How long did it take you to feel fully over it... if you do

[PuzzledObserver]

I'm on day 12 of symptoms. Nothing seems to be changing. Still coughing. Still very tired. But feel guilty that I am not doing more

According to what I could find on the Zoe app:-

• 15% still have symptoms after 4 weeks
• 10% still have symptoms after 8 weeks
• 5% still have symptoms after 12 weeks - these would be the Long Coviders.

And the NHS wesbite on recovery from Covid says in most cases the fatigue resolves in 2-3 weeks.

I just don't know what to expect.... and I know you can't tell me. What's your experience?

I've never been so bad I couldn't get out of bed... although I am keen to get into it earlier than usual, as well as having a little snooze in the afternoon. Which I think I'm due now. Because I've done some fruitful work (2 phone calls and an email) and now I'm knackered.

I am on Day 12 or 13 I think. I would say that I am starting to improve. Still have the awful headache but it is not as severe as it was last week. Not tasted anything in about 10 days but some slight smells are starting to come back. Still a bit dizzy now and again and on exertion my heart rate is going up.

I think that me and DH have got off very lightly touch wood . My main symptoms were tiredness, bad headache, dizziness, tiredness and loss of smell and taste. No cough at all. I did spike a temperature for one day only

I am 50 and have underlying health conditions and am overweight. I do take vitamins and high dose vit D and C and have done for a long time.

I also think I’ve got off lightly. I’m 57, obese, have diabetes. Cough and tiredness are the main symptoms, I also had a temperature for just one day, some diarrhoea.

Also been taking high dose vit D.

I’m 8 weeks in and although I don’t have Covid symptoms the tiredness just won’t pass. I’m sleeping for 12 hours every night and I’m still exhausted.

5 or 6 months ...

Four weeks on still have a cough some days but not a bad cough. I have arm pain. Still feel tired some days but feeling much more normal.

Dh who was hospitalised is still feeling quite tired, bit of a cough still but is feeling ok to go back to work this week after over a month off.

8 weeks later and am still tired. I have not felt exhaustion like it and by mid afternoon feel wiped out. Am in bed by 7 most nights. I have started gentle exercise to see je it will help but it has not done so yet.

Hope you all feel better soon.

2 weeks. Basically back to normal now (tested positive on 21st Dec) apart from very randomly getting tired but it’s not a big deal. I started running again last week and was absolutely fine. Everyone is so different.

I'm 4 weeks on, feel loads better but still can't smell or taste properly and get extremely tired easily.

11 days. Felt awful, felt more awful, felt bit better, felt lots better. Walked doing a huge country park all day on day 11 (back in December). I’m fine, no lasting effects bar an oddly twitchy eye that started on the day I tested positive & will not go! It’s very irritating.. but obviously nothing to complain about!

I know quite a few people who’ve had it now. Some felt really poorly, bed bound. I don’t know anyone with long covid. It did take a few of them 2/3 weeks to start to feel better though. Not to diminish covid, I’m not ‘one of those’ but any nasty illness that makes you feel like shite, even a really bad cold, can take a few weeks to really feel better from. It’s just in pre-covid times, no-one really thought anything of it. Post-viral fatigue has been around since the dawn of illness!

Day 16, still having headaches, dizzy, fatigued, nauseous and having problems concentrating on things. I can taste more now, but no smell but I have colleagues who have still not got their smell back since they had Covid in March.

DH is day 21 and despite being hospitalised has much more energy than me, but still having shortness of breath and fast heart rate when walking and also strange nerve pains.

Both in our 40's and not CV or CEV.

Day 17 here and mostly back to normal with a very slight dry cough and a bit of congestion. I am still very tired in the late afternoon/early evening and pass out exhausted at 9pm every night. My appetite is coming back and things don’t have that horrible metallic taste anymore.

I’m in my early 30s, no underlying health conditions and fairly active. It knocked the absolute stuffing out of me!

Not to diminish covid, I’m not ‘one of those’ but any nasty illness that makes you feel like shite, even a really bad cold, can take a few weeks to really feel better from.

Well, that’s true... kind of.

