Some physicians who work with long COVID-19 patients — those who experience persistent or new symptoms months after their initial bout with the virus — are seeing patients with tremors and vibrating sensations, The Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 21.
"It feels like someone put something on my bed and it's vibrating," said Kerri McCrossen Morrison, a 50-year-old long COVID-19 patient who has been experiencing intense internal vibrations and external tremors since she originally contracted the virus in March 2020. "My body is moving inside, it's jolting, and at night it's really bad," she told the Journal.
Clinics that treat long COVID-19 patients at Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine and New York City-based Mount Sinai told the news outlet they don't see many people complaining of such sensations. At a Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic long COVID-19 clinic, however, "It is something we see quite frequently," said Greg Vanichkachorn, MD, an occupational and aerospace medicine physician at Mayo who works with long COVID-19 patients in the first three months after their acute infection.
Dr. Vanichkachorn estimates about 40 to 50 percent of long COVID-19 patients at Mayo experience such symptoms in the first three months after their initial infection. For some, the symptoms are debilitating, while they are more of a nuisance for others, he told the Journal.
While health experts aren't exactly sure what causes the post COVID-19 tremors or vibrating sensations, some suspect it's related to autonomic nervous system dysfunction — which is common among long COVID-19 patients — nerve damage, or brain processing issues.
To read the full Wall Street Journal article, click here.