JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Five years ago this month, Lisa Jensen first started to experience COVID-19 symptoms while on a trip with her sister.
What began as what she described as a "mild" response soon became serious.
Chest pains, exhaustion and difficulty breathing would soon sound the alarm for Jensen, an otherwise health, active mother.
LEX 18 initially spoke with Jensen in 2021, when she detailed her ongoing health struggles 16 months after contracting the virus.
"Maybe I'd make it half the day and then I'd be back in bed," she said. "Sometimes I'd have a few good days in a row. Maybe I'd go for a little walk. Other days, I would think I could go for a walk and I'd be calling for a pick-up half a mile in."
Today, she still struggles with fatigue and brain fog.
"When I look at a day, I think about how many hours I have to get things done, but it's also a matter of if I'm on my computer for one to two hours, I have to rest my eyes and my brain because otherwise, I will not be safe to drive a car when I go pick up my kids," Jensen said.
A recent study by KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation), a health research organization, revealed that up to 6 percent of U.S. adults are affected by 'long COVID.'
According to the Mayo Clinic, it's a condition marked by persistent symptoms such as extreme tiredness, memory problems, and changes in taste or smell.
Dr. Ashley Montgomery-Yates, director of the ICU Recovery Clinic at the University of Kentucky, notes that long COVID patients generally fall into two categories: those with temporary symptoms that last for weeks or months, and those with long-term, possibly permanent changes to their body’s regulatory systems.
“Some of those people we talk about, you just have a new normal,” Montgomery-Yates said. “They may never quite get back to where they were.”
Montgomery-Yates is hopeful that communities and workplaces will be more accommodating to people with chronic conditions after critical illness, not just after COVID-19.
"How do we modify work environments for people who maybe can't focus as well, or whose physical strength isn't what it was? How do we help them find new jobs or new meaning, how do we make sure that their families feel supported and they have the things that they need in those periods of time?" she asked.
Jensen has adapted to the new limitations on her energy, and explained that some periods of time are better than others.
She encourages people to have empathy for those who may be quietly dealing with a chronic illness.
"You can't look at a person and know what they're going through. So be kind. Just that everybody is dealing with something because they are and be kind," Jensen said.
