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.

My positive for the day is that I walked 200 steps and my pulse stayed below 100! First time in ages.

@Dandyish Just caught up on your later posts. I hope your DH is doing ok this morning. Can only echo what others have said re 111. They seem much less inundated lately and so hopefully you will be able to speak with a doctor quickly if you need to. Good luck and wishing you both all the best

@Egghead68 This is great news! Thanks for sharing Gives lots of us hope. When you consider that recovery from pneumonia can take 6 months, it's still early days. So it's great that you're seeing progress.

Hello, sorry to hear you are all suffering so much... a quick question. My husband is just coming up in 7 weeks - he's mid-30's m, fit (marathon running fit) and no underlying health conditions. He was very ill but not hospitalised so I guess had a 'moderate' case. He's back working and able to wfh. Still suffering some fatigue and throat pain but chest pain etc went a couple of weeks ago. BUT- his toes have suddenly swollen up and feel really hot with strange small swellings - almost like frostbite - I've read that it can be a symptom and wondered if any of you have experienced similar and found anything that helps? It came on after he attempted some exercise - a quick bike ride - if that sheds any light...
Such an awful illness, I've never seen him anything like this 😢

@adag sounds exactly like COVID toes but a bit worrying as it suggests that there is still some virus alive in his body. Or could this happen as an immune over-response to dead virus (anyone know)?

Anyway, the advice is to rest, rest and rest some more so maybe he should try that for a couple more weeks. And try speaking to his gp (who may or may not be completely useless).

Thanks @Valsemove. I don’t think of it as progress though as it will probably be up again tomorrow.

@adag yes that is covid toe and is a known symptom. Having learnt the hard way I would recommend that your husband cuts back on the exercise for now - it can trigger relapses.

@adag my DH has the covid toes still at approx 8 weeks in. His came after a run in the early days when he wasn't feeling unwell (i was). Nothing seems to get rid of them but he hasn't seen a Dr.

I am almost 9 weeks into this now. I am much much improved but still not 100%. Most days I feel 7/10 now, sometimes 6/10 and sometimes 8/10. I can't exercise at all other than a short walk or yoga but I can do all house stuff, look after kids, potter around just find without generally feeling unwell. I get more tired than usual, I have an hour sleep after lunch every day. I am much better than I was 2 weeks ago even but I have just had to rest and accept this will take months to fully recover from and there are set backs. I am 38, was previously fit (ran twice a week, other fitness stuff). Main symptoms now at this point are chest aches and pains, costochondiritis pain, lymph node pain on and off and palpitations (but these are reducing). Oh and fatigue and headaches, they come and go but are more manageable than they were.

P.s. @adag we have noticed on this thread that lots of us with prolonged symptoms seem to have been very fit beforehand. Theories are (a) we start exercising too quickly which causes relapses and prolonged symptoms and/or (b) we perhaps would have the severe disease but our fitness has protected us so we “only” got it mild to moderately.

@longshot great to hear. I’m around 10 days behind you and can’t imagine being that well at the moment. Maybe one day!

@porcupineinwaiting thanks - really hope he isn't still infectious - we were so careful to isolate him totally for 3 weeks as we have a 4 year old at home and a (now) 3 month old ... I can't imagine trying to breastfeed mad cope with the sleep deprivation and have covid...

Thanks @Egghead68 and @longshot - sounds like it may have been the exercise that triggered it - hope you are feeling better soon

Does anyone have a strange symptom in which it feels like they are exuding tiny particles of glass through their skin?? This is not the same as the mild sunburn-like symptom, which I have also had and which seems to have mostly gone away now.

I'm kind of hoping that it might be some sort of 'detox' symptom - maybe excreting toxins/dead virus through my skin?? - especially as I had an episode of it yesterday evening when my tummy was bloated/churning.

@Egghead68 what day are you on now? I think this is day 61 for me. I have been mostly improving for a good week i would say. Prior to that i had a blip early last week and felt rotten but not as bad as I did weeks 1-7!

Today I am tired and that is because I maybe did too much yesterday. I don't think for me it's the physical exertion so much but the amount I am now doing in a day, so my brain and body gets tired if that makes sense. I did a few house jobs, worked an hour, two short walks, yoga and put shopping away, cleaned kitchen. I felt fine doing it all day but am now tired today so will rest and not do so much. It seems to be like this. Some days I can do more and others I can't but generally I can function and not feel dreadful. There is no way I could work full time or even my usual part time at the moment. Max is 1-2 hours a day but I do have kids home which makes it harder! My DH has been off work for 2 months and is back next week (at home) but I am dreading that.

