Kiwis have revealed on social media what life is like during and after contracting COVID-19, proving long haul COVID certainly exists.
A Kiwi couple in the United Kingdom contracted COVID-19 in the early stages of the outbreak and the consequences are extensive.
Posting on Reddit, the person says their partner, an ex-professional athlete in his 30s, has had lasting effects.
"He is now allergic to dairy, legumes and beer."
But that isn't it, they say he can't do any cardio exercise or get too hot, which includes being in the sun, without breaking out in sweats.
"It's been particularly hard for him as he's always been a picture of health and strength."
And it hit their neighbour too. They say their neighbour had different symptoms of long haul COVID.
"Brain fog, breathlessness, extreme fatigues. She has severe memory issues and problems recalling simple everyday words."
They say long COVID doesn't only affect your health but it impacts your life too.
"She went from running her own business to being bed-ridden. She's only 32."
They say it's not just death, it's long-term health as well.
"Although death usually only strikes the elderly and the immuno-compromised, long COVID will take anyone."
A different woman caught COVID-19 after arriving in New Zealand from the United States in March 2020.
The woman started off her two weeks self-isolation but it was nine days in where she started to experience shortness of breath alongside a number of other symptoms.
"I was experiencing chest pain, shortness of breath and headaches," she says on Twitter.
But she says at the time those symptoms weren't considered Covid-19 symptoms.
"We thought I was having panic attacks. I wasn't, It was viral myocarditis."
The woman says she was never tested for COVID-19 because of the short supply of testing equipment and personal protective equipment.
She says by April she experienced dizzy spells and then by May she was fainting,
"We tested different theories: menopause, depression, thyroid. Eventually, the GP threw up her hand and said let's look at the heart."
By August the woman received her first result. It was stage one heart block, but two months later more tests returned, she couldn't leave the hospital.
"You can't leave the hospital because we're afraid you're going to keel over dead and we need you near jump cables so we can restart you," she says.
"I emerged from the hospital with a pacemaker in November, it took another three months for the medical team to come around to the idea that this was COVID sequelae."
She said she relapsed in September this year because of long haul COVID.
"I couldn't finish sentences or stand up or think for four days, My head occasionally hits the desk."
