CLEVELAND — For Patricia Hill, COVID-19, its symptoms, and complications won’t go away. Her ceaseless battle forced her into a new normal.
“I doubt seriously that I'll ever get back to where I was prior,” Hill said.
Since getting diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2021, the virus started attacking her heart. Hill now has congestive heart failure and fluctuating heart rates, amongst a multitude of other lingering symptoms.
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“They're not going to go away,” Hill said. “I'm still dealing with fatigue. I finally admitted to having some brain fog.”
Hill isn’t alone, though, University Hospital’s COVID-19 Recovery Clinic is booking out appointments through October. Clinic head, David Rosenberg, said after initial investigations, chronic fatigue is the main symptom impacting his long COVID-19 patients.
“Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that are suffering from the adverse effects of COVID-19,” Rosenberg said. “We've probably seen over 800 patients in the clinic to date.”
UH doctors are now in the treatment phase of their studies, researching and developing different protocols, therapies, and medications that can improve long COVID-19 symptoms. Rosenberg said some drugs look hopeful.
“Naloxone or Narcan, which is an opioid blocker," Rosenberg said. "That's been potentially useful in certain patients."
Historically, low doses of a drug called Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist primarily used to treat alcohol addiction, have shown to be effective in post-viral fatigue syndrome. Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a rescue medication for opioid overdoses. It has a similar mechanism of action as Naltrexone and could have similar efficacy for long COVID-19 fatigue.
“There's going to be formal research conducted to see if that helps with the central nervous system, nerve endings, and blocking different path pathways in the brain,” Rosenberg said.
Hill has been a part of UH’s study since 2022 and said she’s willing to try anything if that means regaining her health. She’s remaining optimistic.
“I'm not depressed about the changes,” Hill said. “I'm rolling with it because it's more serious things that I can think of that could have happened.”
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