COVID Survivors May Need Frequent Exams After Recovery
Cuellar says COVID survivors, particularly those who have had to be hospitalized, should have frequent exams of their heart and lungs to determine if the disease has created any lasting damage to their body.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist
“When you have the disease, you certainly have blood clots. They call them micro or small blood clots that we even can’t see. That is why we, as standard treatment, use a blood thinner for anybody who is hospitalized. Now with vaccines you may, you may develop blood clots. But with the disease, you certainly will develop blood clots. So if you balance the two of them, definitely the disease comes at a worse price, noh, than the vaccines. And I don’t want to make it sound like damned if you don’t and damned if you do. But you definitely will have blood clots if you have the disease and we see that as part of the way how this virus damages your lung, not only the tissue itself but the blood vessels that supply blood to the lungs. I would dare say at least for the first five years, we will need to get our twice a year or every three to four months, check-up, just to make sure that everything is good, noh, and identify things before it gets serious. So, get your check-ups regularly. But again, Marion, it affects all organs so you do have to pay attention to your liver, your kidneys, to make sure that they remain in good health, noh.”
Marion Ali
“And in the meantime, then, for people who simply will not be able to afford all of these examinations because of the mere fact that they’re very costly, and a lot of people who are affected by COVID are poor people or people who are less fortunate, what should they be doing at home to at least try to eliminate..”
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
“Make sure that they have their underlying conditions under – as best controlled as possible. They take their medication; they try to eat healthy; they avoid processed food; they avoid salt; they avoid fatty food, that kind of thing. And, at least every three, four months, check with your physician, let him do an examination, listen to your heart. A chest X-ray might be helpful – a simple chest X-ray that costs like $45, which would start give you indications whether or not your heart is having any trouble, and the same thing that you referred to, the EKG noh. Those things are available in the public setting, so the access to that is very much there. So, the frequent examination, the discussion, a chest exam, an EKG would be very helpful to see what’s going on with the heart, and a low-dose – unless there’s a reason why you can’t take aspirin, because you’re allergic to it, or because you have ulcers in your stomach – an aspirin a day will keep, the cliché, will keep the doctor away and help with the blood-clotting issues. The take-home message here, Marion, is for all of us to be very careful and to try not to get the disease by using the public health measures – the washing of the hands, the face mask-wearing, and the physical distance and use one of the tools that is now available, the vaccination, all of those things. And then we hear these things about “It’s my body, my decision,” but it’s not just about your body; it’s about people who surround you. I can’t see it being any way else than being selfish, actually.”
