Doctors couldn't help these COVID-19 patients with their endless symptoms. So they turned to one another.

But she did not get better, and doctors' suggestions — to rest and take a prescription cough medicine — did not help.So she joined a Facebook coronavirus support group on a friend's suggestion, and felt instantly validated: People from all over the world were describing fevers that lasted for weeks, fatigue that wouldn't go away and a roller coaster of emotions as they coped with the unknowns of the novel illness, just as she was."That was huge, because I felt so alone at the time, and nobody was helping me," English, whose fever lingered for 31 days, said.COVID-19 is as mystifying as it is isolating. "We understand."Survivor Corps is among the biggest of such Facebook groups, but it is far from the only one: More than 4.5 million people have joined 4,000 U.S.-based COVID-19 support groups, according to Facebook.While medical professionals generally warn against relying on health information found online, in this case, some doctors have been open to crowd-sourced ideas — especially as symptoms of the coronavirus persist for some patients.Dr. Ashley Stoecker, a family medicine doctor with the Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group, joined a Facebook group, Long Haul COVID Fighters, at the suggestion of one of her patients who had been struggling with symptoms for weeks.She posted a survey in the group to gather data about symptoms, duration of illness, and whether patients had tested positive or negative for COVID-19."Seeing my patients suffering for as long as they are and feeling like I don’t have anything to do for them is really difficult."The goal has been to "learn from the people experiencing these things on a day-to-day basis to see if there are things that can help us put together a picture in a puzzle that we don't have answers for at this point," Stoecker said.This site is protected by recaptcha Privacy Policy | Terms of Service"We are basically just treating the symptoms, because we don't have clear studies that have shown what can be helpful," she said.