HOUSTON — The COVID-19 recovery process is different for everyone and some people may require continued medical treatment even after they beat the virus.
Dr. Justin Seashore is the Medical Director of the UTMB COVID Recovery Clinic. He said the clinic was developed in July to help patients who, despite recovering from COVID-19, continue to have symptoms. The clinic helps those patients find a way to get through it and understand why it's happening.
Seashore said more than 140 people have visited the clinic as of last week. He said there are certain symptoms that a lot of people seem to be experiencing after beating the virus.
"Across the clinic, many people complain of shortness of breath. That's the most common symptom that seems to be fairly common all-around, that there's difficulty with (their) breathing getting shorter, breathing faster with all the activities they do. There's also a lot of fatigue," he said. "People are having another interesting thing that's occurred for a lot of people is this cognitive decline, this ... 'I can't remember things like I used to.' Also in the clinic, we've noticed that there's a lot of anxiety that people have had post-illness as well as signs of depression and post-traumatic stress."
Seashore said the clinic is a safe haven for those who feel like they're alone in the recovery process.
"One of the biggest things that clinics are able to do for a lot of patients is just letting them know they're not alone in this, that there are others. I've had patients come in ... and I'm the first doctor they've actually seen in person. Really, because they were never hospitalized," he said. "So people were staying home at that time, but they're still feeling ill and they'd like to get better and they don't understand why they're not. So that's why we have this clinic to help find a way to help these patients improve in their function and try to get back to their normal life."
The clinic is open to anyone seeking post-COVID-19 care and physician referrals are not necessary. You can call the clinic at 832-632-6666 or click here for more information.