Covid Lungs Week 7/Day 49 and onwards

[Dandyish]

Support thread for those who've had Covid symptoms or post-viral fatigue for at least 7 weeks/49 days or longer.

If your symptoms haven't lasted that long, check out the Lung 7 thread (or later).It'll be more helpful as people there will be in a more similar position.

@Needsomegoodnews So sorry you are still not feeling 100%.
This is so upsetting for all of us. I keep asking for stories of those who feel like they have finally shifted this for good but haven’t heard anything good for a while. I’m so low both physically and mentally. I kind of feel at times like my willpower tells my body to come on, you’re stronger than this, get it out - but it’s just not happening.

It’s a long slow road to recovery. I find now I can be up for an hour or so pottering feeling okay and then I need to rest. If I stay up and try to have a normalish day then I’m shattered. ditto exercise.

I agree @moominmamma33. We should have had a short, sharp lockdown. Its not like we didn’t have any warning. The Head of DD’s school got google classroom sorted/teacher training in place and done and dusted so that on day one they were ready to distance learn. She did it all because she announced to staff that they had to be prepared for shut down once the virus spread out of China. If our Head saw what’s coming, and prepared, how the hell could the scientist and government get it so wrong? I’m fed up with the ‘we followed the science’ mantra. Its not like all scientist agreed. The government was responsible for their decisions, for not having PPE when they were warned years ago, for not being prepared, and for not taking quick action. I’m so bloody cross. Now thousands have died, our economy is in ruins, and the government seems to leak ideas and then backtrack. Its a shambles.

@Moominmamma33 normal adult resting pulse is 60-100 but usually more towards the lower end in younger people I think (I am middle-aged and take asthma meds which raise it and mine was around 70 pre-covid).

Has anyone who was still getting significant symptoms at day 49 got fully better?

Normal BPM should be between 60 to 90 beats per minute. When you're poorly it often goes up.
I'm feeling shaky and panicky today, I feel OK when I lie down and my pulse drops back down to around 80 fairly quickly, if I sit up its around 100, and the palpitations and chest burn are back.

Lying down today my pulse is 91 but it goes up to 115 if I walk the short distance to the kitchen.

@Wheresthebeach Absolutely. It was the fortnight when they should have immediately locked down, but instead allowed mass events like football matches and the Cheltenham racing festival to go ahead... We lost the advantage that we might have had of being a couple of weeks behind Italy and now we've overtaken them in deaths and new cases. @Moodgie, I feel the same, fed up and scared! Trying to stay optimistic of some kind of breakthrough study or discovery of a useful treatment or something, I am so very grateful to be alive, but desperately want to be an active person again, or at least a promise I will be able to be so at some point. I am only 34...

@Egghead68 I’m day 64 and feel pretty much stuck with things coming and going. Also desperate to hear some positive stories from contributors here.

@Moominmamma33 For now, I just want to feel fine. I don’t think running is on the cards this year at all. Just want to be able to go for walk with my son and the dog.

Thanks @Egghead68 @Crayfishforyou. Fitbit says mine is 62 resting and about 100-105 when walking, so think that is ok at least today! Sorry to hear about your symptoms.

Does anxiety make it any worse for anyone else? I noticed yesterday when I got stressed my breathing was worse.

Also has anyone else not really told many people about this in case they don't believe it's Covid?

Last question, I have access to a test now but it's impossible to be positive still at 7 weeks, isn't it?

Sorry to hear many are still suffering, but really glad to hear some are making progress. I'm much the same and can't face much typing so I'll just leave this here. Lots of love and get well soon thoughts to you all

@Moominmamma33 I haven’t told many. Told my work (although as no one else has had it there’s no understanding of it so I’m still struggling to keep up with some work from home) and a couple of friends (who are probably bored of the are you aren’t you getting better thing).

@Egghead68 I keep wanting to find someone who is completely better after a long bout but it seems lots post they are better for a bit and later come back with a relapse (myself included). My temp is back up now and I’m absolutely gutted as that finally staying down was a real positive indicator for me..

@SimpleKindofLife - great pic, I have that book and could probably do with looking through it for some positivity right now!

@needsomegoodnews Same here about telling work and friends. I’m gonna call my line manager (school) on Monday I think to explain why I have not contributing anything at all or done any CPD.

I think what frightens me is whether this will become my ‘new normal’. I do a sport I’m desperate to get back to, but its high intensity and I’m scared I won’t be able to do it this year at all with the way things are going. I realise there is no reason in thinking that way, as it doesn’t help but its really hard when there is so little guidance out there. If I listen to my GP then end of June I should hopefully be mostly recovered (she said 3 months). That’s for someone who didn’t need anything but antibiotics.

