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.

mittens I found the nausea worse when I hadn't eaten.
For the first 4 weeks I lived off soup.
I found eating little and often helped the nausea and the GERD.

Has anyone watched the programme called Hospital on BBC2? It was on Monday and yesterday evening, 2 episodes on coronavirus.

Interesting to note they targeted O2 Sats at 90-94% which is below the bottom of the normal range (94% to 100%). This was due to preserve oxygen supply and apparently a policy decision across London during the peak of the virus. Under normal circumstances, allowing people home with sats below 94% wouldn’t happen.

Yes - it was pretty desperate measures when the oxygen had to be rationed. They said otherwise there was a risk the oxygen would just cut out for everyone which doesn’t bear thinking about. A really good documentary I thought.

Thanks everyone and many thanks @sweetie60 - I am sorry I missed/couldn’t remember your original post. Your problem sounds similar to mine.

A bit more info from the doctor I saw, in case it is useful (but I think we all know lots of it). He said the virus can raise troponin in the blood and levels can be very slow to come down (mine remains mildly elevated at the same level). From his observations the symptoms last 6-8 weeks but people are still far from normal at that point and have a further protracted recovery period with marked fatigue.

@Mittens030869 @Rosesofeyam I have nausea and toilet rush in the mornings. Have had it for about 3-4 weeks I think. I am in my 10th week now, and I’m just hoping it is my systems being thrown out of sync, with IBS-type issues in the past.

Hi all, I'm at day 53. Bit of an up and down day - I think taking ibuprofen and not leaving the house at all has got my chest/back inflammation under control. I haven't experienced the usual pains across my ribs so far which is wonderful. Hopefully a week or so of very limited exertion will calm it all down. On the other hand, I've had a bad cough for a couple of days which occasionally produces white/clear salty spit, my throat is more sore than ever, my sister tells me my voice has changed and today it hurts to talk. Also, I have a different chest pain, just to the right of the oesophagus - painkillers aren't affecting it, it feels a bit like that burst of pain you get when you have a mouth ulcer and some food scrapes it. Worried that acid reflux and/or ibuprofen have given me an ulcer down my gullet. But DH says it's in the wrong place and must be muscular. It just doesn't feel muscular. Chances of getting an endoscopy must be nil for the forseeable future. Feels like it's whack-a-mole with the symptoms. Before this started I was on no medication. Now I take 1 blood pressure tablet, 2 PPIs, 2 ibuprofen tablets, 2 lots of ibuprofen gel, 2-4 paracetamol, 4 lots of cough medicine, 1 lot of Gavascon and vitamin D every day. My bathroom looks like a branch of Boots.

@Moodgie thanks for sharing that info, definitely relevant and helpful. Explains a lot!

@Rosesofeyam really interesting to read your diagnosis as that's basically what I've gathered about what I've been struggling with, except that the horse's mouth has been a bit difficult to open! I wouldn't take the steroids the GP suggested because of my osteoporosis. I've had problems with them in the past. But if there was really no choice I'd take them. Hoping the doxycycline will be enough for me. I'm not asthmatic, although I was once prescribed a blue inhaler when I was being investigated by the chest clinic a few years ago. Have barely touched it though, I've been lucky.

@Egghead68 thanks for sharing your GP's perspective, it's really helpful and reassuring I feel easier knowing I'm very likely to recover based on similar symptom profiles and timeframes, and I hope posts like yours also help @Crayfishforyou because she has been really struggling recently

@Linus1972 that sounds uncomfortable and distressing. Perhaps try cutting down on the PPIs - I've always found them very aggressively side-effecty and stopped using them very quickly whenever I was prescribed them. Instead, when my reflux is bad I take Probio 7 Advanced formula once a day, twice if I'm really struggling. They work like magic for me and no nasty side effects. If you think about it, in a relatively short space of time you've gone from taking nothing to taking all sorts of meds on a daily basis while your body is also struggling with viral and then post-viral symptoms which are hard enough in themselves. Just a suggestion but try gradually cutting back on what and how much you're taking, see if it makes a difference to that pain near your oesophagus. Hope you feel better very soon.

@baroqueandblue thanks for those kind words. I've been agonising over whether to stop the PPIs. I'm using them as insurance against getting a stomach ulcer with the ibuprofen but have been getting gas a lot every evening for the last week or so and am wondering if they're reducing my stomach acid too much. But on the other hand, I can still hear my stomach gurgling at night in bed and can taste that horrible taste (water brash). I've found probiotics useful in the past and tried them for a while a few weeks ago but they didn't seem to make a lot of difference this time. I might try to cut down the dose very gradually and see if it helps.

I really feel I can't take any more of this - no idea what day I'm on but symptoms started just after the lockdown. Symptoms keep coming and going but by far the worst is the horrible feeling in my lungs and the breathlessness. I am also hot one minute and cold the next. Have periods where I'm not too bad and other periods when I am so exhausted I can hardly do anything. Phoned 111 who first of all said they thought I had Covid 19. Phoned again about symptoms and they weren't interested. Managed to get a phone consultation with doctor who says it is post viral. I'm at my wits end. I am working from my bed at the moment covered in vicks rub and taking pain killers. Will this ever end? No underlying health problems by the way.

Does anyone know of crackling in your lungs can continue after viral infection has passed? I'm no longer bringing up pleghm and hardly coughing, oxygen is fine but feel so breathless and can hear crackles in my lungs when I lie down. Have loads of inflammation. GP totally unconcerned when I spoke to him about it this morning...

