Minnesota Now

It’s the end of June, which means the Twin Cities Jazz Festival is making its yearly return to Downtown St. Paul. On June 24 and 25 a diverse array of talented musicians will take the stage at Mears Park and over 25 indoor venues across town. The whole festival is free, giving jazz fans old and new the chance to experience some of the scene’s top musicians from around the country and here in Minnesota. Steve Heckler, the Executive Director of the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, joined Cathy to talk about what’s new.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

More than 55 million people live with dementia worldwide. That number is expected to jump to 139 million in the next 30 years. All those people with dementia need care — but there’s a lot of confusion about what’s best. A new effort out of central Minnesota models a new kind of care for dementia patients and their families. It may provide a little hope for loved ones who are struggling to help. Dr. Pat Zook is the president of the Central Minnesota Dementia Community Action Network. He spoke with host Cathy Wurzer about his method of dementia care.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

More than 25 million Americans are living with lasting heart or lung problems and intense fatigue, months after COVID-19 infection.

Minneapolis woman Savannah Brooks is one of them. At 30 years old, she's been an athlete her whole life, but now she's living with long COVID — defined by the CDC as symptoms that last more than four weeks, sometimes even months, after infection.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full conversation using the audio player above.

I caught COVID at the end of April, April 22. And I had one week of all of your classic COVID symptoms, I had a really bad cough, sore throat, runny nose, I was nauseous, I had a bit of a fever. And then after a week, all those symptoms started to clear up and I thought I was getting better.

A week after that, so two weeks after I got COVID, I was going for a walk with my boyfriend and made it about four or five blocks, and had to sit down or I was going to faint. And he had to carry me home. And it took about 45 minutes for me to be able to support my own weight again. So obviously, that was pretty scary.

I reached out to my doctor about it. And in the time it took for me to get in to see a post-COVID clinic doctor, it happened a couple more times. It was a few weeks-long process of trying to figure out what was actually going on, what long COVID had actually created within my body, which I have just recently found out is POTS, which stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.

And so for me, the complications that long COVID has caused is, I have blood pressure issues. So when I'm standing up, my blood pressure plummets, which in turn makes my heart rate speed up really fast to try and get blood back to my brain. And that can cause me to pass out. It causes just really severe fatigue. So at about 1 p.m. every day, I'm pretty much totally wiped. And probably the hardest thing is I can't walk or stand for very long without risking passing out. So I can walk a few blocks, maybe, but that's about it.

Yes, I was. I was a boxing instructor. I haven't been doing that, obviously, since I caught COVID. And I've been training in some sort of fighting form, some sort of combat sport, for a little over a decade. And I started playing soccer when I was like 5 and played that all through high school and played lacrosse through high school.

This is probably the longest I've ever gone without some sort of physical pursuit, you might say, whether that be running a race or just going to the gym regularly.

You know, it's pretty tough. For most of my life, I've suffered from depression. And so exercise is really how I've managed to keep a handle on that. That was really my main coping mechanism, that on top of not being able to exercise to alleviate some of that has definitely been hard. When I've talked to my therapist about it, it's really just a matter of finding new coping mechanisms. But when you've had a coping mechanism you've used for two decades, it's hard to move on past that.

Yep, I was boosted in January. So it's about a four month breakthrough. But you know, it's pretty common. It's kind of tough, because for a lot of people, their breakthrough cases feel fairly mild. And so that was really the consensus, at least that certainly was in April when I got COVID, was this idea of “Yeah, you'll probably get COVID, but it's going to be fine. It'll be like having bad allergies, or it'll be like a cold and then you'll be okay.”

And for some people, that certainly is true, but that doesn't mean that you're not going to have complications later. For POTS, this affects my central nervous system and my heart, which are two things that you really, really don't want to be affected. And that doesn't mean it's not going to happen to other people, that they're going to have central nervous system issues or heart issues. Even if the week or so they have COVID seems pretty mild.

No, they were very responsive. And at this point, a lot of the complication factors they've seen for a while. So when I got in to a post COVID clinic, they had a lot of that research already, I wasn't one of the very first people, which was certainly helpful. And then when I went in and saw my cardiologist similarly he was able to say, “This is what we're seeing in a lot of post-COVID patients. And this is most likely what you have.” And so then to test based on that.

