{"id":9044,"date":"2025-08-17T09:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/?p=9044"},"modified":"2025-08-19T19:08:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:08:46","slug":"long-covid-left-her-son-with-debilitating-stomach-pain-why-its-an-uphill-battle-for-so-many-kids-to-get-treated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/news\/long-covid-left-her-son-with-debilitating-stomach-pain-why-its-an-uphill-battle-for-so-many-kids-to-get-treated\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID left her son with debilitating stomach pain. Why it\u2019s an \u2018uphill battle\u2019 for so many kids to get treated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Rebecca Lewkowicz\u2019s 10-year-old son, Ethan, first tested positive for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" lang=\"en\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">COVID-19<\/a>, the Toronto-based mom of two thought little of it&nbsp;\u2014 the boy had only minor symptoms, which went away in a matter of days.<\/p>\n<p>She had little reason to suspect the mild infection in April 2022 would soon derail Ethan\u2019s life trajectory and her plans for his future. Nor did she anticipate she would spend more than a year fighting for her son\u2019s illness to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were lucky because it only took us 13 months to be believed,\u201d Lewkowicz told the Star. \u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/opinion\/star-columnists\/long-covid-took-over-my-body-like-hurricane-milton-ravaged-florida\/article_d2b9e356-8ca7-11ef-97a6-fb205f7098de.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">People (living with long COVID)<\/a> go two, three, four years without being believed, and children even longer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ethan\u2019s struggle is an all-too-common reality for children living with long COVID,\u00a0physicians tell the Star \u2014 a constellation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/europe\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/item\/post-covid-19-condition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 200 potential symptoms<\/a> that can linger for years. Children of all ages can develop long COVID, with symptoms ranging from fatigue and brain fog to pain across various body parts and organ systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Rebecca Lewkowicz\u2019s 10-year-old son, Ethan, first tested positive for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" lang=\"en\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">COVID-19<\/a>, the Toronto-based mom of two thought little of it&nbsp;\u2014 the boy had only minor symptoms, which went away in a matter of days.<\/p>\n<p>She had little reason to suspect the mild infection in April 2022 would soon derail Ethan\u2019s life trajectory and her plans for his future. Nor did she anticipate she would spend more than a year fighting for her son\u2019s illness to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were lucky because it only took us 13 months to be believed,\u201d Lewkowicz told the Star. \u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/opinion\/star-columnists\/long-covid-took-over-my-body-like-hurricane-milton-ravaged-florida\/article_d2b9e356-8ca7-11ef-97a6-fb205f7098de.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">People (living with long COVID)<\/a> go two, three, four years without being believed, and children even longer.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/news\/long-covid-left-her-son-with-debilitating-stomach-pain-why-its-an-uphill-battle-for-so-many-kids-to-get-treated\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Long COVID left her son with debilitating stomach pain. Why it\u2019s an \u2018uphill battle\u2019 for so many kids to get treated<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96,26,18,391,11,119,868,14],"class_list":["post-9044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-canada","tag-children","tag-covid-19","tag-first-person-stories","tag-long-covid","tag-ontario","tag-pediatric-long-covid","tag-sars-cov-2","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9045,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044\/revisions\/9045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}