Post-covid chest pain/breathlessness leading to anxiety/depression

[caketherapy]

I had Covid for 3rd/4th time in November, the gastro version, truly grim. Then 2 weeks after symptoms finished(having lasted 3 weeks) I get chest pain, plus arthritic pain in joints and seemingly new food allergies, plus low mood.
I got chest pain and breathlessness back in 2020 but this time it's much worse! I've had to stop exercise and am being investigated for heart disease(!)
After poor R wave on ecg and pain on exercising, am hoping it's only inflammation. I was a fit(ish) healthy 50 yr old, this is getting me seriously depressed. Anyone else in a similar situation? How do you deal with the chest pain without feeling anxious? Or the social isolation and depression if you also are single? My immune system now feels very reactive sadly and basically kaput. Any hopeful stories/advice welcome.......

Had covid beginning of November, had nausea and indigestion pain, fatigue.
Picked up a virus beginning of December, felt like flu with the fatigue, indigestion disappeared for a few days.
Then came back. Seemed to slowly improve then our son came for Christmas and went out with old school friends and went down with a cold. Said sure it's not more than a cold. He went home on Christmas day afternoon. Messaged us at 10 pm saying we needed to test. As he was positive for covid. Luckily we stayed negative, though 3 of us went down with chesty coughs.
Still feel rubbish after back to back virus's. Staying away from people as much as possible, don't feel I could cope being ill again.
The indigestion pain while trying to eat and drink is depressing.
Energy wise, just pacing myself. Hubby keeps shaking his head and trying to get me to see gp. But trying to get through is difficult. Plus being mid 50s my perimenopause symptoms are worse since having covid, especially breast pain., and some times hot flushes.

I had covid for 2nd time in September and it floored me this time. First couple of weeks felt terrible and couldn’t get out of bed, had pretty much every possible symptom ever listed.
one day I’d think I was turning a corner then the next day another symptom would start. Had chest pain, palpitations and SOB, started having reactions to foods like fruit, nuts, coffee. Thought I’d developed allergies as tongue would feel swollen, mouth went dry and feeling like throat was closing. Ended up in a&e and several trips to Dr suspecting all different things. It appears my immune system was on such high alert from covid it was causing all different symptoms throughout my body. I honestly thought I was losing my mind and terrible anxiety (don’t usually suffer with). It took a good few months but eventually the symptoms disappeared one by one. I would say by December most were gone and started to feel back to normal. It takes time so just rest as much as you can and take it slowly building back up again. At one point i thought I would never get better which really doesn’t help with anxiety but reading that others were having similar symptoms and had recovered really helped with staying positive.

Same. I have been really ill. Have had no energy since and feeling awful. Depression signs constant anxiety. Not funny.

Thank you so much for replies.
@LH260 your experience sounds so similar to mine. It's incredibly re-assuring to read that you're feeling better. I was also getting throat closing/itching around Christmas, to the point I'm now on strict (dull) diet, and was feeling low about my prospects of eating out in future. I pictured my world getting smaller.
I also went to A&E once when chest pain got bad, even though there's something on my ECG the dr lectured me about going in, and said I had chronic stuff not acute.
Can I ask are you eating the foods you were reacting to? And how is your chest pain/breathlessness? Are you worried about any lasting damage?
Thanks again

@caketherapy The chest pain went first after about 6-8 weeks then I still continued to get breathless for a couple of weeks after but I think a lot of it was my fitness level was nowhere near what it was. This has mostly resolved now, I do have mild asthma so I increased my inhaler use for a while.
I am back to eating normal again and have ate foods that I reacted too. I found my dentist was most helpful with this as Drs were quite dismissive of it. He said it’s quite common for the immune system to over react when it’s taken a hit and he thought it was a temporary version of oral allergy syndrome especially as I do suffer with hay fever. He told me to only eat cooked foods for a while and then slowly introduce raw back which I did and now seem fine with all foods again. I still have a few issues with coffee and alcohol affects me after one drink but I can live with that. I felt so depressed and high anxiety for a while every time I ate thinking a was going to have a reaction.
I don’t really know if anything helped with recovery as I chucked everything at it but I think it was probably just time (4/5months). I’m just focusing on trying to build my immune system back up with vit c & d and pre/pro biotics.
I should just say that my ecg at the time was fine but they did comment on how fast my HR was and they could identify palpitations. They have now stopped and HR back to normal.
i try not to think about long term damage otherwise health anxiety would go through the roof.
Hope you start to turn a corner soon but I found I started to have a couple of good days but then about 3/4 bad again then the good days slowly got longer until I felt recovered.

Also found swallowing my evening primrose and menopause tablets hard sometimes.
Have just started some gut health friendly bacteria tablets from Holland and Barrett, buy 1 get one free.
So fingers crossed they will help.
My gut was OK until I got covid.
Got myself weighed today at the local one you shop, have lost 7lb.
So not to bad, as I've been resting as much as possible to conserve my energy to help me recover.
I just want to feel like I want food, not eating out.
Last time I tried, I was asked if I wanted emergency services. They must've thought I was having a heart attack, do need to get myself checked out though.
As heart disease runs in my family, 30 years ago today I lost my dad to it.

@iwanttoscream - I hope the probiotics work for you, sorry to hear Covid's effect on your gut
@LH260 - Again similarities, I have a tree blossom allergy (for decades). There is probably a link isn't there....Your dentist sounds really helpful. I'm glad you're feeling better! And great news about your heart rate returning to normal! On a personal level your response has given me lots of hope and I've felt much better mentally today, Thank you. The fact that you're eating normally again is great.
I think I need to track down the Covid booster regularly as I can't go through this every 6 months and having a ds he gets everything doing the rounds.
I'm not on probiotics as they've never agreed with me but I'm eating lots of veg including red onion which is meant to have an antihistamine effect, and therefore calm my system down. So hopefully that's helping.

I’ve never regained my health since having Covid in 2022. I had all the jabs.