MIDLAND, Texas — Medical experts are learning as they go while treating patients with a new virus-like COVID-19.
“I feel like you need your own medical school just for COVID-19 because it imitates every disease, there’s no rhyme or reason," P. Douglas Cochran, Cochran Family Medicine said. "Timelines change in each person, and it’s just a very difficult disease to pinpoint down."
In recent months, doctors in Midland have pinpointed one thing.
Patients are experiencing everything from no taste and smell, fever, fatigue, brain fog, cough, sore throat, nausea, and achiness.
“It turns out these antibodies that we are testing are not lasting forever, they seem to stay around in people for 4 to 6 months in most people.”
Dr. Cochran says symptoms from the virus can stick around, too.
“Some people can be symptom-free in a matter of days and others in months," Cochran said. "The most common continued symptom is the overlying lack of energy, fatigue, and stamina.”
The symptoms are different for everyone, making it dangerously easy to spread.
"Our elderly and at-risk patients are dying and it's the younger people who are spreading it," Cochran said. "We don't have to like the virus, but we can respect it."
Dr. Cochran wants to remind people to take it easy when they are getting over COVID, even when you have quarantined for the appropriate amount of time you might not be entirely symptom-free.
If symptoms continue, talk with your doctor about ways to treat those long haul symptoms.