Anyway, I was planning on talking with her about something else, and I started with the conversation opener "How are you holding up?" (or something similar). Her response was that her chest is sore, and she's starting to get worried. As I had been preparing for a different conversation, her response confused me, and I asked what she meant. She said that she hasn't felt right since she got COVID, and that her chest has started to feel worse later. I recommended that she get checked by a doctor as that sounded serious.
And I've been a bit shaken since then. She's seemed normal, if a bit stressed, despite her encounter with the disease. That she's still dealing with the damage from COVID does not bode well for someone like me who is already dealing with high blood pressure and Type II diabetes (both of which are mostly under control right now).
Recent studies now demonstrate that COVID is more of a vascular disease than a pulmonary one. They are finding that it causes pneumonia by the weakening of vascular tissue, causing bronchial passages to fill with seepage. However, this explains the heart and kidney damage which this causes as well. It also explains why people with high blood pressure (which puts more force on vascular tissues) and diabetes (which thickens the blood) can contribute to COVID doing even more damage.
I suppose that I've thought that I'm young enough with lungs in good enough of shape that COVID would likely affect me only moderately, if at all. I suppose I was still thinking of it, due to many of its symptoms, as just a stronger version of the flu (even stronger than the "man flu" that hits me from time to time). Now, knowing that a friend of mine is still dealing with chest pain months later, I'm not as sure that I will survive this unscathed.
As I've already been taking precautions out of respect for other people, this revelation does not change much for me. I'm going to continue using good sense, practicing mitigation, and putting myself in God's hands (I don't need to be socially distant from Him). May people work together to slow the passing of this disease until a cure can be found.