Forum menu
My wife and I both work clinically in hospital and have just had our antibody tests. Both positive. We’ve both been almost completely asymptomatic and haven’t had any time off.
My wife re-calls one run she went on (March 23rd after checking Strava) where she really struggled, did a slow mile or so before turning back and that’s all she can think of. I really can’t think of anything significant. Had a bit of hayfever type symptoms which I get anyway, but no cough, fever, loss of taste or smell, fatigue.
Pretty crazy. Our kids almost certainly Have had it too then. It feels really odd. On one hand very reassuring, but also feel a bit guilty if we’ve passed it on. Social distancing at work has been impossible at times. Hopefully socially been ok. I don’t know of anyone we know who has been ill. I’ve let a few people know who I’ve seen just in case.
Very surreal day.
We’ve both been almost completely asymptomatic and haven’t had any time off.
I was literally oozing virus for a week before going into hospital, I was then discharged before being readmitted. No social distancing at all in our house so inconceivable that my wife and kids avoided it. No symptoms whatsoever. If they have had it they didn't realise it.
So I'm somewhere at the end of week 15 of suspected - clinical diagnosis by two different doctors - covid-19 with all of the classic long-haul symptoms thrown in. I felt a lot better around week 12 which is when I lost most of the obvious symptoms and was left just with general fatigue, occasional chest pain and tingling in my hands and fingers. Got cocky and overdid it slightly and had a week of feeling serious fatigue, proper tiring walking to the bathroom and back stuff.
If anyone's interested, a feasible long-haul explanation seems to be:
1. Mild to moderate covid-19
2. T-cells wipe out virus, but go into over-activation afterwards attacking your own body and causing inflammation.
3. Eventually this dies out and you're left in a post-viral condition with your body diverting all its resource to fixing the damage.
If this is right, the relapses where your body seems to have more of the original viral afters is actually a mechanism where your body reproduces the original symptoms of the virus to get you to stop and heal. It's basically a not very subtle message.
I'm no expert and that's cobbled together from a few sources but it rings true to me. If I get tired, I get weird, baseless adrenaline rushes, which I had from the start and don't seem to be related to anything real, just a thing. My HR doesn't even go up, they are fake. Mostly I am proper, viral tired, but I don't really feel ill any more, my RHR is down to 48bpm instead of being around 90 and I'm optimistic that with some proper, focussed resting, I will eventually mend enough to very tentatively start doing things again.
From my last post things seemed to be going generally forwards - getting riding, still having to watch my HR zones then it went a bit unexpected. Not sure if I picked up a bit of a cold or what but had a viral response to something and now feel like I've time tunnelled back around 5-7 weeks on fitness. Just felt like a normal 'dry' cold was going to start up but had around 48hrs of bad muscle aches. Thighs still feeling it now - which was one of the last symptoms to go from before. I had got the point where my resting HR had gone back under 60 and I could handle full range of HR upto maximum. Lesson of the week seems to be assume any bug will wipe out more than normal. I'm not going for relapse in conditions because it definitely felt like my body was fighting off something this time as opposed to April / May where it was just roller coasting through the bingo card.
Got my antibody test results back yesterday and it says I have had it. No idea when, since this started I've done my usual community nursing job, been in the Covid community testing car before we took a break in testing and behind the Covid door in A&E for a few weeks. Would hate to think I spread it, but equally relieved that I don't recall any symptoms at any point.
Thanks very much for sharing your stories and all the info on this thread folks, it’s been very helpful over lockdown while I was recovering.
How are you doing now @fasthaggis? This place and a couple of the FB groups have basically kept me vaguely sane.
BadlyWiredDog
Not too bad now thanks, but for a while it was a bit of a roller coaster ,yo yoing between feeling glad that I had had what I thought was a fairly mild infection , to worrying why it was taking so long to feel ok ,then being ambushed by all these strange leftovers symptoms . During lockdown I was sticking to short walks and indoor cycle trainers when I could manage, but for ages It did feel like one step forward two back. Although the lockdown forced me to rest much more than usual ,being stuck indoors for so long gave too much time to overthink/imagine things, so it was good to read about others going through a similar experience and some of the reasons why I have been feeling the way I was. Hope everyone manages to get back to their old selves soon, take care.
