More than 70,000 Nebraskans have self-reported their symptoms of long COVID, according to the CDC. Of those, nearly 20,000 have said the effects have significantly impacted their lives at home and work.
Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals will be offering free online seminars for people who want to know more about the virus and how to better manage their symptoms. Katie Williams, director of marketing and communications for Madonna Rehab, said the effects can vary for many people.
“That's probably one of the greatest challenges around long COVID, because it can present in so many different ways,” Williams said.
Madonna offers a post-COVID assessment for those who are experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog and digestion issues for six weeks or more after being infected.
The four-part seminar series will be led by clinicians at Madonna, and each session will feature different information about the many ways the disease could affect COVID patients.
“It is a really difficult disease with a broad range of symptoms, and there's no sort of linear pattern of how those symptoms might present,” Williams said. “It's so individualized by the person, so just getting a diagnosis sometimes requires multiple visits to multiple specialists, and that can really take a toll on folks.”
She said long COVID symptoms can occur even in people who were asymptomatic with COVID.
“People who were asymptomatic at their point of infection are still developing post COVID,” Williams said. “That can be extremely disorienting. If you're thinking back and they're thinking, but I was never sick, this can't be me, but it is happening.”
The four-part series will offer information on how nutrition, physical activity and mental health can all be impacted by the symptoms.
“What was really important to us about this seminar series is that people be able to walk away with actionable tools that they can implement on their own at home to try to help with the symptom management,” Williams said. “Certainly wanting to be sure that they felt like they had tools and strategies that they could start right now implementing that would fit within their day to day lives.”
The series begins on Nov. 6 and runs through Dec. 11:
Nov. 6, 6-7 p.m.: Long COVID Overview & Madonna’s Continuum of Care
Nov. 13, 6-7 p.m.: Long COVID and Nutrition
Dec. 4, 6-7 p.m.: Long COVID and Mental and Cognitive Health
Dec. 11, 6-7 p.m.: Long COVID and Physical Activity