Covid Lungs week 8 plus plus

[AndsLee]

Hope this has worked... Welcome all.

LetsBeSensible I am happy that your blood tests came back good. Can I ask what are those other tests you had? GF etc? Sorry that they lost the results, that’s awful.

I asked my GP for low thyroid test because my mother is on thyroxine for years, I have some of the symptoms etc, and was literally told ‘everybody thinks they have low thyroid’ and that I didn’t need a test.
I didn’t say anything to the GP but I have been wondering if low thyroid might exacerbate or prolong manageable-at-home, ‘mild’ COVID symptoms because being hypothyroid slows down your metabolism. I’m not a doctor though and your results wouldn’t fit with that idea so maybe I shouldn’t worry anyway.

I got ill with this for the first time at the end of March and yesterday was having odd sharp twinges in my top left rib cage suggesting heart or lung to me. Was about to get worried and it then stopped. It’s a non-stop smorgasbord of symptoms...

I feel like my heart settled the last few weeks and now the palpitations are back?

Hi all. I was on some of the earlier threads, thought it had finally gone, and now on third relapse, which is not as bad as the original episode but worse than second. Main symptoms are now tight, burning chest, SOB and brain fog.

Have you all been speaking to GPs etc regularly? I spoke to mine at the very beginning, and was referred to corona hub, but this was in mid-April, so before community testing. Since then I've just resigned myself to being a long-tailed, but now wondering if I should get myself back in the system and checked out.

And is the consensus that we're not contagious at this stage? I had thought I was recovered and have formed a bubble with my elderly widowed mother; it's had a dramatic impact on her mental wellbeing but, obviously, I don't want to put her at risk.

@Moodgie me too, palpitations had resolved to just short small episodes throughout the day — strangely after eating mostly.

Then I started getting them more frequently...

My instinct is that I was starting to do more physical and mental activities (literally nothing in real world terms).

It seems that spending even a tiny bit more energy is aggravating my heart, SOB and also resulting in back pain and calf pain.

Decided to tone it back and try and avoid any symptoms displaying.

Do you think you’re also moving around and doing more recently?

Can anyone help? I am on day god knows what - got symptoms shortly after lockdown. A lot better after a fortnight and felt almost back to normal then the shortness of breath and tightness across my bra area and back pain at the lungs started again. This disappeared again and I was back to almost normal - in work most days and feeling pretty good. Last week took another turn for the worse. Got blood tests from the Dr. and an a bit anaemic (no periods so no real reason) and my heart rate was doing 130 beats a minute at rest. The back pain and SOB are the worst - he has signed me off work but I think my boss is trying to persuade me to come in - just don't feel well enough. I am taking paracetemol and ibuprofen for the pain but feel really washed out - I just don't know what to do. Has anyone any tips on the back pain and how I can get myself back to some kind of normality. I am working from home at the moment from my bed because I can prop myself up as I type.

@planetcloud you poor thing, I can really sympathise. My story has been pretty similar - I first had symptoms in mid March and returned to work remotely after the initial symptoms, only to relapse several times with SOB , chest pain, racing heart, temps and bone crunching fatigue. I got signed off and then returned to work on a phased return.
Your boss can't force you to return. If you feel pressured do you have occupational health you could speak with if you do wish to return to work?
Sadly this virus is still so new the long term symptoms are just emerging but maybe there's some comfort in knowing you're not going mad and what you are feeling is real?
It helps me to know that I'm not alone in this.
The cyclic nature of the symptoms seems to be characteristic of the virus for some people.
I know that rest reduces the intensity of the fatigue and other symptoms but I don't think I am always causing the relapses through what I do, iyswim.

A study came out yesterday on antibody tests/T-Cells. It's confirming what we already know about just how unreliable the antibody testing is for telling who has been infected because a high proportion had a detectable T-Cell response but no antibodies.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.21.20132449v1

@SheilaTakeABow And is the consensus that we're not contagious at this stage? I had thought I was recovered and have formed a bubble with my elderly widowed mother; it's had a dramatic impact on her mental wellbeing but, obviously, I don't want to put her at risk.

It's incredibly unlikely that you are infectious with a relapse. It's more likely that what's happening at this point is post-viral. Covid really does seem to trigger long post-viral conditions. Last week on RTE's Claire Byrne show, Byrne who was infected in March admitted that she still has symptoms. She spoke with a doctor and a third person who were all infected months ago and still have symptoms. The doctor said it was post viral.

This is the "explanation for dummies" from a reddit thread on the study.

Several families had a person test positive, then 8 of the other family members got mild symptoms. When later tested for antibodies, the 8 all tested negative.

There's another immune response that fights viruses (and is different from antibodies) called T cells, and so they developed a test for that that was specific to SARS COV2 and they tested the 8 people and another 10 they were sure had never gotten it. All 10 of the 10 tested negative, so if there is a false positive rate, it is likely low. Then they tested the 8 who had gotten symptoms after their family member was infected, and who had tested negative for antibodies, and 6 of the 8 showed T cells for the virus.

What it could mean is A) the infection rate is somewhat-to-far higher than we thought. Which means the death rate may be lower or far lower than we thought, on par with a very bad flu or 2X as bad, that sort of thing. And B) many more people may already have T cell immunity, potentially some who didn't know they had it, and therefore, they are immune. The 8 who were tested were 69 days out from their symptoms, so we know that T cell immune response will be at least that long. The original people who got SARS 17 years ago still are believed to have immunity.

www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/hdxwf5/intrafamilial_exposure_to_sarscov2_induces/

TiddleTaddleTat thank you very much. No unfortunately small office with most people furloughed, hence the pressure on me to work. I'm off for a fortnight's annual leave come Friday which hopefully will help me get the rest I need to get back to normal. There is me and one other person at work (who had underlying health conditions) who have been badly affected but no one else as bad as us. I think there is an assumption that we are over-egging our symptoms. I went back to work voluntarily and was in every day - I could have worked at home but it was easier for me. This meant however I was working longer and longer with more and more work which I think may have contributed to me relapsing.

