DS11 so exhausted can hardly get out of bed

[Pipeskeepleaking]

DS is a livewire: super fit, walks half an hour each way to school, regional level sport etc etc. Also ADHD: he doesn’t really sit still.

He’s had two ‘nothing’ viruses back to back - neither made him super ill - cold not flu type things. But he hasn’t recovered from the second. I mean REALLY hasn’t recovered. He’s completely exhausted. All day in bed today. No screens, only bits of reading (younger child books). Tears, lethargy. Still eating well.

i think I need to take him back to the GP, but what do I ask for? What might this be? I am frightened…

Please take this seriously, I'm in my 50's and had glandular fever aged 12, I never fully recovered and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in my 20's, its had a massive effect on my life and I am reliant on strong pain medication just to have any quality of life. I'm very fortunate that my parents believed me right from the beginning and dismissed the specialists who said it was in my head or that I was attention seeking. Get medical help and keep returning until you find someone to help.

Their bodies use up lots of energy during growth spurts which makes them want to sleep a little

My 12yr old went through this last year. It wasn’t Covid - post viral fatigue/illness has been around long before Covid! It was 2 months before he was back to about 60% energy/functioning/activities and about 4 months before he was 90% himself again. Nothing helped, it was just a matter of good rest, nutrition, time outside, and exercise/school when he could. It was tough as he does 2 sports at a serious level.

I should add - he was managed/supported by his GP and had blood tests done. He had a gradual return to school, and ultimately missed a decent chunk for one of the terms.

My son has just had similar. We were back and forward to the doctor. After finally getting some antibiotics he is just starting to feel better after 13 days.
Maybe go back to the gp?

Thanks all. He’s having bloods done, urine, throat swab. All his immediate markers are fine, it’s ‘just’ exhaustion.

maybe he just needs time… but it’s no fun at all for now.

;just exhaustion' - hard to believe a real doctor would allow a teenager to be so ill & normalize it too. It's not normal. Post viral fatigue exists, it always existed, always ignored by NHS, now since the pandemic, when there is a tsunami of cases, they could have used them to learn from them, help patients, teach and prevent. Prevention doesn't exist for NHS, because they don't even acknowledge covid exist.( they don't have covid tests, the cheapest, most efficient, vital diagnosis tool). If covid doesn't exist, long covid doesn't exist either. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms. Medicine progressed in the rest of the world to diagnose , help & treat...Remember 'just viral' doesn't exist either, when viruses can cause untold damage and UK has no antivirals (to qualify for antivirals, it doesn't matter how ill you are from 'just viral', you have to qualify by having certain conditions and another institution decides by 'assessing' instead of a doctor offering treatment to a sick patient). 'just exhaustion' is quite an extraordinary 'medical' diagnosis: why did they need to use the word 'just', when they could have used words like 'post viral exhaustion'. What terms did they use for his medical file?

Antibiotics for what? What diagnosis, what tests? For viral infections, antivirals help. Otherwise, the infection can run its course and the patient fights it off hopefully: when infection goes, it doesn't mean it's because of the antibiotics, it might mean that it simply run its course. When a child is ill, the first step should be to find the culprit: nasal swabs, throat swabs, antibody tests, simple tests to find out exactly what virus/bacteria makes a child sick. Not the CRP(C-reactive protein) test they do to measure inflammation in order to check for acute bacterial infections, ignoring the possibility of acute or post viral infections.

Do you mind if I ask: post viral fatigue, caused by what virus? Did they do antibody testing to rule out known viruses? NHS stopped covid antibody testing more than 1 year ago, extraordinary how an institution bins a vital test for a virus that can potentially damage any organ & causes long covid affecting 3,000,000 in 4 years. Now, it would be impossible to rule out covid post viral fatigue. In my opinion, if there are no tests to rule out covid. Serelogy tests, stool tests could have been used to check for the presence of the virus. But we don't even have PCR tests anymore, another essential medical diagnosis tool binned by NHS.. And the most shocking of them all, UK has no prevention, never wanted to advise children to get a vaccine: there is no American medical information page without advising for vaccines. At the same time NONE UK medical page mentions covid vaccines. Advising UK children to get a covid vaccine is simply unheard of. The rest of the world had no problem with protecting children against a potentially dangerous virus. UK didn't care.

Hmmm. He’s the only one of us who never had
a Covid vax (too young)…

I’m in Australia - a GP can still refer for PCR testing. DS was negative for covid on PCR testing. His original virus was influenza b and the actual virus wasn’t severe, possibly because he had already had the flu shot. He was only PCR tested as a convenience at the same time as his brother because his brother was SO ill he was hospitalised. His brother had also had the flu shot and recovered fine.

This stuff really isn’t unique to Covid

Glad he’s having the tests done.

Glandular fever was my first thought. It can really knock you for six.

