Anyone else experience Pulmonary Hypertension from COVID infection?

I am sorry to hear you got the Covid virus before you were fully protected by the vaccine. Welcome to Mayo Connect, where we are patients and caregivers living with many diseases and conditions.
As you may have seen from looking around here, there can be many aftereffects of Covid. Pulmonary Hypertension was one of the first long-term effects to be recognized, as early as April or May of 2020. When consulting a pulmonologist, it may be helpful to seek out one who has been regularly treating post-Covid patients, as they may have more insights to offer.
Here is an article talking about what doctors and researchers are seeing :https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7827420/
I hope someone who has had this condition after Covid will reply to you.
Sue

I have mild pulmonary hypertension diagnosed from a echocardiogram. I’ve had it for 7 years. I’m not being treated for it. I go on the 25th for my annual cardiologist appointment. I had Covid for a month. I don’t have any symptoms that seem to have worsened since Covid. A RN in a FB pulmonary hypertension group said she was just diagnosed with PH after having Covid.

At some point the correlation between covid and post symptoms has to consider how it uniquely affects you given your body, age, family history, change in life style, etc. E.G., I am at the age where after having covid, many health challenges are now more likely based on those things...Is there a basis to attribute symptoms to covid when typical diagnostics would reveal other causes?

My 40 year old daughter was an early Covid long-hauler (infected March 2020) when nothing was known about the full effects. At first she was a major puzzle to her docs, but slowly the news of long-Covid began to emerge. Her health system has an extensive post-Covid assessment and treatment program, and when she first contacted them and asked "How do I know what is from Covid and what is from something else?" they responded "It doesn't make any difference, we need to get you back to your life..."

That said, she was diagnosed post-Covid with rheumatoid arthritis, new to her, but rampant in out family. The rheumatologist said "You probably would have gotten this anyway, just later in life. Covid just revved up the process." On the other hand, she has neurological symptoms that we now know are clearly the result of her severe and prolonged Covid infection.

The philosophy is similar at Mayo - you can learn a lot here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/post-covid-recovery/

Right now, due to the exponential demand for post-Covid services, waits for an appointment just about everywhere are months, not days or weeks. Some programs have even had to close their enrollment. So, if your symptoms can be diagnosed and treated through typical channels, it is a very good idea to move forward, even if you are awaiting a post-Covid appointment. If on the other hand, everyone shakes their heads and says "the tests look normal" it's time to pursue the post-Covid avenue.

I think the bottom line is that you are right! There is a kind of blurry line between what is caused by Covid, what is accelerated by Covid, and what is caused by something else. Time and research may answer our questions.
Sue

Makes sense. Hopefully more can be learned about covid related symptoms and how to treat as other causes are ruled out and more history between covid and these issues are studied and researched. The susceptibility thing I can relate too; i.e. having issues farther in the future after having covid as 20-30 yrs after being in an accident I now face hernias in some very untypical places....

And 40 years after serious wrist injuries, that is where the most severe arthritis is attacking. And early exposure to asbestos, industrial chemicals and paper dust has led to chronic lung disease now...
Sue

I had Covid for the first time July 23, 2023. So did my husband. We had just returned from a cruise - and were exhausted. Symptoms lasted 3 weeks. Felt back to normal. I have been dealing with hypertension that was under control. Also kidney disease. Husband was recently being evaluated for possible heart issues. He has never had high blood pressure. Always perfect - until recently. We got out the BP device so he could check his BP. I checked mine to make sure it was working. It was 220/76! I hoped it was a fluke and checked it again the next day with the same results. I went to Emergency and with med changes it is now down. I have an appointment with my regular physician next week. Of course, I Googled Covid and Hypertension and I see hypertension post-covid is not uncommon. I also have some kidney damage, so I'm concerned long-term. Will this, in time, resolve itself?

@sonshining, I think you might appreciate this related discussion:
- Anyone else experience Pulmonary Hypertension from COVID infection?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pulmonary-hypertension-3/

I and my husband got COVID on a 25 night Back to Back Cruise in Rome in October 2022. We both had mild cases. After getting home in December I started getting short of breath then dizziness
Brain fog, blurry eyes. Eventually my dizziness came with sitting up also. Jan 03 2023 ended up being taken into hospital by ambulance as I couldn’t even stand my blood pressure was so high. After 5 days in hospital and every possible heart test they couldn’t find anything wrong with my heart. Then on February 3rd I passed out twice completely injuring face ribs and multiple cuts and tears.
When I pass out it’s from my Blood Pressure rising fast upon standing. After many Doctor visits I saw a Cardiologist, Neurologist, Endocrinology, ENT, Halter monitor which showed some Heart Rhythm problems and so then I saw an Electrophysiologist Cardiologist who only repairs
Rhythms of the heart and can
Use a catheter to ablate them.
He is going to implant a Loop on September 26th under my skin in the right chest. It will continuously run EKGs and they will be monitored for three months.
If anything is prominent that looks like it’s a problem then they will call and set me up for an ablation. This has been a long haul. I am 72 married for 54 years and we are a very busy couple. I haven’t driven since January and not able to do much of anything. I do not lay down or sleep during the day. I never have. I am dealing now with a rib fracture in right back ribs since August 4th. It never ends. Praying that the Electrophysiologist
will be able to fix the problem because I Completely puzzled and perplexed, not knowing what to do. Praying for everyone.

@silentfaith, how did the loop implant go last week? How are you and your husband doing?