@fasthaggis - good to hear you're on the mend. I am improving, but it sometimes feels glacially slow. I have to occasionally stop and remind myself sometimes just how trashed I was, say four weeks ago, which gives me a bit more perspective on things.
Day 86. Feeling quite ropey today - logged off from work at 3pm and went to lie down on the sofa. Managed a short walk round the block (1500 steps) at a very slow pace. Feel like I've gone backwards these last few days.
Had an antibody test - negative. ECG was fine, chest X-ray was fine (that was a big relief), most of the bloods were fine - in fact there seems to be almost nothing to suggest I've been ill at all. Apparently there's thing in my liver which is at a higher level than usual, but that's it (it's always been on the high side, now it's a bit higher again). The doctor is going to send me for a liver scan to rule some stuff out.
A couple of other people I know who've had similar symptoms have also had negative antibody tests - seems pretty odd! But then my GP did say that she doesn't really trust them.
Pretty fed up with it today. I was definitely feeling better than this two weeks ago. My neighbour said he started to improve significantly after about 12 weeks. Yesterday marked 12 weeks for me so I've been really clinging on to that bit of hope!
@doris5000 Sorry to hear you're having a bad few days. I had a proper uptick at around 12 weeks, but overdid things slightly and spent the next week or so getting over it. I'd seriously take it really easy, like much easier than you think. It's very, very easy to go over the edge and knock yourself backwards, just be cautious. I'm week 15 now and mostly just very tired with some tingling fingers and hands thrown in.
On progress, it's better to think back to how you were, say, two or three weeks ago than expecting daily upward progression, The way it seems to work is that you go up and down on a daily basis, but the overall trend is towards recovery. It just takes time. My tests are all good too btw, including chest x-ray, but that doesn't mean your body hasn't taken a kicking. Right now it's trying to repair and asking you not to do too much else.
The antibody testing is dubious on all sorts of levels. Some people may not have produced antibodies, but still have some sort of t-cell memory resistance going forward. Some may have produced low levels of antibodies which fade rapidly. And the tests were developed and calibrated used hospitalised patients who likely have very high levels of antibodies, because their illness was severe.
There's supposed to be a better test in development from Birmingham Unversity, but if you can be bothered, this is a good summary of what's happening for now:
Hang on in there and try to be patient. Oh, fwiw, I've found CBD Oil really good for general mood and wellbeing. Along with meditation, something I never thought I'd say, really liking the Headspace phone app.
Maybe we need a recovery thread on here, but the FB groups I linked to are good for info and getting a broader picture of what's going on with your body.
Day 100! [trumpet fanfare]
How is everyone doing?
I found weeks 13 and 14 to be a bit of a struggle - a definite regression. Had to sign off from work at lunchtime and go back to bed at least twice. Coming out of that again now, although had some chronic brain fog yesterday, couldn't concentrate at all.
Still, the fact that I feel better today than I did last week means I can be reasonably optimistic, even if I don't really know if I feel better than I did a month ago!
A bit (somewhat) scared of the reports now coming out that immunity might only last for weeks rather than years - might explain why my antibody test (at c. 10 weeks) might have come back negative?
I'm week 18 now and getting mighty narked off. Appear to have slid back from last week. Only real change is that I've gone back to work (after 3 months furlough) and it seems the general stress of dealing with numpties is affecting my symptoms (chest and fatigue).
Booked in for a telephone consult with the chest specialist practice nurse and she's not been able to get hold of me as my phone seems to be diverting everyone to voicemail and when I call back she's on another call. So I'm doubly narked now.
I'm riding at least once a week, but I need to be careful not to over do it. The frustrating thing is I'm ok during the ride, but the next day I'm rubbish! Just lounging around feeling tired and sleepy. The heat also seems to be affecting me badly. I used to be fine in it, but anything over about 25 degs now and I'm also rubbish!
