Long Covid & today’s news. How will you cope?

[praying4]

Apart from staying at home all the time - how will you live your life now that the risk of getting Covid again has just increased?

I’m feeling overwhelmed by so speedy and simultaneous a lifting of restrictions.

Are you making changes or will you just carry on and hope for the best?

I’m feeling pretty raw that as an individual and as a group - our health has been so badly neglected.

Be great to hear from anyone who is feeling hopeful or even philosophical.

What about my health? And my colleagues

I'm running a store on skeleton staff for to endless isolation of healthy colleagues

It's exhausting and stressful...running round covering everyone

We've had enough. Next step is getting signed off with stress I think

I’d give a lot to be able to go back to work! - and only be stressed and exhausted and not ill! That is my dream now.

I was fit and healthy before Covid and I complained about being worn out and felt pretty stressed… You’re just not really comparing like with like.

I was hoping to talk to others with Long Covid. I’ll ask to get the title changed to be more specific.

I won't be staying home all the time will be living my life. There was a interesting part of a BBC article which estimated that currently 50% of cases aren't isolating anyway either as they are unknown, asymptomatic or they ignore it.

I live in Scotland but regularly visit England I certainly won't be shutting myself away and yes I have long covid. I realised several months ago when delta appeared this is never going away. So my choice was to learn to live with covid or not.

Going by long covid groups I'm on quite a few have caught omicron and it's been milder and not caused relapses etc and not been as bad as first infection when they weren't vaccinated.

It can be daunting prospect but actually with natural immunity and vaccination hybrid I feel well protected from being as sick as I was in future.

How do you even diagnose long covid?

I may have it myself

Oh, and stress kills....so does poor mental health which most of us retail staff now have.

@GirlInACountrySong with difficulty as its a range of symptoms but typically a range of symptoms lasting longer then 4 weeks post covid infection is long covid. Long covid syndrome is 12 weeks post infection.

Typical symptoms are fatigue, brain fog, muscle pain, headaches, fevers, breathlessness then there are gastric issues for some etc

@praying4 I have managed to recover to being back at work but I did a lot of private therapies and it took me 5 months to start a phased return.

I'm now back at the 80% recovery point nearly months in. Things which helped me improve were yoga therapy to help with the breathlessness, bowen therapy for muscle pain management and headaches, oxygen treatment and magnesium and vit b complexes to help with the fatigue along with 20 min pacing 10 min rest for everything.
None of it magically takes long covid away but they helped with symptom management and I was able to build on this slowly. The yoga breathing was the biggest surprise to me for improvement. But a physio friend said it acts similarly to respiratory physio which is showing good results

@Scottishskifun

I’m glad you’re at the 80% recovery point. That’s brilliant!

I’m only at the 30% recovery point after nearly 2 years of being ill. I have done much of what you have at my own expense.

I’m too ill to do most things. Life feels like it’s being made impossible now. Coping with getting very ill again is one thing. Coping with living with a huge risk to my health every single day is another. It feels absolutely overwhelming.

@praying4 I completely understand the overwhelm element but it's never going away it mutates too quickly.

I found solace in the long covid support groups, most who have now had omicron have not found it as bad as the first infection at all and haven't made long covid worse either.

Yes I paid for the treatments myself too (no long covid clinics in Scotland) it's so tough but you just have to focus on the improvements you have made.
With pacing I also worked out that screens fatigued me massively without me realising. So I listened to the radio or podcasts and limited screen time including phone, TV and computer.

Have you explored some counselling to arm you with some coping mechanisms?

I have a toddler that attends nursery, we got our initial infection through him so highly likely to get it again. I found living my life in the boundaries that I could helped me a lot. I don't hug random strangers but actually it's a huge weight lifted and I enjoy life again where as I didn't for months as it was all consuming.

I had long covid after catching from a patient early March 2020. I couldn't work for a year (unpaid as semi retired and do bank shifts only) I went back to work very part time and built up very slowly, still have to pace myself and try to separate shifts with days off when I sleep 10 hours a night. I've now worked for nearly a year on acute medical ward and A & E and seen covid positive patients, usually accidentally as tests come back after I've seen them. So far I haven't caught it again but I have accepted that I probably will and just hope that my natural immunity plus vaccinations will mean it is milder. We have to get on with living with it I'm afraid despite the consequences as its here to stay just like flu.

I had Covid in the first wave pre vaccine and suffered from long Covid for over a year. Caught it in November double vaxed and had very mild symptoms and no lasting symptoms. So hopefully being jabbed makes a big difference.

There are other illnesses out there aswell. Be very careful self diagnosing long Covid. I had Covid in Feb 2020 and assumed the prolonged fatigue I was experiencing for months afterwards. Turned out to be cancer fatigue. After they started up screening again in mid 2021 I had my delayed mammogram and was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I had Covid again just before surgery but a few weeks after surgery(successful) I felt better than I had done for months.
Many people have had long Covid symptoms but have been unable to get a definitive diagnosis or been fobbed of by GPs. If you have vague symptoms make sure you get it checked out.