Yeah, I work from home. And luckily I work with really, really great people, I work at the Loft Literary Center in downtown Minneapolis. And so I can really create my own schedule. But I have pretty massively cut down on hours. And I'm planning on taking long-term disability, which has been really fun to try and figure out since COVID, is, you know, fairly new and all the complications from COVID.

At 1 or 2 p.m. each day I'm pretty much totally wiped, it's really hard for me to think. That's when the brain fog comes back. I forget words a lot, it's really hard for me to multitask. Answering emails can feel like this Herculean effort. So luckily, I've been able to cut back where I'm not working very often in the afternoon, but again, you know, that's sort of a privileged position to be in.

I'm hopeful I will. The prognosis is typically a few months. So whether that's on the shorter end of it being, you know, maybe four months until I can do relative activity again, or six or seven months, no one can really tell me.

Researchers aren't totally sure, at least from what my cardiologist is telling me, why POTS starts up after COVID. And then also how long it takes for people to get past it. It's really just a bunch of lifestyle changes that you're trying to reset your central nervous system into controlling your your blood pressure and your heart rate correctly once more. And so how long that takes for each individual person is different.

We're all very tired of living in a pandemic. And it's definitely hard, right? It's hard. To keep masking, it's hard to stay vigilant, it's hard to not be in large groups of people. And I certainly fell into that mindset of, “I'm young, I'm really healthy. If I get COVID, it's probably going to be fine.” And I was very wrong. And it really, really wasn't worth that.

Despite sounding fairly chipper in interviews, this is extremely difficult and has been extremely difficult, and will continue to be extremely difficult. And nobody wants to go through it. I was incredibly healthy and had no underlying factors. And so for people who do have underlying factors, this can be so much worse. This can be really debilitating. And I would consider only being able to walk a couple of blocks debilitating, but for some people, they can't even do that.

So I'd say just as much as you can stay vigilant. Certainly try. And if you do get COVID, don't be afraid to reach out to your doctors to go in and get testing just to make sure that you don't have any of these extenuating conditions because the faster you catch them, the faster you can act on them. And that can make all the difference.

“Conjure” means to make something appear, almost like it was magic.

Today, regular Wednesday guest Dr. Joi talks with a woman who uses dance and other movement to conjure the best possible outcome.

Dr. Joi Lewis is a community healer, speaker, and author of the book “Healing: The Act of Radical Self-Care” and founder of Joi Unlimited and the Healing Justice Foundation. Today she is speaking with DejaJoelle, a Twin Cities-based dancer and healer.

This is an extended version of their radio conversation.

We hear about a possible COVID-19 vaccine for young children, explore a meditation with Dr. Joi Lewis and get a weather update from Paul Huttner. Plus: we catch up with a Grandma's Marathon winner ahead of this year's marathon, and hear about a new podcast exploring Hmong culture in America.

Grandma’s Marathon is this weekend in Duluth. Ahead of the big race, we thought we’d talk with one of the marathon’s most well-known champions – Dick Beardsley.

Beardsley, a Minnesota native, is known across the state for winning the 1981 and 1982 Grandma’s Marathon. He is also a best-selling author, motivational speaker and fishing coach in Minnesota. He joined Cathy Wurzer from his fishing boat in Bemidji.

The Twin Cities hit 96 degrees yesterday. That’s just the appetizer.

Warmer weather is in store this weekend. MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner gives Cathy Wurzer an update about what’s in store.

“Conjure” means to make something appear, almost like it was magic.

Today, regular Wednesday guest Dr. Joi talks with a woman who uses dance and other movement to conjure the best possible outcome.

Dr. Joi Lewis is a community healer, speaker, and author of the book “Healing: The Act of Radical Self-Care” and founder of Joi Unlimited and the Healing Justice Foundation. Today she is speaking with Twin cities based dancer and healer, Dejajoelle.

Today an FDA committee is asking an independent panel of experts to weigh in on whether the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are safe and effective for young children. The key meeting could determine whether there may finally be a COVID-19 vaccine for kids under the age of 5.

Joe Kurland is a vaccine specialist and infection preventionist at Children’s Minnesota. He joined host Cathy Wurzer talk about the FDA meeting and what parents and caregivers need to know.

Hmonglish is a new podcast exploring Hmong culture in America. Hosts Yia Vang — a James Beard-nominated chef — and Gia Vang — a journalist and news anchor — joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the podcast, growing up Hmong in America, and recent career highlights for each of them.