It's depressing reading these reports of cognitive disruption and long term complications, but I have to remind myself that this is the press, and they will distort a story to get sales / clicks. So most likely it is not nearly as bad as they are portraying. For most at least.
But what really scares me is getting this again. I'd got of lightly with a brief trip to a&e. God only knows how I'd cope with it again as I feel a lot less robust after nearly 5 months of recovery.
Sorry for the rant.
Interesting vid from Dr John the other day about it's effect on blood vessels and how it's not just the alveoli in the lungs filling with fluid stopping gas exchange but also the small blood vessels in the lungs (which carry the gasses to/from the alveoli) and elsewhere getting inflamed, causing micro clots which add to the overall inability to exchange gasses. Well worth a watch.
A bit (somewhat) scared of the reports now coming out that immunity might only last for weeks rather than years – might explain why my antibody test (at c. 10 weeks) might have come back negative?
The antibody tests are a can of worms - pick from: some people don't develop antibodies, the tests have a flawed threshold because they were calibrated using blood samples from hospitalised patients etc. This is quite a good overview fi you're interested.
The other thing to bear in mind is that antibodies aren't the be all and end all of immunity. There's quite a lot of stuff out there suggesting that the body produces memory t-cells, which recognise the virus again and take it out fast plus are much longer lasting. With SARS-1 they were still apparent 11 years later. Apparently there's a Swedish study where only 15% of those tested had antibodies to covid-19 but 30% had these memory t-cells.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.29.174888v1
Day 100! [trumpet fanfare]
How is everyone doing?
Well, iCal says Day 125. I'm improving slowly albeit at a depressingly glacial pace. Mostly I'm just very tired in a post-viral feeling sort of way. The tingling in my fingers is gradually fading, I think it's basically nerve - or nerve sheath - healing and things that I suspect are down to the autonomic nervous system, are starting to work properly again. My HR is back to near normal.
I still l get occasional brain fog when tired, but it's improving. I'm doing a lot of resting plus very gentle short strolls. Also building up a new FlareMAX as a statement of intent. I've never eaten so healthily in my life, I seem super sensitive to all sorts of stuff, so I've dropped processed sugar, caffeine, processed foods other than pasta, lots of fresh stuff, no alcohol.
I've seen suggestions that 4-6 months is expected time for recovery, but the lack of detailed, research-based information into long covid-19 is quite unsettling. GPs don't really know what's going on or have any convincing treatment protocols bar playing whack-a-mole with treating symptoms. Hopefully that'll change, but this whole thing is a bloody nightmare.
No-one knows what the long term health implications are, but I've had a clear chest x-ray, two normal ECGs and full bloods, which are fine bar B12 and Potassium being towards the lower end of normal. All of which is reassuring.
Sounds like you're on the mend 🙂
Saw some news today that a rash might be the only symptom of infection in some cases.
Mrs Dubs went to the doctors with such a rash in early March, told it was "just a virus" it will probably go away. It did.
I had an eye infection and general malaise a week or so earlier.
If that was it, we got away incredibly lightly. I'm hoping we've still got some resistance as she's back to school full time in September (absolute germ factory) and I'll probably have to go back to getting the train into work.
Yep I had it back in March.
Knocked me off my feet for 48 hours and I was back to normal within a month.
In that time at night in bed I could feel my lungs repairing themselves... Such a weird feeling.
No tests back them of course, but I volunteered to donate blood plasma and the results came back that I had had Covid19.
So I'm donating more plasma this month to try and help the fight.
The wife had it too as she passes it on to me but she wasn't tested, but it hit her worse than me, but all ok now.
We don't want it again though
Sounds like you’re on the mend 🙂
I have good days and bad days, but the broad trajectory is upwards. It would be nice to know what's going on with long covid though. GPs don't really have the faintest idea and even consultants seem to be making educated guesses.
I’ve never eaten so healthily in my life, I seem super sensitive to all sorts of stuff, so I’ve dropped processed sugar, caffeine, processed foods other than pasta, lots of fresh stuff, no alcohol.
