the shots, including the myth that the COVID-19 vaccine alters recipients’ DNA.
However, McBride’s coworkers started getting vaccinated and encouraged her to do the same. She got vaccinated in late January. Now, she says she’s glad she did it.
“So many other people don’t have access to the vaccine like we have,” McBride said. “We have this great opportunity and we should take advantage of it.”
McBride said she had side effects from the vaccine, but after a few days her symptoms disappeared for four months. They later returned in a milder form.
“I do feel like the vaccine did help me,” she said. “So I’m really grateful that I was given the opportunity to receive (it).”
To be sure, the COVID-19 vaccine is not a treatment for the virus, but a measure against it. Hospital officials at TMH have said patients sometimes enter the hospital positive for COVID-19 and ask doctors for a vaccine. By then, it’s too late.
The Delta variant of the virus has made its way through Leon County. One FSU professor said 90% of the university’s cases can be attributed to the Delta variant, and one TMH doctor said 94% of the county’s new cases can be attributed to Delta.
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Mazziotta said getting vaccinated not only prevents the spread of the virus, but also protects people from severe cases.
“Although the vaccine does not prevent COVID 100%, I think it’s clear that the vaccine most certainly lessens the severity of COVID,” he said.
McBride said she feels better for the most part, but her energy level has still not returned to what it was before she contracted the virus. Some days, she said, are better than others.
“You don’t want to end up like that,” she said. “You don’t want to end up being a long hauler for the rest of your life.”
Casey Chapter is the managing editor of the FSView & Florida Flambeau. Reach her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @CaseyChapter.
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