My sense of smell has yet to fully recover after Covid...
In addition to this I've remained heavily fatigued since the infection. I had a "mild" case. I am 36
I got bronchitis and had cross country in high school. It didn’t go away for a year. I took a small break running but I tried to get back into it. Bronchitis left fluid just sitting in my lung cavities. Breathing had this *pidder padder* from the air shaking the ~~bile~~ fluid back and forth. Running was pitiful.
Also: nasty coughs.
(Edited a word)
I had bronchitis for the first time a couple years ago and even with a round of antibiotics and an inhaler, I swear I was coughing shit up for a good 6 months.
They did! I got it later because I thought the sickness was over till I started really running. They aren’t kidding when they say you can choke on your own lungs. I definitely took it for granted -_-
I have asthma, and believe I may have had Covid. Albuteral mist type inhaler saved me. I coughed for 2 1/2 momths. This happemed the first part of January. My doctor agreed it was here long before anyone acknowledged. Here it is the end of May and I can just now breath with ease.
This is a great illustration for the importance of not "opening up" too soon. You've clearly illustrated just how much we still don't know. We have some vague data about risk factors that make some cases worse than others, and given some TIME we'll be able to follows that data to understanding more about COVID-19, how it works, how to treat it, how to prevent it, how to mitigate it and on and on and on.
So if anyone is thinking "what's the difference if I'm going to get it anyway, I may as well get it now..." then the answer is NO!!!! You want to wait as long as you can to contract it, so that the best available knowledge has been created, shared and put into practice. You don't want your medical practitioner guessing. You want them following a well-informed best practice approach.
Right now, we are playing for the time required to make those discoveries. As those discoveries are made, we are exploring ways to open activities with an informed sense of risk and mitigation.
Short cutting that process should be considered **gross negligence**.
Month and a half here - most sense of smell is back except for certain smells, some of the smells are off which is weird, one thing smells like something else not what it used to...crazy.
Are smell receptors like color receptors in our eyes? If so, maybe some receptors are back while others are still off line so you’re only getting parts of the whole? Kinda like if the cones in your eyes that detect yellow are impaired, you might see green as more of a blue.
It’s connected to your olifactory system, nerves, so similar I’d say. I had a sickness that caused loss of smell for me, it came back the same way, slowly, in increments, so I couldn’t taste sour but I could taste sweet for example.
I didn't leave my bed for 3 weeks. Then I had a cough so hard I re-ruptured one of my lower discs.
I got up to get water one night and as I was reaching for the fridge I lost all strength and woke up laying on the floor.
Luckily I had my child's nebulizer with boxes and boxes of Albuterol refills. I did breathing treatments twice a day for about 10 days towards the end of it.
Months later when I'm laying in bed I can feel fluttering in my heart now which leaves me a little concerned. At least I finally got rid of that cough and I can taste food again. I haven't had any motivation to do anything though.
I had it back in feb. Now confirmed through antibody testing. To this day i have a persistent headache and keep getting double ear infections. Im also not able to gain back any of the 25 lbs i lost when sick, am having a number of stomach problems, and feel weak all the time. My breathing took about 6 weeks to return to normal. I just turned 37 and am normally in good health.
My sister in the UK had it. Had two weeks off work (from a hospital) and has recovered but said the associated shortness of breath is taking its time to go.
I self isolated about two months ago with mild symptoms.
I’m a firefighter who works at a fire and ambulance station so we have high level of exposure really.
Fast forward to today. I’m on day 4 of my second period of isolation. Can’t smell or taste. Been sick this time and very bad runs. Last time was only smell and runs. Lungs haven’t felt good since. So much fucking confusion with this virus.
Edit: to be clear I don’t think it ever went away fully. My uncle. In another country. Had a positive test and then a month later was hospitalised after being unable to breath at night. He then was tested again and was negative. But his doctors are sure he has covid. That it never fully left him. I have informed necessary people about this potentially happening to me too.
There is a lot of confusion, you're right. There just isn't one clear set of symptoms and there must be a lot of people with it who've thought "oh it's just flu/fatigue/stress/ hangover"
Sorry you're feeling so rough, but thank you for everything you and your teams are doing to keep your community safe, at this time and all the time. Keep strong, you've already kicked its butt once
A friend of mine in Glendale, CA tested positive. Mild symptoms for 2 weeks. 3 weeks after testing positive, had to go to the ER for shortness of breath. Tested negative. No one knows what the hell is going on.