Yeah, I'm going down this road too. My booze intake is now about 3 units a week, caffeine is almost out of the equation, and sugar will be next. I haven't noticed any particular sensitivities to anything (except booze), but I figure if I'm getting tired doing the slightest thing, it's probably best to give my body as little to deal with as possible, and let it focus on getting healthy again.
Really pleased to hear those who have had it bad are on the mend, it really does hit many very hard.
Had an antibody test through work this week, and despite ticking all the boxes other than fever in early March, it was negative. So either I haven't had it and it was another virus; the antibodies haven't lasted as it was mild or the particular test that was used wasn't as efficient as some.
Well after 11 weeks off work I've now done two tours and worn breathing apparatus in two decent house fires , its knocked it out of me being back but definitely improving massively from struggling to even walk 🙂
Hi all
Been ready this thread with interest and decided to add my experience.
Back at the end of March (just after lock down) i came down with a set of weird symptoms (extreme fatigue for 3 days, crusty eyes, brain fog, higher resting HR, generally under the weather but none of the classic Covid symptoms like a cough or temp). Took me a good few weeks to get over them (with ups and downs along the way) and even longer (perhaps 6-8 weeks) to be able to exercise reasonably hard (But not maxing out HR). I’d say ultimately back to something like normal for 4-6 weeks. My assumption is that this was a mild Covid infection but no tests at the time.
Then had a recent set back. About 8 days ago - and feeling good - I went out for ride and pushed myself hard (5 or 6 max heart rate intervals). Next day woke up with a weird set of symptoms (pins and needles down left arm/hand, Chest pains on left hand side, racing pulse in the morning, then steadily got major fatigue and malaise, breathlessness when walking, dizziness). I spoke to the GP who didn’t seem to be worried about any cardiac type problems. Then after a really bad weekend went for a Covid test that came back negative (I know only 70% accurate) and ended up in A&E for ECG, bloods and chest x-ray. I’m pleased to say that all of these came back clear but I’m still feeling under the weather.
Not sure what I should conclude other than perhaps I have Covid (and the test missed) and I triggered a relapse with hard exercise. Sounds similar to a few others experience based on reading the thread. I’m now hoping to slowly recover and won’t be pushing myself so hard when I’m feeling back to normal.
Cheers
Woody
Not covid but me and the wife and kids have been on a bit of a more than cold but not quite flu thing for the last 5 weeks. Both kids still have chesty coughs. I thought I'd shaken it but it came back and now I wake sounding like a 60 a day smoker! Just can't quite clear it off my chest. No temps though. No other covidy symptoms and over here in WA there's only a handful of cases. We're only allowing 500 people per week arriving on international flights. Seems it's picked up again quite strongly in Melbourne but we're a few km up the road and I think our borders are still closed. Hard to keep up.
I'm in front-line community mental health. I've not seen or heard much tbh but this maybe changing, if Melbs is anything to go by.
Next day woke up with a weird set of symptoms (pins and needles down left arm/hand, Chest pains on left hand side, racing pulse in the morning
That part is just about any morning (or waking in the night) for me in the last few years.
Not sure what I should conclude other than perhaps I have Covid (and the test missed) and I triggered a relapse with hard exercise. Sounds similar to a few others experience based on reading the thread. I’m now hoping to slowly recover and won’t be pushing myself so hard when I’m feeling back to normal.
Well, based on using a couple of the FB long covid groups regularly, it seems to be quite common for people to fully recover, then have some sort of symptomatic relapse weeks later. One theory is that in post-viral mode, the body mimics the original symptoms of your illness to basically tell you emphatically to back off and rest up so it can mend itself.
I'm still mending slowly. Interestingly a relatively local mate of mine dropped round yesterday and had pretty much exactly the same covid-19-ish symptoms as me, in the same order, though slightly milder generally. It was slightly uncanny. Also his partner, like mine, had just three days of mild symptoms, but now, weeks later, seems to be having a mild recurrence. It's all proper weird. He reckons he used hot/cold therapy to boost his immune system early on and that may have helped.