ForRoseExpert - I completely agree with you. American children were vaccinated. U.K. children under 12 were not vaccinated because the government had been advised that ‘Covid is a mild illness in children’. As a result, there are many children seriously disabled by post-viral fatigue.

Pipeskeepleaking - being a mother of such a child, I would advise taking this very seriously. Prioritise total rest for weeks or even months until you are sure that he has recovered. Not resting enough & feeling pressured into school attendance runs the risk of long-term fatigue.

uk always insisted that covid is mild in children, without any evidence to support it. Of course there is now a tsunami of evidence that they will never use to trace back to covid,when they can easily blame anything else. They will never accept they made an atrocious mistake, because this means they will have to start again, when they spent the last 4 years hiding everything. While the rest of the world progresses, UK has fallen off the cliffs, but somehow no one seems to notice or care...UK managed to call the new covid hepatitis, adenovirus hepatitis. They destroyed the PHE and replaced it with the UKHSA - whose job is to do 'research' in a country that can't afford doctors and hospital beds...so any piece of research done by the real science community will be burried underneath UKHSA's 'research' that spent every minute 'reassuring' us that covid is like a cold....but somehow, no one notices or cares...

No it isn't. But covid is now everywhere and the health care community could have spent the last 4 years having their eyes, ears and hearts open...but instead, they are ready to simply normalize anything, change medicine, re-write it, learn nothing and happily watch the tragic consequences..with no remorse...no treatment, no follow ups, no monitoring, no tests...just ready to normalize it..

@Nature1nurture my son is 11 and has received the Covid vaccine.

DD had glandular fever at 12. 6 weeks in bed, staggered return to school. Still not back to previous energy levels 5 years later. It’s awful seeing your child so poorly! Sounds similar to your son. Rest is super important for recovery and not leaping back into things as soon as they feel ok.

Those of you who have had children who have had this sort of level of fatigue - is there anyone who is NOT saying rest at all costs?

I'm asking because the GP (who I don't really trust on this) said get up get moving, build up etc. etc.

And when you say rest at all costs - what does this actually mean? What did your children spend their days doing? DS has been lying in bed listening to music/radio and that's been about it. How will he/I know it's time to do more?

I'm not a child but do have long covid. I feel best when I'm resting (it's all I want to do) BUT it doesn't help me and I feel like I'm wasting my life. I'm able to do much more if I do very very gentle exercise (walking or just generally moving around the house). It's really difficult though as I struggle to find the energy to get up on the sofa/out of bed, it's OK once I'm up but I crash as soon as I sit/lie back down again.
One thing is certain, any strenuous physical exertion has terrible repercussions the following days (and can last for weeks) so definitely not a good idea.

Here in the uk they are all 'just viral' - no one cares what it is, no one tests, no one knows the most basic facts about viruses, GPs forgot the difference between bacteria - viruses and easily treat 'just viral' with antibiotics. When they don't work they give another type. When this doesn't work either, they increase the dose. In the end the 'jus viral' goes, after the patient received a few courses of antibiotics, despite tests showing no bacterial infection. This doesn't bother anyone. UK agreed to self-brainwash

A GP who never heard of long covid, who never heard about those 66,000 UK children suffering from long covid....doesn't yet know that this is the worst advice if this is long covid.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/supporting-a-child-with-long-covid--tips-from-parents-of-children-living-with-the-condition/ The science evolved about this condition in the rest of the world, besides here where GPs never heard of it. Dr Binita Kane is an amazing doctor and advocates for awareness about long covid in children, one of the very few who doesn't live in the parallel universe created by the rest of the UK healthcare community

Really? Have you any idea how long after the rest of Europe and America vaccinated theirs? Did you realize meanwhile that they took this option away from children again? Did you notice how NHS NEVER advised children to even test for covid, let alone protect or treat them when ill? Do you know how much JCVI (the vaccination committee) fought against vaccinating children? Do you know their reason? Do you know they think if children are ill with covid, this will help the immunity of adults - do you know this is the belief of British 'experts' allowed to be in charge? Do you know they refused to vaccinate children against chickenpox for the same reason? Despite America having this vaccine for 20-30 years and getting rid of Shingles in this way? Europe the same. But not UK, not the British 'experts'! These are the experts, while the rest of the country obeys and no questions are ever asked or consequences counted by NHS!

@ForRoseExpert I think you may be ranting at the wrong person. I was just saying that children under 12 could be vaccinated for Covid as my son has been.

I wasn't really getting into the debate for and against giving CV listen the vaccination or indeed testing them for it.

OP, the time to do more will be when he feels like it - at that point, he should do a lot less than he initially feels capable of. I'm an adult with long covid and this would be the single best piece of advice I would give. So many of us have found this out for ourselves and wished we'd been aware beforehand.

Strange how your GP didn't know they are all supposed to have a long covid GP and some minimum knowledge about long covid (post viral illness), instead of giving the exact opposite advice and normalizing illness in children. s