A year ago, Sandy Choiniere was so weak from long COVID, she couldn’t hold her 20-month-old daughter in her arms while standing.

Today, she feels functional, but only because she’s being careful, listening to her body and resting when she needs to. “I sometimes still feel like a 35-year-old woman in the body of a 70-year-old lady,” she says. “Sometimes I have to cancel plans I have with friends because I am too tired,” something that has been hard to accept.

Ms. Choiniere is one of the Canadians who shared their stories of long COVID with The Globe and Mail in 2023. Twelve months later, we followed up to see how they’re doing.

Of the 11 people who responded, one was doing worse, spending 23 hours a day in a darkened room and wearing ear plugs most of the time. Five were doing about the same, with one saying she still felt like a living corpse. Four said they were doing better, with one saying he felt more like himself now than at any time in the past two years. And one person said she was about 90-per-cent recovered, having been told by doctors that what is left will likely be chronic and need to be managed for the rest of her life.

They’re only 11 of the estimated 3.5 million (and counting) Canadian adults who reported experiencing long-term symptoms following a COVID-19 infection.