Fwiw, the deeper you dig into the testing, the more dubious you realise it is. The swab test is notoriously as bad as 70% accuracy, so almost 1/3 are false negatives. The antibody test, where do you start? First, the two approved tests were developed using blood samples from hospitalised patients with high levels of virus and high levels of antibodies, so the test itself is arguably not sensitive enough for milder infections. Next, the levels of antibodies where they are present, apparently drops off rapidly to a barely detectable level after three months. Finally, the suggestion is that with mild cases, antibodies may not produced at all as the infection is fought off using t-cell response.
In a Swedish serological survey of a defined population, 15% had antibodies, but 30% had evidence of t-cell response. It also seems, based on SARS-1 that t-cell immunity so far has lasted 11 years and may be far more effective than antibodies.
As far as how long immunity lasts, I can't find any credible, documented evidence that anyone has been reinfected, even frontline health workers. People have relapsed with a recurrence of original symptoms, but not clearly suffered a new infection. Go figure. It sounds like there is immunity out there, probably based on memory t-cells. Unfortunately those are much harder and more expensive to test for than antibodies. There's supposed to be a much better, home-use finger prick test in the pipeline for antibodies, but that still won't tell you anything about t-cells.
This is quite a good video on why antibody testing is a can of worms currently:
Also, of some relevance on here, quite a few people with long covid seem to be fit athletes, runners, cyclists etc, who've inadvertently trained through early symptoms without realising what was happening - me included.
Just popping in to wish everyone well. Thanks very much for sharing your experiences, this is all very useful info that's not getting much coverage in the media.
Quite by coincidence, I was talking to a doctor yesterday about the possibility of running a study to help understand the neurological effects experienced by some long-haulers. So the medical research community are certainly aware that this is a thing, and hopefully in the months and years to come it will start to be understood.
Day 119.
In a new and exciting twist, I had some dizzy spells this week. It really is the gift that keeps on giving. Quite odd, and accompanied by the most severe brain fog I've had so far. I also had some kind of 'relapse' last weekend - temperature was up, headaches, generally feeling pretty rough, for about 24 hours, then it eased off again. Really quite odd.
This week I started going to bed earlier, which I should have done months ago but I'm crap at getting early nights - think it's been helping. I walked some 3700 steps yesterday, and haven't keeled over yet today. Although I also haven't left the house yet...
I'm pretty much back to normal now, at work and able to ride and getting up some of the south downs hills with Strava PRs. No longer seem to be getting the fatigued spells. Feel well and mentally fine. I'm still being careful to rest in between and have days I do nothing, and I'd say my lung capacity feels a little odd (would be interested in a ct scan). The odd elevated heart in bed like once a fortnight.
I've had mild symptoms on and off since March, had one test then (-ve) and just taken another today as I woke up feeling hot/cold shivery and the most monumental shits I've known - I mean like chucking a bowl of water down the loo!
Bad head an cramps in legs as well
Anyone with covid had thes as part of their symptoms?
Think I had it end of March, no fever but lost sense of smell and taste dry cough for about 4 weeks very tired for about a week and thirsty. After 3 weeks felt fit as ever but 4 months later still no taste or smell, could have been worse.
Day 145, which scarcely seems believable. I'm mostly now just very, very fatigued. Virtually all the crappy long covid symptoms have gone, I can actually sleep, but mostly I'm just resting as much as possible and learning about patience and acceptance.
My educated guess - and gut feeling - is that my body is still using most of its resources cleaning up shedloads of inflammation. My fingers have more or less stopped tingling now and I haven't had a weird noradrenaline style wave for several weeks now, which is a relief as they were bloody awful.
It's starting to look like quite a lot of long-haulers are dealing with damage/inflammation to/of the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve in particular. It's the part of the nervous system which controls all the things that happen automatically like heart rate adjustment, breathing, digestion, temperature regulation and a whole lot more. It theoretically explains where my adrenaline rushes came from: your body should automatically raise blood pressure when you stand up to boost blood supply to the brain. If that mechanism goes wonky and the brain thinks it's not getting enough oxygenated blood, it panics and throws the noradrenaline swicth to make you move around and increase blood flow.
