COVID is not done and gone, nor is it particular

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On Dec. 27, 2023, I spent the afternoon playing mahjong. That was to be the last day I was able to hear the pleasing click-clacking sound of those plastic tiles as they are tumbled and mixed on the table.

I came home from my mahjong game that afternoon and reported to my husband that I had a sore throat. Darn, the start of another cold. That turned into a very bad cold, with an incessantly runny nose, sneezing and congestion. As I talked on the phone with my sister on my way to run errands, she urged me to take a COVID test. I could not understand why, since I had no cough, no loss of taste or smell, no shortness of breath. But I acquiesced to her wisdom — though not before I finished shopping the many aisles of Target, unknowingly spreading the virus to my fellow shoppers. Sure enough, the COVID test was positive. That was the beginning of the end — the end of me being able to hear the mahjong tiles, the delighted squeals of my grandson and the high-pitched tweets of the songbirds returning for spring.

My COVID suffering started with congestion in my nose and sinuses. Soon that congestion spread to my ears, causing the excruciating pain I remembered from childhood ear infections. One of my eardrums ruptured in the middle of the night. Then it was visits to my family practice doctor and to the ear, nose and throat doctor. My ears were plugged, full of pressure and pain. The ENT eventually put tubes in my eardrums, the kind our children had as infants. I went through two courses of prednisone pills, two courses of antibiotics, three courses of prednisone eardrops and, finally, an injection of prednisone into my inner ear. My middle ear, the part of the ear right behind the eardrum, has cleared up. But still, I cannot hear. The audiograms show that my hearing is normal in the lower ranges. It is the upper ranges that show a downward slope.

My doctor says he has done all he can do. The damage is in the inner ear — where the auditory nerves are. He tells me I have sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

I asked him, “Is this from COVID?”

His response, “Did you know that 1 million people in the United States have not recovered their sense of smell after having COVID?”

To which I replied, “So, this is my COVID?”

His barely perceptible nod told me the answer.

Here is what my COVID looks like (sounds like?). I cannot understand what you are saying unless I can read your lips. I cannot watch a television show without captions. I cannot hear the wind blowing at night across this South Dakota prairie, the location of my newly adopted home. I can hear lower-pitched sounds.

Someone asked me, “Do you feel vulnerable, like someone could sneak up on you without you hearing them?”

I replied, “Oh, I can hear them approaching me. I just cannot understand them when they threaten me with ‘Your money or your life.’”

And then there is the roaring in my ears. The ENT calls it tinnitus. It’s like holding a giant conch shell over each ear. But it is not a delightful ocean sound. It is a roaring sea.

I asked my doctor, “Really, COVID can affect hearing?” He informed me that, indeed, it can affect any and all organs of the body, including not just the lungs, but the heart, kidneys, digestive system and, yes, ears.

I am not alone. Many of us suffer the consequences of COVID. The shortness of breath, the loss of smell and taste, the fatigue.

And then there is “long COVID,” which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as any set of health problems that are still occurring four weeks after the initial COVID infection. The symptoms can include ongoing fatigue, shortness of breath, joint or muscle pain, persistent rashes, hair loss, changes in smell or taste, an erratic heart rate, dizziness, depression, and difficulty thinking or concentrating, which is sometimes called brain fog. The CDC reports that 1 in 13 adults (7.5%) report having long COVID symptoms.

Recently, the CDC relaxed its guidance regarding the isolation period for people with COVID, dropping the quarantine requirement of five days. This is based on the sharp decreases in the number of cases requiring hospitalizations, among other factors.

I do not wish to argue with the CDC. I have no opinion on whether we should isolate (although I did quarantine for five days, but only after I had spread the virus across the entire Sioux Falls Target store).

I am telling my COVID story because I want people to know that we who have had COVID, or those of us who will surely contract this virus in the future, are still here. We are among you, and we still suffer. It does not matter to us if the CDC guidelines have changed. COVID is not going away, and neither are we.

We deserve your recognition and compassion. We deserve to be heard, and, yes, I understand the irony of that statement, being that I cannot hear you.

Next week I have an appointment for hearing aids, something I did not expect to be getting at my age. I have been looking online for colors. I will not “go gentle into that good night.” I will not choose a flesh-colored hearing aid, meant to blend in. No, I will choose a bright silver hearing aid, or perhaps a stunning navy blue. I want people to know what COVID has taken from me, and what this nasty virus has taken from so many of us. I don’t want people to forget the damage COVID has caused.

In July 2023, Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told the Star Tribune that “[COVID]’s not done with us yet. I still sleep with one eye open … .”

For many of us, COVID will never be done. We are here to remind you that we should always keep one eye open.

Martha Wegner recently moved to Sioux Falls from St. Paul.