Post covid fatigue: please someone bring me some positivity!

[Medstudent12]

I'm now day 11 of Covid-19. Mainly felt like a terrible cold but fatigue like nothing I have ever felt before. I'm late 20s, otherwise fit and well.

Feeling a little panicky that I will end up with chronic fatigue/ME sort of picture (I'm a doctor so I am being ridiculous but tend to think of the worst) and just want to hear some experiences of people who've been fatigued and improved! Any any tips you might have.

Basically feeling low about it all, just want to hear it gets better I have never been this tired. I also don't get paid if not working as am a self employed locum so there is a lot of stress around not working.

Thanks :)

It was at day 11, that I actually felt feeling a bit better.
It is now known as the initial phase. I think for most, the initial phase can last up to two weeks?
I presonally never felt I was over it at the time. And indeed I wasnt.
But @Mummytoallgirls you should start to feel you are over the initial phase at least, within a few days I would have thought.

@lightand yes my gp said days 9-14 are now the peak!like can it get any worse iv had it rough from day 6 where u havnt been able to get out of bed!i really do hope a few more days and i start feeling abit better and don't get any worse,i have no temperature now so that's postive but i can not stay awake and my chest still feels tight,i'm counting days from my first symtoms which was a cough 11 days ago

How are you today?

I was shattered for about 5/6 weeks afterwards (had covid over Xmas) but fine now and no other problems. I’m asthmatic too.

I'm semi-reluctant to mention it but you've seen Paul Garner's piece about his recovery (I'm setting aside the technique and emphasising the degree of his recovery relative to how he reported feeling back in 2020):

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/25/paul-garner-on-his-recovery-from-long-covid/

Hey :) take care of yourself and don't put too much pressure on yourself to get back to normal. I had it in April last year and honestly I'm only just getting back to normal when it comes to energy levels. I could sleep for 14 hours a day at the worst point and it went on for a long time! DP had it worse at the time; but his long term symptoms weren't as bad.

Make sure you're doing everything as healthily as possible. When you're better, do whatever exercise you can cope with and build it up. Eat well. Sleep well. Just generally take care of yourself and you will be okay - though it can take an annoyingly long time!

I think one of the problems is that now we have antibiotics we are not used to people suffering the 'big' bacterial diseases that they used to suffer with so badly in the past. Think of historical novels where the heroine takes to her bed and everyone holds their breaths until the crisis passes.

After fighting off those illnesses it was accepted that patients would need a period of convalescence - there were even special 'homes' for the purpose - where they did very little and their needs were met by others.

Until last year we weren't used to people having serious illnesses with little available treatment. The virus infections we met were generally mild: look at the cries of 'it's not just 'flu' about Covid, forgetting that 'flu can make you extremely ill and, indeed, kill. So we've forgotten the importance of convalesence for the body to recover from the massive assault on it.

Years ago I had 'just' 'flu. I could hardly get myself to the bathroom for several days. It was 12 weeks before I was able to get through a whole day at work and a year before I stopped going straight to bed when I got home.

Your body has done a lot of work in a short time conquering this virus. Which is pretty impressive. It needs to rest and rebuild all the reserves it drew on.

Watching with interest. It's been almost 5 weeks since DH's positive test (he was in ICU on a CPAP for almost a couple of weeks) and he's still rough as houses. No energy. He too is a GP (63 years old next month) babdoc. Solidarity.
He continues to blow bright red blood from the nose and still has a bad sore throat. Breathlessness upon exertion (which I'd expect for a while). But the blood throws me, every time. He downplays it.

My niece had Covid in April ( confirmed with antibody test in the summer but not confirmed when she was ill ) She is 28. She was ill for about 3 weeks and was about to go back to work when her FIL was hospitalised for confirmed Covid .

After a couple of days in oxygen he was discharged to her and her DPs home to recover.. Since her FIL was a confirmed case NM and her DP had to isolate for 15 days with him in their home.so.niece had to put off going back to work for 2 weeks

Afterwards, my DN said that in retrospect she was not ready to go back to work after 3 weeks as she was still exhausted . It was only after 5 weeks that she realised what a difference that extra 2 weeks made so in some ways it helped that she had to take another two weeks off, though her boss was not best pleased at the time !

This is all by way of saying my niece had it mildly, cough, fever but no real breathlessness but she took 5 weeks to be back to normal. 10 days is way too early to panic about long Covid.

thank you for replies!sorry i jumped on the original posters post!
today is day 13 i have felt fluey agin and spiked a temp again 37.8 my whole body hurts iv slept most the day again
i think your all right i need to give myself time and just not panic and think the worst it's crazy how kne day i feel abit more awake and the next jn floored with a temp again!

Most people with ME will say they wish they had rested when they first got ill and not pushed themselves to do more than they should, so rest, rest, rest. Pace activity etc as a doctor you know this already and remember only a minority will get full ME, most people recover from viruses even if it takes months. Good luck.

Hi OP, hope you're improving.

Sorry to gatecrash but wanted to ask
@miimblemomble how long after your initial infection did you have that flare up? I had + test 27.12.20 and was ill, but not too had for just over a week. But since last Fri have had really bad fatigue, nausea, headache, sore stomach. I'm thinking flare up... How are you now?