COVID Recovery. June’s Journey.
[ photo by Andrea Piacquadio ]
COVID-19 recovery after hospitalization.
Welcome back. If this is your first time to my blog, I am spending the month of March giving a brief summary of the patients I have cared for in rehabilitation following hospitalizations for COVID-19. I wanted to be able to document the wide range of symptoms and recovery processes I have seen in my time with patients after their COVID infections. Today I want to tell you about June (not her real name).
June became one of my patients in the subacute rehabilitation facility shortly after Bob, the patient I wrote about last week. June knows how she contracted COVID. Her husband had required emergency open heart surgery in March. Unbeknownst to June and her husband, he contracted COVID-19 while in the hospital for the surgery. His post-surgery recovery had gone very well, and he was discharged to home from the hospital in good condition.
A couple of days after discharge, however, he developed fever, cough, and leg pain. He returned to the hospital on the advice of his surgeon for closer monitoring and treatment given the fact that he had just had a major surgery. Unfortunately, he was home just long enough for June to have also contracted the infection. She reported to me that she felt quite badly but never to the point where she felt she needed to go to the hospital. After about a week of feeling sick, she felt like she was starting to turn the corner and was really starting to feel better.
COVID caused a stroke.
June had no pre-existing illnesses. She had prided herself in continuing to walk three miles a day even though she was well into her 80s. Both she and her husband maintained their home and large yard and took several vacations throughout the year. One of the effects of COVID is increased risk of blood clotting. Just a little after a week into her COVID infection, she developed a sudden onset of dizziness, some difficulty speaking and a bit of left-sided weakness. She was able to dial 911. She was admitted to the hospital where she was found to have had a stroke.
Both June and her family were scared by the whole incident, but they were also thankful that the stroke wasn’t as bad as they knew it could have been. They knew she would need some rehabilitation, but according to the therapists at the hospital and her doctors, a short stay in rehab would likely get her back home and if not back to her usual baseline, at least pretty close.
Because of where June’s stroke occurred, she did have some dizziness at times. This was her biggest complaint. It was well managed with medication, which is often not the case, so she again felt pretty fortunate. She was very motivated to participate in all of her therapy sessions because she knew that was what she needed to do in order to regain her strength and balance.
Hard work in rehabilitation allowed June to recover from COVID induced stroke.
The only hindrance she had with therapy participation was her frequent phone calls with all of her children and friends! I think every time I went to visit her, I had to interrupt one of her many calls. She said she knew it was important to maintain her connection with her family and friends while she was recovering. During her time in rehab, her husband had fully recovered from his COVID infection and was discharged back to home with home health care. Her adult children were helping out with his care, which gave her a lot of relief. (Read my thoughts on caring for elder parents at home here.)
June was able to fully focus on her rehabilitation and was able to discharge to home with home health care after about three weeks of rehabilitation. The dizziness had nearly resolved, so she wasn’t using medication for that very often. She did still have some mild balance deficits, so was walking with a rolling walker. She was able to perform all of her ADLs, with the exception of bathing, without assistance. The last time I saw June, she was telling all of her new “therapist and nurse friends” goodbye. I was so happy for her success story, overcoming both COVID and the stroke.
She beat the odds and then…
About two weeks after June went home, I was told by the case manager that June had passed away a few days prior. She had been home alone and had attempted to walk somewhere in the house without her walker. Her husband had been out to a doctor’s appointment, and he found her down when he arrived home. June had fallen and hit her head which caused a large bleed on her brain. Sadly, she had already passed away.
June was a patient that has really stuck in my mind. I know through much of this pandemic many have said that numbers were inflated and that not everyone who was listed as having died from COVID actually did die from this. So in June’s case, did COVID-19 cause her to die? No, she did not die directly from her COVID-19 infection. I do believe, however, this otherwise healthy lady would not have had the stroke had it not been for her COVID infection. Her stroke then led to her impaired balance which ultimately led to her death.
My story of June is not a happy ending, I know, but I think it is important to remember June and those that have died from the effects of COVID-19. If you have personally lost a loved one, I am sorry for your loss. If you have been fortunate enough to not have lost someone close to you, please think of those who have lost someone.
Share your thoughts on or specific experience with COVID recovery in the Comments section.
© 2021 Jessica Kluetz, DO