FORT COLLINS — Lilly Downs rolled out of bed in her new apartment and began setting up her morning’s IV fluids, which flow from a tube in her chest into her bloodstream to keep the 20-year-old hydrated. Lilly’s journey The Denver Post has chronicled Colorado resident Lilly Downs’ experience with long COVID for three years. 2021: “She is such a puzzle”: Colorado teen’s months-long ordeal spotlights mysteries of long COVID 2022: A Colorado teen’s long COVID isn’t just persisting — after 2 years, it’s getting worse Next, she crushed and dissolved pills so they could run through a separate tube into her intestines, which absorb the medicine better than her stomach. The steps Lilly took that October morning are necessary because her stomach stopped working properly following her first bout with COVID-19 four years ago.