Me, Pauline, 23, sick with Covid for eight months

Superstitious people will see this as a sign.

It was on Friday the 13th, that of March, that the virus infiltrated Pauline's life.

Eight months later, almost nine, he still refuses to erase his mark.

Seated in her small kitchen near Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), the student stifles a sob: “I'm sorry, I have days with and others without.

Today, it is without.

A few hours earlier, the young woman received new exam results, showing a neurological abnormality.

"One more damage," she said in a whisper, punctuating her sentences as often by indicating her age, a dizzying reminder of the violence of her situation.

"At 23", Pauline the good student can no longer follow her business school courses without taking a nap.

She can no longer ensure her work-study program in an aeronautic company except in therapeutic half-time.

“At 23”, dynamic Pauline, keen on hiking, is exhausted at the slightest effort.

Exhausted even when lying down.

“At 23”, Pauline, until then in good health, has a heart that beats so hard that it sometimes bangs in her ears.

A few days ago, he got so carried away that the Samu evacuated her from her workplace.

The causes remain unexplained

A form of "long Covid", this is how doctors call the stubbornness for weeks, even months, of the disease in some patients, especially the youngest.

According to initial estimates, 5 to 10% of positive patients still suffer from more or less severe symptoms six months after being infected.

On social networks, we find them, like Pauline, under the hashtag # AprèsJ20.

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All avenues are open and studies in progress are necessary, as the causes remain unexplained.

"Long forms have already been described for other coronaviruses, such as the 2003 Mers-Cov", points out however the virologist Daniel Dunia, CNRS researcher on neurological disorders associated with infections.

Visible and invisible damage

Pauline's heart and brain attacks are clearly visible, recorded in her special Covid medical file, which is hundreds of pages long.

And there are the invisible to the exams but very present in her life, like the stiffness that she sometimes feels when she untangles her long hair or struggles to go shopping.

“These are things that handicap my daily life.

Before going through all this, I did not understand what it meant to be in good health, I got up and

, I walked without asking myself any questions, ”she notes.

So, to smell the alcohol of its perfume but more its fruity fragrance, to have lost the flavor of dark chocolate or to have to wear compression stockings seems almost anecdotal to him.

“I learned,” she says, “to prioritize issues.

"

How, as the epidemic began its tsunami in France, could she have imagined in this month of March that stiffness, tinnitus, her loss of smell would be the first turbulence of a long nightmare?

She who does not suffer from overweight or diabetes or anything.

Finally, before.

And then, had she not read and heard: "Young people fear nothing"?

Today, she tries to alert but sees that the message is struggling to get through.

"Be patient"

Surrounded by her lover, her family and a general practitioner whom she describes as "exemplary", Pauline does not let go.

“I do all the exams that I am asked, dozens and dozens.

In the end, I'm sure it will be of use to other people.

"To open the way, to testify" to move things forward ", this is what nourishes his hope.

"The long form of the disease is not recognized, not all doctors are aware of it, some tell their patients that it is in their head, there is a lack of care paths, centers of expertise", list she, without counting all the expenses of re-education, transport, loss of salary which she must face.

"To treat myself, I spent more than 1000 euros", counts the courageous student.

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Of course, she applies the advice she has been given the most: “Be patient.

"But almost nine months, anyway… it's not nothing."

I'm afraid of having consequences for life, of having to give up projects, of no longer being completely me.

»At 23 years old.