Surviving COVID-19 with Neurological Involvement from the perspective of a Neurologist [vanity]

Neurology blogger's site | April 12, 2020 | Anonymous

[BlueStateRightist]

The veracity of this account cannot be confirmed, however there is an air legitimacy to the writing. HCQ and azithromycin come to the rescue (again). Of course, just anecdote. /src. The rest of the content is very interesting.

[Ciexyz]

Compelling account, for sure.

[JennysCool]

First I’ve heard of visual and auditory hallucinations associated with this.

[bitt]

p

[Tacrolimus1mg]

Absolutely fascinating. Horrible, but fascinating. There’s no telling what will happen when a virus invades the brain.

[catnipman]

“So for what it’s worth, this was just posted on a neuro MD site: “

you need to post a link so we can verify that this isn’t just something you or someone else made up ... until we see such a link, we can only assume that it’s not true ...

[FrogMom]

I had read of the loss of taste and smell, but not the hallucinations!

Thanks for posting.

[Right Wing Assault]

HCQ and azithromycin come to the rescue.

You would think he (or someone else) would have his doctor get them into him a lot earlier. Odd.

[gas_dr]

Anosmia occurs in 30% of cases. But hardly surprising as this virus is related to the common cold. Anyone who has had a cold will verify they can’t taste much

This smacks of the ER drivel that was running around a few weeks ago. If an adult has a temperature > 102 hallucinations are possible and in fact probable. So I am not sure this gets blames on neurological involvement

There is enough to make this sound scary and valid but there are several statements that smack of someone knows how to write very well and synthesized so stuff to sound legit.

Bottom line. I don’t buy it

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for posting this. The section about "Ondine's Curse" really caught my eye. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea a couple years back (due to excessive daytime drowsiness) and started using a CPAP machine in January 2020. I've found that about 2/3 of my sleep apneas are of the so-called "Central" variety where the brain stops commanding you to breathe (as opposed to "obstructive" where the airway collapses and mechanically blocks airflow). The author wrote:

"I realized that my primitive respiratory center was starting to fail me. If I did not consciously focus on breathing then I would stop and die...I was fascinated by the condition Ondine’s Curse...Once afflicted by Ondine's curse, the victim cannot breathe if he falls asleep—and therefore must choose between sleeping and remaining alive. This localizes to the lower lateral medulla.

This description immediately made me think of Central Sleep Apneas. I looked up Ondine's Curse and sure enough, it popped up in Wiki at "Central hypoventilation syndrome":

Central hypoventilation syndrome (CHS) is a respiratory disorder that causes ineffective breathing, apnea, or respiratory arrest during sleep (and during wakefulness in severe cases). CHS can either be congenital (CCHS) or acquired (ACHS) later in life. The condition can be fatal if untreated. CCHS was once known as Ondine's curse.

How do you like that? Severe progression of COVID can cause the same problem I've got, except that COVID can entirely shut down your breathing and you have to consciously breathe or be on a machine (in sleep apnea, you get 30 - 50 second periods of no breathing).

I wonder how many people have died from COVID without them or their doctor recognizing that the virus had compromised their Autonomic Nervous System and their breathing has become irregular or stopped?

[PA Engineer]

He is definitely a neurologist. Scary. Thanks for the ping.

[Chickensoup]

Neuro involvement

[ProtectOurFreedom]

There is a lot of over-the-top stuff, isn’t there, that calls veracity into question...
* the hallucination that his “fiancé had turned into a monster and climbed out of my couch to get me.”
* auditory hallucinations of “some kind of Russian music playing in a loop.”
* “The next three nights I did not sleep more than 30 seconds. Any attempt at sleep would result in overwhelming rigor.”

It almost seems like he’s trying to see how much outlandish stuff he can get away with before being called on it. That visual hallucination sounds like LSD territory.

[little jeremiah]

Money quote:

That evening I started steroids, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin and slept 1 hour and the next morning woke up and 99% of my Neurologic symptoms had resolved. Two days later my sense of smell and taste returned."

Viruses can do very weird things. When I got swine flu/H1N1 there were all kinds of unusual and highly unpleasant symptoms that were not like "regular" flu.

[WildHighlander57]

Steroids aren’t good when having a cytokine storm.

[grey_whiskers]

[grey_whiskers]

+1

[grey_whiskers]

Steroids aren’t good when having a cytokine storm.

Re-read it carefully. He says the steroids were administered four days after the cytokine storm.

[BlueStateRightist]

“Steroids aren’t good when having a cytokine storm.”

I thought the same. There have been reports that giving corticosteroids to COVID-19 patients in ARDS is a bad move.

[The Duke]

Happy ending .. move on!