Anyway. Hoping that the tingling fingers is a sign of those nerves healing and hoping the same is going on with the ANS, which makes sense as weird stuff is gradually fading away.
Off to see a Chinese traditional medicine practitioner tomorrow. The NHS has been okay at treating symptoms, but there's no real holistic approach, so everything's siloed away with consultant specialists looking more at small areas than the bigger picture. Fingers crossed.
One other things on a more general level. It's starting to look like covid-19 can affect the heart causing inflammation and swelling, so maybe go easy with the exertion if you're in recovery.
Week 13 after leaving hospital and heart rate still elevated- typically 20 bpm up on normal even when resting and potential to spike with very little exertion. Had an echo scan last week but no issues there- consultant stated no use doing a CT scan on lungs until October time to give time for them to recover .Coughing and rubbish production has reduced significantly in the last couple of weeks which is good. Went to look at ebikes yesterday as an aid to turning pedals again and give me some light at the end of a very dark and shitty tunnel.
Really feel for all you people that have had it, its such a nasty illness I feel people who say oh its only a cold really don't get it. My partner had it about 4 days after I had the worst headache of my life back in March. (lasted about a day) She was in bed for about 2 weeks with the classic symptoms (apart from lack of smell/taste) still struggling a bit when it comes to running and just generally walking up a hill and holding a conversation. She works for the NHS and got the antibody tests a few weeks ago all negative no antibodies, never had covid. Out 5 others who had the test only one was positive for antibodies and covid and she had no symptoms. I know they are pushing stuff threw super fast but the accuracy of these tests seems really bad.
All gone a bit squirrely on the recovery front for me - June's bit of a cold seemed to trigger a relapse. Sacked off trying to cycle - more had a few shockingly bad attempts to get back on the bike followed by giving it a week or so. Weekend before last went through a complete symptom cycle - tired / nausea, wake up at night with a temp (gone by morning), that pre cold nose tingle thing, sore throat, shortness of breath (few days of being able to walk a few 100m max), started in my chest but never got too bad. Tested and came back negative. No idea what caused it but it felt a bit too structured for a relapse and it's completely pummelled my legs strength. As with the March run the thigh aches seem to be the last thing to go. I'll try a Zwift or flat ride at the weekend but it's really messing with the get fit for flu season plan as I have been re-set to April!
I'll admit the low mood ones this time round were bloody tough. I just tell myself it's the virus but when you get that much of a kicking having made good progress it's a bugger. Still furloughed so it means I can at least I have time to recover.
I know they are pushing stuff threw super fast but the accuracy of these tests seems really bad.
Oh, the antibody tests are a complete can of worms. The harder you look at them, the worse it gets. People are testing positive for the antigen then negative for the antibodies. There was a serological study in Sweden where 15% of the sample population had antibodies, but 30% had covid-19-specific memory t-cells.
I liked the Chinese traditional medicine practitioner, but the herbs she prescribed for me taste like drinking a Nepalese tea house... but hey, if they work, who cares. She also told me that I was post-viral and would be okay, which is more than my GP has ever managed. Mostly the NHS diagnosis is along the lines of 'We don't know what's wrong with you. I can refer you to a *******iologist, the waiting list is quite long. How long for recovery? No idea.
Would be interested to hear the results of your herb-drinking BWD! How did they diagnose you? Just through discussing your symptoms, or was there a physical examination too? (I know nothing about Chinese medicine)
Week 22... so, the Chinese medical practitioner - a very experienced and well-regarded woman based in sunny Didsbury - basically sat me down and got me to talk through the course of my illness, what symptoms I'd had and what symptoms I have now. She checked my tongue, which was very white and 'hot' in Chinese medical parlance and felt my pulse for 30 seconds or so.
Then she asked whether I wanted to use acupuncture or herbal medicine - if you choose the needles, the herbs are also an important part of the therapy. I chose not to have acupuncture this time, not because I'm terrified of needles, but because quite a few folk have posted on FB support groups saying that it actually made them feel worse, at least initally. I don't really want to feel worse tbh. She also told me to take regular, gentle exercise and to sleep lots.
