Medication side effects mimicking Covid, had Covid recently - testing dilemma

[DavidDevantsSpiritWife]

I had Covid at the beginning of September. Started a new RA drug a few weeks ago. Side effects include fatigue, headache, general malaise, chills, flu-like symptoms - all the sorts of things you could expect if you had a dose of Delta (I didn't however, I was asymptomatic).

Now I know it's very unlikely I'd be infected again at this point (I'm also double jabbed and 99.9% sure I also had covid last spring, before testing - all the 'classic' symptoms including complete loss of smell/taste, as did everyone in the family). What I'd like to know is a) how can I be sure I don't have it when I can't test for 90 days and b) in the future how will I know when to order a PCR, given my side effects are fairly constant and mimic Covid so closely?

I'm feeling lousy today and it got me thinking. If LFTs aren't reliable if you're symptomatic, there's every chance I'd never know if I caught it again, because I can't get a PCR every time I feel like this - I'd be testing four or five times a week! Irony is I'm supposed to be hyper vigilant and stop my medication immediately if I catch it, because any infections (of anything, not just Covid) have the potential to be very serious. So it's doubly important I know if I'm positive.

So, yes. You can see my dilemma!

Oh and nausea/vomiting too don't I know it

You can use a LFT when symptomatic they just aren't as good as PCR. LFT give more false negatives.

I'd still do a few LFTs to be honest. The 90 day thing is generally a red herring, it is "possible" to test positive for up to 90 days but unlikely. Most people will go back to negative tests after about 14 days.

Similar situation OP. I said to my rheumatologist if I tested every time I had a headache/fatigue/aches I’d be doing a PCR daily! Given the new drug could be causing it I’d assume it’s that rather than covid if you had confirmed covid in September. Hope the new drug works for you.

@Twilightstarbright it's subcut methotrexate, I have to inject myself weekly. I was diagnosed exactly ten years ago today (what a shit anniversary) and have been on oral mtx before, it was brutal. Was doing ok on just pain relief for a good few years but it's hit me with a vengeance in the past year or so. At the moment I've got the mtx side effects plus the RA symptoms until the mtx kicks in, no wonder I feel so crap!

Hope your disease is under control and thanks for the kind words

@millymollymandypandy I think you're right, just carry on with the LFTs. It's all I can do really. I just worry about inadvertently infecting others or carrying on with my meds when I'm ill.

When I was on im MTX, they increased the folic acid dose to every day except injection day, along with an antiemetic that acted on the brain, not the stomach, to reduce the side effects. Taking it at night so I slept through the worst of it helped, too. And avoiding dairy/gluten along with high fat foods with those in made the nausea and altered taste less of a problem.

But the best thing was moving onto biologics. No sickness, no headache, no stomach issues and no pain.

I’ve just started on a biologic alongside subcut mtx. Mtx is such a brutal drug