This friend had high fever, dry coughing and extreme weakness, like he could not push himself out of bed and stand up. The date was march 16, 2020. The place was San Francisco, California. Coronavirus had just invaded America, doctors were not prepared, tests were impossible to have access to. His doctor advised for him to stay home and in isolation. All symptoms of fever, coughing, headache were gone by the 15 th of April except for breathing. He was still living on steroid inhalers puffs because breathing was very hard and painful.
Kitchen table or toilet to bed room seemed like endless journey. Age 35 and with athletic habits like trekking in Nepal two years ago, now it seemed like a distant dream.
The doctors diagnosed his new heart trouble as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS.
POTS means that blood gets collected too fast in your lower half body, and heart acts desperately to have that blood reach the brain before body collapses from lack of supply of blood to the brain.
Corona suffering of early fever, coughing and general weakness had been leading up to lungs, kidneys, brain and heart ailments. Great professional athletes who earn millions of dollars every year in the world of baseball, football and soccer have been forced to sit on sidelines after coronavirus infection.
Doctors say it is not life threatening in immediate terms but the fear of blackout is constant when heart does not pump enough blood into brain. It totally destabilizes normal and simple pleasures of life.
The treatment as of today is simple. Doctors say to wear some compressing stockings on legs so that not too much of blood is collected in lower half of body and brain gets enough blood supply. Rowing or swimming or similar exercises that can push the blood towards brain without letting blood get collected in lower half of the body can help. But total picture is far from clear. More research and evidence is required to help the struggling patient.
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