That's good news @Crayfishforyou - hoping you're at the end of this all now.

@alittleprivacy, I'm really interested in the T cell response - I wonder how we could arrange testing for this?

Day 83 now for me - been over a week now since GP referred me to the respiratory department- no hope of an appt any time soon.

Positives; I can drive for up to 30 minutes now and potter about the house and garden. I can do a very light shop and wait in a queue for a bit. I'm eating normally and appetite is back. My energy levels generally are improving so I'm hoping I've avoided a lapse into CFS but t I won't know until I return to work/normal routine of getting up early etc.

Negatives; I still can't walk for more than half a mile on the flat and I'm too breathless and weak to do things like window cleaning or vacuuming or a proper shop. I'm having several different sorts of back pains, 'punched' shoulder and top of arm pain and it still hurts if I talk for too long, too loudly or laugh in my throat/oesophageal area.

@SheilaTakeABow I’m also worried about this. My parents come to stay with us in 3 weeks for 2 weeks, I’d terrified of putting them at risk in case i’d still be contagious, my mum doesn’t seem worried at all 🤷‍♀️

Sorry the palpitations are back @Moodgie and @Millstone.

Finally got appointments this week for an echo and 24 hour ECG. They are not in my local hospital so it means 2 walks of 3.5 miles on consecutive days. That will certainly be a good test of whether I’m recovering or not (day 94/95 for me today).

@LetsBeSensible it’s awful they lost your results.

Thanks for the paper @alittleprivacy. I’ll take a read.

@Lightsabre fingers crossed that your other symptoms start to improve soon. It’s so miserable being ill for so long.

@MillStone Definitely doing more, walks, jobs in the house plus had 5 nights very broken sleep with a poorly dog that has made me wonder whether it aggravated it - it’s been pretty stressful.

Reading about T Cells with interest - thanks.

Anyone have any idea (or heard any rumours) when/if the T Cell test will be available?

Just drunk my first coffee in two weeks. Waiting to see what happens, but right now, no palpitations or dizziness 🤞😊
I have really missed coffee.

@planetcloud how depressing to get symptoms again. I can only suggest resting as much as possible. Hope you feel better soon.

@Egghead68, glad your appointments are coming through and hope you can make it there. I think you said you were shielding but might it be worth contacting a taxi firm as I would imagine e they will have Perspex screens etc now. Or ask for hospital transport?

@Whatapickle78 Anyone have any idea (or heard any rumours) when/if the T Cell test will be available?

As far as I can tell T-Cell testing is more labour intensive, so I'm not that hopeful on one being widely available anytime soon. It could also be much more expensive. The most interesting part about it to me, is that those recovered from Sars-Cov-1 still have protective T-Cells at 17 years and counting. If it's similar for Sars-Cov-2, we're in a great position. There also seems to be cross-reactivity between the T-Cells, possibly meaning if you are immune to one you are immune to all.

Some of what I've read is speculation that part of the problem could also be the lack of necessary sensitivity in the Abbott/Roche tests. But it could also be a really quick drop off of antibodies after a mild infection.

@alittleprivacy

Wow thank you. That sounds much more significant than I’d realised. I’ll be keeping an eye on this for sure... fingers crossed a good test for it emerges.

@Egghead68
Good luck with your walks. I had bloods yesterday and had to walk to the GP. Hadn’t left the house for weeks so was very nervous. Very relieved that it was fine in the end and no adverse reactions today.
Good luck and hopefully you will enjoy the walks. X

I very much doubt that many/any of us here did not have Covid. Not only were our symptoms too similar but many of us here were having viral and post-viral experiences ahead of those symptoms being widely known. I remember after I had recovered from the initial virus seeing videos of Boris Johnson and Chris Cuomo speaking while in the early stages of their illnesses and seeing them reflexively gasp to pull in air just like I had being doing. I remember talking about Johnson to a couple of people wondering why he was saying his only symptom was a temperature when he was clearly experiencing breathing difficulties just like mine. One person was very dismissive of me then rang me a few days later to say I was right as he'd just been hospitalised.

Then the ongoing symptoms like the chestwall inflammation and GERD were experienced by us here before there was any acknowledgement that this was happening to lots and lots of covid-survivors. So we're ahead of the trend, not attention seeking hypochondriacs copying what we're reading about/seeing on tv.

Thanks @Lightsabre and @Whatapickle78. A black cab is a good idea - I’ll see if I can get one. I think it’s too short notice for hospital transport unfortunately. I’m glad your walk went OK @whatapickle78.

I’m on my 16th reasonably good day in a row. Really hoping this is on the way out now.

@alittleprivacy I agree. Like most of us I have had all sorts of weird symptoms (e.g. light sensitivity, sore breasts) that have later emerged as symptoms of covid. This is truly unlike anything else.

Still having the tightness underneath the forearms and brighter veins (not bulging but more visible) on and off..so worried as to what it is..paranoid about clots

@Egghead Is breast pain being recognised as a Covid/post Covid symptom? Mine are like fucking fireballs stuck to my chest for about 2.5 weeks a month at the moment. The evening primrose oil is helping a bit but they are far worse than they were in pregnancy. In fact right at the time I would have been in the assymptomatic period of my infection I woke up one morning convinced I'd developed mastitis as they were searing as badly as they did the morning in 2014 that I was hospitalised for 4 days with a severe mastitis infection.

Eugh relapse again after feeling great. Hopefully a blip.