@adage my gp swears to me that we are not infectious at this point but wasnt clear if that meant there were no low levels of virus left. I think/hope not but I am still getting symptoms (albeit mildly) rather than "just" fatigue.

@longshot So great to hear! What were your symptoms when you had a blip?
I still have nausea and funny tummy mornings, fluctuating fatigue and the last few days a small activity would make me feel like someone is pushing against my chest and affected my breathing.

@Dandyish so sorry to hear about your DH. What a worry for you! Hoping it's just a 24 V&D big.

@adag yes I had Covid toes - try not to scratch them as they bleed heavily (well mine did). I found aloe Vera gel soothed them.

The blip was around day 50-53 I had palpitations, raised HR again and heavy chest and headaches. The headaches lasted a week actually but the other things went after about day 53 I think. It wasn’t terrible but I spent each afternoon in bed resting again on those three days. The raised HR makes me feel awful.

I haven’t had any GI issues of note. I do get a bit of IBS like stuff related to my hormones so it’s been very difficult for me to know what related to the virus or just usual for me. It’s not been significant so probably just the normal stuff for me I think. I do have to take iron supplements so I think they would have helped any dodgy tummy feelings for me anyway.

@Moodgie and yes fatigue, plenty of that!

dandyish Hope your DH is okay.

Day 54

I've been awake most of the night with terrible stomach pain and bloating. It was making it hard to breathe.
I think it was caused by the dinner we had last night. I try and limit my carb intake, I used to be pre diabetic,but managed to go back to within normal range by moderate carbing ( more than low carb,but watching the amount in a day.iyswim)

DD/DS wanted a change of dinner, so I made toad in the hole for them.
I only had a small amount, I don't eat big meals anyway.
I feel bunged up and bloated. It's not constipation as I'm still having a dodgy tummy in the mornings.

So I'm going to go back to watching what I eat.
I've been less cautious the last couple of weeks as I hardly ate anything for four weeks. Lived off of chicken soup.

I'm going to have a walk around the garden shortly to see if I can shift the wind.(sorry tmi).

I'm going back to my salads,homemade soups and white meat diet.
I can't even stomach eggs at the moment and I usually have them for breakfast/brunch.

While I'm talking about food is anyone else having cravings.

I have a thing for beetroot (plain cooked),radishes,cucumber, peppers,blueberries and apples.

I've put it down to my body trying to repair itself.

@longshot I am day 51/52. You are doing a lot! I am managing to work around 2 hours a day (4 on one really good day) and walk 1000 steps most days but that’s pretty much it.

Moan alert: why is it that everyone but everyone says “have you had the test yet?” when you say your symptoms are ongoing. It’s like the automatic reaction is to not believe you have it rather than concern for your welfare. End moan.

@longshot Thank you. I am wondering if my IBS has been triggered by this. It is the longest I have had it like that though, like clockwork.
Spoke to another GP now, he seems to think post viral. Blood tests were fine - they did liver and kidney which were fine and all the white blood counts that would be raised with viral and bacterial infection are fine.

Have been really struggling the last couple of days with breathlessness and palpitations (my heart rate isn't particularly fast just feels very erratic) it's all making me feel quite unwell and miserable though. I really suffer with insomnia which is extra awful at the moment due to medication so I'm sure that's not helping. My asthma is feeling a but better though..finished the course of steroids yesterday so hopefully it'll remain better once they are out of my system.
Hope everyone is having a better day!

@Tangledyarn that sounds grim and the steroids might have made you feel extra-ropey too. I am glad your asthma is a bit better today. Hopefully you will sleep a bit better at least once the steroids are out of your system.

The hospital just rung me and my antibodies has come back negative ! Such a massive blow. There is no way I can contemplate going through this again if it’s a similar virus 😑

@Wingingit15 Did they definitely say it was an antibody test?

Antigen result (different to an antibody test) will normally show negative after, say, 5 days of symptoms.

My antigen test result was negative at 7 weeks.

@Wingingit15
Sorry I have not read the full post but had you tested positive for covid-19 originally