DVL Padma Priya, Co-founder of Suno India, is a two-time Covid survivor. She has been grappling with the lingering effects of coronavirus, also known as long Covid.
Fatigue, brain fog, fainting spells, increased sweating and palpitations have disrupted her normal life.
She also put out a long thread on Twitter on struggling with long Covid.
Padma contracted Covid for the first time during lockdown in April last year, when there was no access to private testing.
After experiencing Covid symptoms, struggling to get a test and finally getting a negative report, she was referred to another hospital.
"Tests revealed pneumonia and covid characteristics within the lungs and I was told I was clinically positive," Padma says.
Padma home-isolated for 21 days, during which she lost her sense of smell and taste, which only returned after two months. She also suffered from severe insomnia and anxiety.
"The isolation was nerve wracking," she says.
It was in July last year, when "crash happened", which has changed Padma's life drastically.
"In July, I went down, within my colony, to buy groceries & on the way back, suddenly experienced intense palpitations and blacked out," Padma says.
She has difficulty sitting for longer which triggers a migraine, her digestion has been hit, has chronic fatigue and is allergic to food items she never was previously.
Padma, has been hospitalised five times due to long Covid, Covid reinfection and POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).
"My life, as I knew it before, no longer exists. add to this am battling anxiety & PTSD from the ICU stay. No one knows how “long” long covid is. And POTS is v debilitating," she tweeted.
After being gaslit by multiple doctors, Padma says there needs to be more research on long Covid so that people get timely treatment.
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