What I find most disconcerting is the burning sensation in my chest.

@wheresthebeach I’m starting my 10th week now, so I’m in my third month. Have you got any more details from you GP about the 3 month mark?

@Wheresthebeach yesterday the doctor told me that they just don't have enough information to tell me if my lungs will get back to pre-Covid levels. I slept through last night for the first time in soooo long after using my inhaler.
Hopefully I won’t need it eventually (never had an respiratory issues prior) but for now I’m happy to have something that seems to help!

@Moodgie I’m afraid not. I spoke to her under the heading of ‘I’m still sick and surely this can’t be right’ heading and she said 3 months recovery is ‘par for the course’, that she’d been speaking to people who were week 12 and still coughing.

She told me if I get worse to call back, but otherwise it’s a long, slow recovery for many people and they can advise nothing other than rest and to call if it takes a turn for the worse. I’ve no desire for a lung X-ray, I don’t think I want to know if there’s long term damage as nobody can do anything about it. I just want to work on my fitness. I’ve quite bad asthma and get regular chest infections so I suspect this is going to take a bit of time. Mind you, my peak flow is finally getting back to ‘normal’ so that’s a good thing. I’m lucky that DH is supportive, and keeps telling me to rest and recoup. I’m finding I can do something, like shopping, but then I need to go to bed for an hour or so to recover.

@Serialcatmum Glad the puffer helped. I’m convinced my DH had it at Christmas. He never gets sick but at end December he got the flu. He was so sick, in bed for over 2 weeks with chest pains. I gave him one of DD’s old spacers, and told him if Ventolin didn’t help his chest then I was calling the GP. He used Ventolin for the first, and only time in his life and it helped. When he went back to work after nearly 3 weeks his boss sent him home as he looked so awful. Luckily DH can wfh so his boss told him do that until he was recovered.

it's impossible to be positive still at 7 weeks, isn't it?

I think it's more that it's incredibly unlikely rather than impossible. There were cases in Korea of people testing positive long after initial infection that prompted fears of reinfection/reactivation that turned out to be the PCR tests detecting large fragments of dead virus. So it could happen that you'd get a positive at 7 weeks but it would be a rare occurrence.

@alittleprivacy Could our bodies be finding these parts of virus and reacting to it still? Explaining the symptoms?

@Moominmamma33 your pulse sounds perfect to me, not that I have any proper knowledge.

Thanks for the replies about symptoms after day 49. Sorry for everyone that there don’t seem to be any positive stories (yet at least). I have come across at least 2 people with symptoms after the 3 month mark too.

@ShastaBeast Is anyone’s cycle going nuts? I’m having periods every 16-20 days when normal is 40+ days. I’m also very bloated in my upper abdomen and wondering if it’s diastasis recti from the heavy coughing fits.

I've been wondering about this. I had my period when I first started having symptoms. That period actually came a week early and I wondered if it was actually triggered by the infection taking hold. My next period was 10 days late, was horrendous and I think set back my recovery. And as of yesterday, I've been having sore breasts as if my period is coming even though I only had it two weeks ago. I'll be gutted if it comes now as I need another couple of weeks of recovery before it hits and sets me back again!

Other than that, I feel my symptoms are in the same general area as yours except maybe a bit worse. Overall I feel mostly okay apart from a bit hayfeverish with congestion and sore throat. (I never really noticed hayfever before but I guess that with my weakened state right now any vulnerability is heightened. As well as the fact that if I had a bit of congestion/sore throat last year I wouldn't have paid attention.) But I did my max of exercise for a few days this week, two short walks a day (I'm in Ireland where this is allowed) plus a gentle stretch or lung strength session. And the burning sternum feeling has returned. It's like a cross between heartburn and costochondritis. The thing is, most of the time how I'm feeling isn't too bad. It's just that I know that any uptick of activity is enough to set me right back.

So I'm going to have a very, very restful day today. I also have a migraine starting, so I've just taken a cocodamol that I had left over from a period of bad migraines 2 years ago.

@Egghead68
What is the general idea about walks? My back hurts today and arms and just wonder if it is all due to inactivity and tension so I’m thinking a walk might be beneficial but at the same time don’t want to relapse.

@Moodgie Could our bodies be finding these parts of virus and reacting to it still? Explaining the symptoms?

That's what I'm wondering but I don't know if that's how our immune systems work or not. I wish I could ask an immunology expert (preferably one from Korea!). If it is what's happening it gives some justification to the three month idea as the cells in our respiratory system have a three month half-life so those dead fragments could be hanging around at least that long.