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22 = 5 The IFP - Halton Hills | Thursday, May 12, 2022 | theifp.ca CAN'T SHAKE OMICRON SYMPTOMS? YOU'RE NOT ALO MAY WARREN mwarren@thestar.ca Lanrick Bennett Jr. was midride when he realized som was off. The 46- year-old had re- cently recovered from CO- VID and thought he was up for getting back on two wheels, picking up food near Little Italy to deliver to vul- nerable He People as part ofa a volunt called Bike Brigade. Now he is “huffing puffing” and hadto stop at athis nearby office to rest. "I couldfeel the tightness in my chest, and I ’ n good," recalls Bennett, who used to easily do marathon ‘ins ¢ of 50 kilometres. He's quick to point out he's much better people dealing with severe long COVID. It's a pretty big difference from his baseline, ing issues when exercising, coming up on three months from his infection around Valentine's Day. It's a kind of limbo of lingering symp- toms that he's not alone in facing. More Canadians than ev- er before have now had CO- are re struggling with ongoing from shortness of breath to brain fog. Some are debilitated, dering when, if ever, they will feel back to normal. There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to long CO- VID i subvariant BA.2, but some doctors say, anecdotally, they're now seeing more people impacted than in pre- vious waves. Dr. Alexis Gordon, Gen- eral Internal ledicine Lead, Scarborough Health Network, who's been work- ing with a long COVID ser- vice assessing patients there since 2021, said more have been coming to them in the last few months. “Up until January of this year it's been a trickle of re- ferrals with a couplea week, and from January to March I think we had 65 referrals. It's far surpassing our abili- ty to meet the need to be to- tally honest," she said. Some of this is due to more awareness in the com- unity about the program, "but there lot more long COVID cases out there as well," she said. With so many infections in the unity, the denomina- tor has “really exploded." is has all put more strain on the health care sys- tem. "You're left between trying to prioritize the next wave of in-patients and open back up again but not leave patients behind who have significant debilitating symptoms and trying to get them the best care that we can with incomplete infor- mation," she said. It's hard to pin down how many are impacted, even more so as most people in the last two COVID waves have not been eligible for PCR tests. The Ontario Sci- ence Table estimated that between 57,000 to 78,000 On- tarians have had or are cur- rently experiencing what they call post-COVID-19 con- dition. The September 2021 i ded t it. In addition to finding that 50 per cent of people with COVID may experi- ence lingering symptoms, @ a recent Public Health Onta- rio report reviewing avail- able research found some of the most common ones in- cluded fatigue, shortness of = VES = RJ. Johston/ Toronto Star Before catching COVID-19, Lanrick Bennett Jr. could cycl kilometres at a stretch with no problems. Now, as one so of many people dealing with lingering symptoms, he suffers fatigue and breathing problems and has to rely on a put breath, and cognitive and memory impairment. It also found that the most common risk factors severe COVID and | being f female, and con- cluded that caring for these patients will likely stress the health and social systems, involving increased em¢ gency department visits, outpatient care, pital stays and rehabilitation oe Kashif Pirzada, a To- ronto emergency physician, '§ seen more people coming in with persistent symptoms after Omicron — most commonly difficulty breathing, and a cough, but also some cognitive issues— than in other waves. Often their family doc- tors have already tried ev- rything the d patients leaving in tears when we tell them, there's not much we can do for you,” he said. He and his col- leagues run tests and send them to a respirologist, net rologist or cardio losist, de pending on their specific problems, but the wait times. and there's no for everybody,” he added. In B.C., Dr. Jane McKay, the medical lead for that province's post COVID-19 in- terdisciplinary clinical care network, said phe | have ac- tually seen ople coming in lately t to their five ir “referral vol- ‘amatically down" and there's no longer any- one on the waiting list. This could be because symptoms are not as bad with Omicron, or because family doctors are getting more comfortable navigat- on how vaccination impacts this condition, as well as Omicron and BA.2, and it's too early to draw concrete conclusions, she said. But one thing that does seem clear, across studies, is that most people seem to im- “Some will linger, but I think the message that I give to any patient that I see is one of hope — yes this is dif- ficult, but this does get bet- tients. But there are treat- ments for individual condi- tions, such as migraine Choice Awards! It’s in your hands. make sure to vote for your VOTING NOW OPEN or professional in th Help make your favourite local business become a Georgetown Independent & Free Press Readers’ Choice. Start voting now at theifp.ca/readerschoice 9 Independent & Free Press Readers’ The Georgetown Independent & Free Press Readers’ Choice Awards were created so you can tell us which local businesses and service providers are the best at what they do. Voting is open until May 16th, 2022 so make sure you get your votes in before time is up! THE INDEPENDENT 2022 headaches. Katie O'Byrne has suf- fered from long COVID symptoms, i ling heart palpitations, low energy and shortness of breath she de- red nurse Nomen Alberta became in mid-March of this year, with what she as- sumed was Omicron, she was fearful it would set her back. But this tim: she was eligible for Pa ee vid, a new antiviral medica- tion to reduce the odds of ending up in the hospital. She was surprised when her long COVID symptoms cleared up, and she saw an “unbelievable change" in her energy level. O'Byrne knows that her experience is totally anec- dotal and Paxlovid is not ap- proved for long COVID. Al- though there have been a couple of similar anecdotal reports in the US., there'sno data on this potential use. But she hopes it can be stud- iedit ina amore systematic way tentially help ather s sul as bad as it could have been. Vaccination has been shown But so far, he hasn't easi- ced back. le now carries an inhal- er with him when he cycles. to give his breathing a boost. "It's going to be a slow re- build,” he said. “T'm not shaking this."