P.E.I. resident with long COVID frustrated at lack of supports
CBC
COVID-19 hit Sam MacDonald hard when he contracted the illness back in February. And he's never been the same since.
"For about three weeks, almost a month I was completely unable to work," MacDonald recalls. "I would just stare off into the middle distance. I was truly just out of it and sleeping all the time."
MacDonald used up all his vacation time, taking a month off from his job as a quality assurance tester for a video game company.
He's now back to working from home. He said the symptoms aren't as severe, but never went away.
He described a lack of energy and what has become known as long COVID "brain fog." He loses his train of thought, forgets what he wanted to say. Just stops talking.
"I will just get lost in a moment," he said. "A fog just rolls in. I have just enough energy, like just enough, to take care of myself. And that's it."
That thinking and focus issue is one of the most common symptoms associated with long COVID, or post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, as it's officially known. But there are many others, ranging from an abnormal heart rate to difficulty breathing to an ongoing lack of taste or smell.
Clinicians are still struggling to understand, diagnose and treat the condition.
MacDonald hasn't received a formal diagnosis. An appointment to see his family doctor was cancelled when the doctor himself came down with COVID-19, and MacDonald is still waiting to get back in.
He went to the emergency room once seeking a diagnosis, then turned around and left.
"There are people coughing around you and it's going to be, like, a 10-plus hour wait," he said.
He'd already used up all his vacation time, and the fact that he couldn't afford to get sick again made the decision for him.
"I had to leave. I couldn't be in there exposing myself to that."
P.E.I.'s Department of Health said the province is "currently looking at ways that patients who may be experiencing symptoms of long COVID-19 may be identified and access treatment."
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.