She'd been taking notes all the way through, then went off to order my prescription. Then came back, asked me about my diet, which is super clean at the moment, whether I smoked or drank alcohol etc. Told me not to eat 'cold, wet things' like milk, cheese, yoghurt or meat straight from the fridge, okay once heated. Also not to eat beef or lamb. There was also some talk about whether I was 'hot' or 'cold', apparently right now I'm an unbalanced mess. I feel cold, but my tongue suggests 'hot'. I need some balancing.
She also asked me if I was depressed, which I'm not, though I was quite down six weeks or so back when the symptoms seemed endless and unpleasant. Acceptance is my top tip, by which I don't mean resignation, but accepting that you are where you are, there's no magic bullet, things are just going to take time and finally she told me that I was going to be okay, which as above was strangely moving given that the NHS view is simply that they have no idea. Oh, as I was about to leave, she gave me a packet of surgical masks as a gift.
The herbs, btw, are in powdered form, come in a small plastic tub and you mix two teaspoons with boiling water in a mug twice a day and drink it. Not delicious, but nothing too horrendous either. I'll come back and update in a week or so, but my practitioner lectures on post-viral fatigue in Chinese medical circles, so I'm hoping the medicine will support my recovery, take the edge off the fatigue and basically help me recover.
Why? Well, the NHS is playing whack-a-mole with individual symptoms. Choosing your own supplement regime is like playing bingo, pick a supplement, any supplement. And Chinese medicine has been curing people for centuries and treats you as a whole person not as a collection of symptoms to be addressed by siloed specialists. I'm not criticising, that's just the way our medical system is structured and it's great if you have a single, isolated issue, not so good if your whole body has been going mad for weeks. The western option, I guess, would be functional medicine.
And now back to chilling out in preparation for watching the Tour de l'Ain stage one this afternoon 🙂
We were both certain we had both had C19, back in mid March. We have just had the results back from the antibody test, its positive.
A horrible experience from start to finish.
How are you doing now? I checked in with one of my mates yesterday and it turns out he had a mild four-day episode in March, but weeks later got hammered with HR spikes and has now had 14 weeks of chest pain, crushing fatigue and more heart rate spikes. Really nasty illness.
Still seem to get similar symptoms in relatively short bursts, say 2-3 days, increasingly less frequent.
Week 17 for me since my first positive test and I'm hopefully reaching some sort of normality. I managed a 7 mile hilly walk yesterday and rode all of 15 miles to and from work today. It was slow and I had a little snooze when I got home but at least I wasn't crushingly exhausted in the way I would have been just a couple of weeks ago.
Fingers crossed the light is at the end of the tunnel.
Wife had results of her antibody test, positive. She’s a Community Nurse. Most of her team have tested positive.
We were both poorly back in March, her more so. Typical symptoms, lasted a few days. I was ill before her, not so much a cough but over about 4 days I had a tight chest & some really feverish spells.
The Wife tells me the most upsetting aspect of the whole affair was the rate at which they cleared out hospital wards. Old folk sent back to nursing homes &, worse of all, to ill equipped relatives who were given little help to deliver some quite involved care.
My Mum & Dad passed away last year, & I’ll be honest, in a way I’m glad they didn’t have to live through this.
Just done the weekly shop & give folk their dues, everybody was masked & distancing. But there’s a generation or two who see this as a joke, something to use to “stick it to the man”.
Cheered me up no end to read that some of you fine folk are on the mend.
🙂
How are you doing now? I checked in with one of my mates yesterday and it turns out he had a mild four-day episode in March, but weeks later got hammered with HR spikes and has now had 14 weeks of chest pain, crushing fatigue and more heart rate spikes. Really nasty illness
Much better now thanks. I had it for about 18 days in total, of which apparently I slept right through 5 days of it, the fatigue was unbelievable.
The only thing that frightened me about the illness was the breathing problems which lasted about 3 days, very scary.
It took a further 4 to 6 weeks to a point where I felt like my old self again. People should be concerned about the virus and I know it affects us all in different ways, but its a very nasty illness.
I hope you mate is doing ok, stay safe everyone!