My only comparison is with a chest infection, which I’ve had twice in my life. On both occasions, I was on day 3 before I was able to see a GP and get antibiotics, and on the second occasion the first antibiotic wasn’t right and 2 days later I started a different one. In both cases, it took a couple of weeks before I could go back to work and then several more before I was back to full strength.

But what’s different is, with those I was properly ill, as in, high temperature, aches, in bed. Whereas symptom wise this has been/is like a cold.... not even a particularly bad cold, either, just an annoying cough.

But Oh, God, the tiredness! That’s what’s confusing - it doesn’t seem to be related to severity of the illness, you know.

I was lucky as I was completely asymptomatic. I only knew I had it as I was selected to take part in a study.

first time prob 3 mths or so til i stopped getting the random 'feels like im breathing in cold air' pain (was ill back in march/april so no cold air around!) Was able to get back to running once a week (slowly!) by may and was able to increase to twice a week by june.
This time round im 2 months from onset of symptoms and am finding even just going out for a walk with the cold air hurts my chest. Am randomly still having ear pain and occasionally feel lightheaded.

I must of been lucky from reading this thread. 2 days of flu like symptoms then felt ok. About 10 days of my smell going though

4 weeks until I stopped feeling like crap. 10 months on and still have distorted sense of smell.

I’ve just started with symptoms today although 3 others in my family have it so I’m not really surprised. I’m really feeling panicky about it though, I’m cev so feel very scared. Am trying not to think too far ahead but it’s hard not to.

A month.

I started feeling ropey on 29th December, tested positive on New Year's Eve, then felt fully better about a week later. I'm 33 and in good health. Like many others I'm more tired than normal but that's my only lingering symptom. My sense of taste and smell returned after 3 or 4 days.

Can I just say it is a comfort to see so many people talk about going to bed early/sleeping longer. I’m sleeping 9-11 hours per night, whereas normally it would be 7-7.5. I’m not averse to a little snooze in the afternoon either.

@FloJo151

first time prob 3 mths or so til i stopped getting the random 'feels like im breathing in cold air' pain (was ill back in march/april so no cold air around!) Was able to get back to running once a week (slowly!) by may and was able to increase to twice a week by june. This time round im 2 months from onset of symptoms and am finding even just going out for a walk with the cold air hurts my chest. Am randomly still having ear pain and occasionally feel lightheaded.

Flo - do you know what causes that painful breathing feeling? Is it lung damage? I have it when I breathe in too deeply - it's very painful and it scares me because I'm worried I'm sicker than I realise and I should pay more attention to it. The doctors gave me some antibiotics because I coughed up a small amount of dark brown phlegm and they said it could be the start of pneumonia and now I'm quite worried about that too.

Did you have an ongoing fever too?

I don't know what day I'm on - I tested positive on Tuesday 5th following a sore throat and extreme tiredness for about a week but by Thursday I had the painful breathing, cough, fever and completely unable to get out of bed. So I don't know if I did have it prior and now I'm on day 14 ish or if actually I should consider day one to be my test day. Either way still feel rubbish and I absolutely cannot stop burping - like I'm swollen up with the most awful gas. I have no idea what's causing it either.

Coughed for three months before the GP gave me steroids. Just one day after taking the first dose I stopped coughing entirely. I hadn't called the doctor as I didn't want to waste their time and assumed that's just how I was now - such a massive change after that dose

@legalseagull

Coughed for three months before the GP gave me steroids. Just one day after taking the first dose I stopped coughing entirely. I hadn't called the doctor as I didn't want to waste their time and assumed that's just how I was now - such a massive change after that dose

How are you taking the steroids? I’m taking part in a clinical trial, as part which I am using a steroid inhaler. But nothing feels any different and I’ve been using it since Thursday. My only respiratory symptom is the cough - no tight chest, shortness of breath or pain on breathing.

So, basically, I feel it’s doing bugger all for me. But the trial may show that the people who have it are less likely to need hospital care than those who don’t, and/or get better quicker.

It was tablets. Something like 8 tablets in one go for five days

Day 25 - coughing away, tight chest, breathless on exercise and absolutely exhausted! Just been prescribed antibiotics in case I have developed a secondary infection. Will be sent for a chest x-ray next week if not improving! Managed to avoid the virus until the very last day of term (work in school) - blooming typical!!!!! And the central heating boiler died on the day I became unwell!