Long COVID from a partner’s perspective: Ian & Dani’s Story
Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is a devastating enough syndrome by itself but combined with other chronic conditions, it can be extraordinarily difficult to treat, and the effects of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. on family members can be extremely challenging. PHAN founder Ian Goodfellow and his wife Dani have experienced all of it. Ian had Menier’s Syndrome for most of his life, but he was able to accommodate it and lived an active life with mountain biking, hiking, and working full time as the head of Google Brain.
One of the things that he cut back on was flying. Menier’s Syndrome affects the ear and hearing, and Ian was afraid flying would cause permanent damage. When his wife Dani had some vacation time in 2023, she took the kids to Italy for a few weeks without Ian. Ian had chosen not to go to Italy because of his Menier’s Syndrome which affects his ears and hearing. The family had masked for a few years but by 2023 weren’t masking anymore.
Two days after they got back from a trip to Italy, one of their children came down with a feverA common symptom of infection marked by elevated body temperature.. They tested them for COVID and the test showed up positive, then progressively the rest of the family came down with COVID. For the kids it was feverA common symptom of infection marked by elevated body temperature., sneezing, and coughing, and for Dani and Ian it was fatigue, muscle pain, sneezing, coughing, and a worrying bit of arrhythmia for Dani. They took Paxlovid for five days, then seemed to get better, then they relapsed and were sick for another week and didn’t really get better for another month and they thought they were over it. Then Ian started becoming very sick with extreme chronic fatigue and an increased heart rate (which he tracked with an Apple Watch), went to the ER, they couldn’t find any problems.
Ian was already aware of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. and symptoms. When he was in his fifth week and was not really recovering, he started wondering if this was Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. or another problem. His doctors ran a bunch of tests to rule stuff out and they all came back negative, which led to them theorizing this was Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.. This is one of the hardest parts about addressing Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.: it doesn’t have definitive biomarkers or a specific test so patients and providers have to order a lot of other tests in order to rule out other possible causes.
Dani says this whole experience has been really stressful, since doctors didn’t really know what was going on and kept referring him to other specialists. Ultimately Ian took matters into his own hands and consulted specialists from locally and from around the U.S, with a provider nearby specializing in chronic illness and Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., plus a few doctors at Stanford, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and UCSF. He also consulted specialists in NYC, San Diego, and London. He spent a lot of energy diagnosing himself and putting together all the information from all the people he was consulting. He started connecting with other people from around the world with Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., and it made his mood pretty dark because they’d been on the path so long with no resolution. Ian had to stop working and couldn’t engage in any of the outdoor activities that he used to spend time with.
Dani and the kids were scared and worried about Ian’s illness. There’s no clear timeline, as there is with almost any other life-changing illness, and it’s been hard to stay hopeful. The kids keep asking when he’s going to get better and it’s Dani’s job to keep everyone’s hope up. Ian has had the immense good fortune of being able to afford trying dozens of different treatments and it wasn’t until ten months after being diagnosed that he finally started seeing some improvement, and he is now finding some success with mind-body awareness and Chinese medicine.
Dani says the partners have to be patient, and optimistic, and able and willing to take up all of the slack at home. We hope everyone affected by Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is able to get some good providers and find some treatment that helps them.
