For Kids with Long COVID, Good Treatment Is Hard to Find

Ayden Varno was outside doing chores one day in April 2021 when he felt an excruciating pain, like “a hot knife was being stabbed into my back multiple times,” he says. Ayden, who is now 13, spent most of the next eight months in pain so extreme he couldn’t walk unassisted, sleep through the night, or follow a full school curriculum. He also suffered frequent non-epileptic seizures related to his pain. Doctors near his home in Ohio had no idea why Ayden was in so much pain or what to do about it; some suggested he was having a psychotic episode or being abused at home, says his mother, Lynda Varno. The family’s first lead came in July 2021, after they drove 14 hours to a pediatric hospital in Philadelphia. A doctor there mentioned that the pandemic seemed to be driving an increase in pain disorders, giving the Varnos a clue that COVID-19 might be to blame for Ayden’s pain. When, in December 2021, a clinician at Cleveland’s Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital finally diagnosed Ayden with Long COVID, both he and his mother broke down crying with relief. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “We finally had a physician who believed us, who supported us, who didn’t think that my husband and I did something terrible to our child,” Varno says. Julie Renée Jones for TIMEAyden chats with his parents while sitting in a therapy swing in their home in Ohio. The swing helps Ayden manage some of his pain, allowi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature healthscienceclimate Source Type: news