'Advocate for yourself': Long haul COVID sufferer Alex Singer still dealing with serious side-effects
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Monday night marks three years to the day Governor JB Pritzker put the state of Illinois on a mandatory "stay at home" lockdown.
Long haul COVID remains one of the chief pandemic mysteries. CBS 2's Marissa Perlman introduces us to one young woman who said for her and thousands of others, COVID-19 is still very real.
In May 2022, 18-year-old Alex Singer was graduating from Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, ready to start her next chapter as a college freshman in Colorado. But then a COVID diagnosis changed everything.
"Everyday, I'm still trying to figure out my body and what is happening to me."
Looking at Alex Singer, everything seems okay on the outside. A lover of nature, skiing, hiking and summer camp, you wouldn't know she now needs a scooter just to leave her home.
"This scooter has given me a lot of independence. Because typically with this wheelchair, I have to rely on someone to push me."
Singer left to be a counselor at a camp in Wisconsin last summer. It's where she first got COVID. Singer was vaccinated and boosted. But it wasn't until weeks later, once she'd left for college at Colorado State, she started realizing something was seriously wrong:
"I was calling the paramedics to my dorm. There was a time when I was doing it, pretty much, every single night," she said.
Singer had a laundry list of symptoms: extreme fatigue, abnormal heart rate and at times, her body would quickly turn red. She would facetime her mom at night, sometimes from the hospital.
"Nighttime was so hard and scary, not knowing exactly what's going on with her heart," said Marla Singer. "She was afraid she wouldn't wake up."
"I started to be like maybe it is time for me to go home," Alex Singer said.
She was forced to drop out of college to focus on her health. Since then, she's been to the ER 15 times. For months, doctors couldn't tell her what was wrong. Some wouldn't take her case.
"You think you have this idea that all these doctors will help you and have all the answers, but in reality it feels like everyone is just kinda like guessing," Singer said.
It took months before she finally got an answer: Long COVID. But there are still so many unknowns
"I don't and the doctors don't know what this is going to look like tomorrow, a year from now, 20 years from now," Singer lamented, as she admitted she feel her life is on hold.
"It's so unfair because this is when she should be having the time of her life," said her mother Marla Singer.
Singer is heading to the Mayo Clinic Post-COVID Care Center. Doctors will use her case for research but also provide tools to help manage symptoms. She wants others to know she's one of at least 3,000 Long COVID sufferers she's connected with online who are still fighting for answers.
"I want to people able to spread awareness, that you're not alone and there's a lot of people dealing with this and you need to advocate for yourself."
