Holistic Medicine and Long Covid-19, An Interview with Dr. Mary Jahrsdoerfer
1. Tell the folks a little bit about yourself Mary. Career, hobbies, interests,etc. especially before contracting Covid-19
I am a professional advanced nurse (Ph.D., MHA, BSN, RN) who specializes in bridging emerging healthcare technology to safe nursing practice and optimal patient outcomes. I have a strong foundation in cardiac critical care, health-industry (development and clinical trials of health technology), and currently a professor of graduate healthcare informatics at a local Long Island University. I was widowed quite young, and a mom of successful 28-year-old son. I stay grounded by tapping into my creative side and to nature. I am an avid gardener, a long-standing soprano in my church choir, devoted to exercise and power-walking, ardent reader (particularly, historical fiction), dabble in furniture restoration, love to cook and entertain, and get excited about travel and discovery of new places and cultures. Until Covid…when everything came to a screeching halt.
2. When you got Covid, were you surprised by its symptoms for you?
I received the two Moderna vaccines in January and February 2021. I was uber cautious. I worked remotely from home (got zoomed out, as many will understand) and only ventured out for essentials, wearing an N-95 mask. I did continue my outside exercise walks to maintain health and wellness. My son said “Mom, I already lost Dad, I can’t lose you too. I need you to be extra careful”. I was. Nationally, there seemed to be a lull of sorts by the summer’s end, with an overall more relaxed approach to mask wearing. On Labor Day weekend I ventured out with friends to an outdoor festival (maskless). Three days later, I was sneezing and coughing with a consistency like never before in my life. Then came the high fever, chills, chest congestion, trouble breathing, extreme fatigue, loss of taste and smell, and most significant, the extreme drop in oxygen saturation (SpO2). I spent 4-days in the hospital with “oxygen instability” …baseline of 91-92% and with little exertion, dropping down to 81%. Of note, the average person will be at 97-100% oxygen (with pneumonia, asthma or moderate restrictive lung disease – 93-95%). During that acute stage, I often felt like a black curtain was coming down, as I was struggling for each breath. I actually told my sister to tell family and friends that I love them very much, as I was skeptical of a next breath, as I knew it was not guaranteed.
3. How has Long Covid changed the landscape of things?
It is now 8 months later. Although light-years better, I am still struggling with extreme fatigue and exertional shortness of breath. Gone are my exercise walks, choir, gardening, entertaining, and travel. I am still teaching remotely. My entire life has shifted course. I have been to more doctors in the last 8-months than throughout my lifetime combined. They too, are looking for the answers. Great strides are being made, however. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are leading the ‘RECOVER’ initiative for those with post acute covid sequalae (PACS). Leading hospitals throughout the country are discovering that PACS mimics chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). This discovery is made by examining the patient with an invasive cardio-pulmonary stress test. Intravenous and intra-arterial lines. Along with a facial mask, measures the exchange of oxygen at a cellular level. Medical researchers are finding that most long-haul-covid patients experience “ventilatory insufficiency”, along with “mitochondrial dysfunction” at the cellular level. This beast of a virus that we call covid, is unprecedented…meaning, because it is so new to us, we yet to have the treatment answers. That will come, though. Answers only happen in iterations of discovery. The federal government has earmarked millions of dollars for covid research. Clinical trials are unfolding all around the country. For anyone interested in digging deeper, here is just one citation and link (to begin your exploration) … [Chest. Aug 11, 2021. Persistent Exertional Intolerance After Covid-19: Insights from Invasive Cardiopulmonary Testing. Singh, Joseph, Heerdt, Cullinan, Lutchmansingh, Gulati, Possick, Systrom, Waxman]. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34389297/#:~:text=Background%3A%20Some%20patients%20with%20COVID,unexplained%20by%20conventional%20investigative%20studies.
4. What western and eastern treatments have you added to battle long Covid?
As a Nurse-Researcher, I am always asking questions and always looking for answers. When long-covid hit home…having taken up residence in my own body, completely altering my life, I made a conscious decision to approach the situation holistically. Western medicine was not enough. The twice-a-day maintenance inhaler (and prn rescue inhaler) certainly helped my breathing, but didn’t get me off the couch. I was barely functioning. Aside from the addition of strategic vitamins and nutrients such as, vitamin-D, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, bee-pollen, and eliminating inflammatory foods, I began weekly acupuncture, with expert guru Susan Dembo. It was working. I was able to take a full breath without wheezing. I could actually stand up long enough to cook a meal or do a load of laundry. Susan suggested that I contact Constance Korol, for reiki therapy. A similar feeling to acupuncture, I wasn’t quite sure ‘how’ reiki would help me…but I trusted my therapist. In my mind I was figuring…’oh, one session ought to do it’. What was I thinking? It’s been 4 months now of alternating acupuncture and reiki on a weekly basis. It is the best investment in my health that I have ever made.
5. How has energy work and trauma healing helped you in the past months?
When I met reiki expert, Constance Korol, I was faced with an exuberant, positive, confident professional. It was not until this meeting that I realized how low my energy level truly was. Quietly, I thought to myself… ‘I used to be that energetic and confident’. I left that first session feeling lighter and breathing easier. I don’t know how. In a quiet, low-lit room, with peaceful sounds of eastern music filling my senses, I lie on a table as Constance walked around me, extending her arms and hovering the palms of her hands over me. She would stop at certain points where she felt that energy was not flowing, or felt heat, or felt heaviness. Somehow, this healing worked. A cure? No, not at all. Iterations of healing? Yes. Don’t ask me the mechanisms for this type of energy work, but all I do know is that it has been a essential component of my healing process.
6. Where are you with the effects today?
I no longer feel like I am bound to the couch all day. I continue to pace my activities. The difference is that where I used to be able to handle a brief outing to the post-office or market, then be relegated to recovering from that outing for the remainder of the day, I can now do multiple errands for much longer periods of time. This past weekend, I actually hit a mile-stone. I went to a bridal shower…5-hours in total, 1-hour travel time back and forth, and 4-hours celebrating with friends. I can’t even begin to tell you how overjoyed I felt at this accomplishment. I didn’t even have to use the rescue-inhaler! Progress. Rising above the low-level energy that has kidnapped me all these months, was in itself healing. I laughed with friends. I was in the moment. I was not ‘thinking’ about my next breath. I was simply being ‘Mary’. Whoo-hoo!
7. Anything else you would like to share with the folks out there?
You owe it to yourself to invite alternative methods of healing into your life. In my mind, I keep hearing a phrase that my son has repeated to me many times over the years… “Mom, remember to put yourself in the equation”. Well, I am telling you the same thing. No matter how low your energy is right now, or how discouraged, angry, and hopeless you may feel, that this covid beast has stolen precious time from your life …take the first step. Make the phone call. Make the first appointment. That is all you have to do. The expert healers will take it from there.