Moodgie. Actually now that I think about it, I'm nauseous in the evening and not the morning. I've been trying to work out what I can and can't eat, but it might be the case that it has more to do with the time of day. Similar to my temperature, which has tended to go up in the afternoon or evening.

Sadly my temperature went up again this afternoon, only to 37.6 but higher than it's been for a few days now.

Also feel sick with a splitting sore head.

Thank you @Egghead68 and @baroqueandblue
I am, for the sake of my wits, at the moment limiting myself to covid success stories only. Most of them are 8/9 weeks. If that is true for me then only a week or two for me and I can start to build myself up again. I would love that.
I had a better morning, in that I didn't feel horrendous and bpm was behaving. Then I stupidly tried to heave a too heavy parcel and the chest pain was like fire. The bad demons entered my head and I've had to lie down for an hour. Thank god for dd being ok on an iPad as DH is back to work now.
I can't stop bursting into tears. I don't know if it is a symptom or I'm finally cracking up!
My DM thinks she's being helpful by telling me I will adapt to not being able. I've snapped and told her my job involves running up and down stairs, carrying heavy loads. I cycled everywhere, I ran three times a week, did yoga almost every day and silks and dance on top. How exactly does one adapt to that?
I've also snapped at DH and told him anxiety doesn't cause pneumonia, costochondritis or GERD.
I actually feel a little better for it!
I'm still white and laid on the sofa. But I do have clean hair, shaved legs and a posh jumper on.

@Crayfishforyou You're really not alone in how you're feeling. Because it feels like there's no end in sight, doesn't it? It's playing havoc with my mind as well, with the 'false dawns' and then relapses. My temperature went up again this afternoon, which is very discouraging.

It's not surprising that a lot of us are feeling down, it's a form of psychological torture. Please be kind to yourself, it's understandable that you feel low.

Too true @Mittens030869
I'm so not used to being either incapacitated or sad.

To everyone.
This sucks.

baroque thank you for answering my question about the pneumonia symptoms a couple of pages back- that sounds awful. I don’t have the resting breathlessness or productive cough; just the right feeling sometimes, breathlessness on exertion and the chest pain.

I have been on Sertraline since February, but was on it previously for a couple of years with no side effects.

@planetcloud and @mumlurker and anyone with breathlessness- I've just spoken to a respiratory nurse from the British Lung Foundation. She advised that they are seeing pneumonia like changes in the respiratory passages/lungs of Covid patients. These can take up to 6 months to recover. She advised that it's very important to keep moving (not exercising) even if breathless.

There are some breathing exercises on lifeofbreath.org. She also advised everyone, if they have the time, to fill in the survey at post-covid.org.uk. This will inform Govt policy hopefully going forward. I let rip on the survey about the lack of medical/rehab support for those who are not hospitalised but are still very poorly. She also advised plenty of protein and warm drinks.
She advised against breathing tests/CT scan at this stage as it wouldn't show your normal lung function as everything is inflamed at the moment. Best to wait to see how things settle.

@Lightsabre thanks, that's really helpful! I will check out the survey.

But I do have clean hair, shaved legs and a posh jumper on.

Trust me @Crayfishforyou - the virus will not win!!

@Lightsabre excellent work, thank you! I love this thread, feels like we're really getting somewhere at last. Will do the survey.

@Lightsabre - thank you so much for this. Don't think I can stand this for six months.

@Lightsabre thanks for that. Will definitely fill in the questionnaire.

@Lightsabre Are these changes post-covid changes, as in post viral with no infection present any more?

@planetcloud @Crayfishforyou I can sympathise - it does feel like we will never be back to normal again. What we are experiencing is unprecedented and we're unlucky to have such a lengthy illness and to be among the first ones so the medical establishment don't have a clue (yet). The mental struggle is at least as bad as the physical symptoms. I'm giving a lot of thought lately as to what I can do to cope and what doesn't work.

Having something to look forward to each day helps me - even if it is something quite small like a favourite tv show, a meal or a chat with/email from with a family member/friend.
I'm trying to find as much to distract myself as possible - work helps as does a good film or book. Playing games on the ipad can also help pass an hour or two each day - Spider Solitaire, Blendoku, Clash of Clans and Happy Colour are five that I can easily spend 20-30 minutes a day on. I set myself a very small work goal each day and when it's completed I at least feel like the day has been worth it.
Having a routine helps too - doing certain things at certain times of day. I struggle more with weekends because the routine goes out the window and I'm counting the hours til bed.
Partner/family/friends - during these last weeks I've gotten a much better idea of who loves me - because they're still getting in touch and asking how I am. I'm cherishing every relationship I have and thinking a lot about how much I love the people in my life.
beauty - I'm trying to see beauty in everyday things. There's a tree outside my window and I look at it a lot. I listen to bird song outside and play my favourite music. I don't have a garden but my DH buys a couple of bunches of flowers every week.

What doesn't help: reading the news, thinking about how I got the virus, wondering when I'll get better, thinking about the number of days I've had the virus, thinking about how happy/complacent I was before I got the virus, regrets about things I did before I got ill (I've decided to stop agonising over past mistakes and give myself a break), feeling bad if I overdo it and have a setback.

I'm sending everyone on this group a lot of love. You are here which means you've already been through hell and you've been strong enough to cope (even if coping means crying every few hours). I don't know about any of you but up til now I've had no proper illness, no real upsets - I have zero coping strategies for adversity and I don't see myself as a strong person. I can't claim I've been a joy to live with or wonderfully stoic and brave throughout this so far because I haven't been. But I'm getting through this, day by day, as best I can. And so are all of you. We're stronger than we think.