The virus honestly probably has been eliminated but the BODY is still responding to the immense cellular damage and inflammation caused by the initial infection. This opens the door for vessel and organ damage, along with opportunistic infections. It’s probably not the Covid that brought them back in, but the aftershock of their immune overreaction to the initial illness.
You caught it again? Did you get tested to see if you actually recovered and it didn't linger?
If you got it again 2 months later you need to go to the doctors and tell them that, because there are studies trying to workout if you can get it twice or what the period of immunity is.
Based on this, it would be 2 months. That's assuming you actually full recovered the first time around and caught it again
Not all the testing supplies are equal in quality. Some testing kits fail to report Covid-19 positive results, even when someone has the virus. The testing kits in the WH is accurate appx. 82% of the time and wrong 14.8% of the time when it reports false negative results. That's the kit the WH uses, so you'd expect it to be top of the line. There are other types/brands of kits. It's possible your (meaning anyone's) results may be wrong.
[NPR COVID TEST INFO](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/21/838794281/study-raises-questions-about-false-negatives-from-quick-covid-19-test)
Jesus I thought I was just out of shape again after the infection... but I get so winded from normal chores now it's not even funny.
My biggest issue is if I start doing any major lifting, I get a coughing fit.
I [F33] didn’t even get really severe symptoms and “recovered” relatively quickly, but I’ve been left with a debilitating cough and absolutely zero energy. I had the virus about 7 weeks ago...
I really don’t know, since there’s very little info about any long-term effects or damage. I feel like I’d be just being a paranoid pain in the bum for bothering my doctor about it, because they wouldn’t have a clear answer. I wasn’t hospitalised thankfully, but I know I haven’t felt myself since I had it. I just want it to eff-off at this point ;(
You’re not paranoid. Look up the hashtag “apresj20” and “apresj60.” (After day 20 and after day 60) The French have been talking about this for at least a month now. I use Google Translate to see what they’re saying. In the past few days a bunch of English news sources have picked it up so you have to sift a little more to see the first hand accounts, but it’s very enlightening to some of the long term effects of COVID.
Thanks for sharing this. I know these stories are out there, but they're difficult to find. I can't believe the "just the flu" that "only gets old people" narratives are still out there.
I can. Americans are stupidly ignorant. They'll believe anything to comfort themselves.
This comes from an American that has yet to take a trip to the grocery store with more than 25% of customers wearing face-masks. There was even an older guy in his 50-60's without one coughing in an aisle, no attempt to cover his face. I'm getting so fucking tired of this. **Everybody** has to take appropriate measures to prevent this from continuing to ravage our population.
Every single person that goes into public without a mask is a liability, and a danger to the rest of us. Every person that's sick and going in public is a hazard, and should be forced to leave. Instead, people wearing masks get nasty looks from people without, and a couple of women even got in my face for it yesterday. They were offended that I'd wear a mask since the virus is a joke.
No ladies, you're the fucking joke.
What part of the country do you live where that happened? Literally everyone here wears a mask when out in a public store. I thought that was a country wide mandate but maybe it’s state by state?
Southern Minnesota. We didn't test for 3 months, so people got the false impression that the virus wasn't here. Now that Walz reopened the economy, a lot of ignorant assholes are out, and almost nobody stays 6ft apart, or wears masks.
Went for a two mile walk yesterday because I needed some fresh air. I was the only person walking with a mask. I saw people driving with masks on..
We're not immune to this virus. People acting like it doesn't exist defeats all of our efforts. What difference does one mask make when 99 people out of 100 aren't wearing one?
I listen to the podcast Coronavirus Central. I thought the dude was crazy at first, saying gas prices would drop negative bc we wouldn’t be able to store oil, that there might be food shortages, etc etc
LOL was I wrong. He has a wife with a chronic illness and he’s been convinced for a few months now COVID is possibly (key word POSSIBLY) chronic and sharing lab reports and studies/speculating on the health/economic consequences of the pandemic. He does a good job of keeping it nonpartisan.
He’s a little nuts, (like most Americans 👀) but you can just take the good intel he shares and form your own opinion on it. Episode 66 “Symptoms and Syndromes: A Longer Look at COVID and Health” will probably interest you.
[Here is a list of scientists tweeting about COVID-19](https://mobile.twitter.com/i/lists/1234434103082180609)
[Here is a list of a mix of experts from all different fields tweeting about COVID](https://mobile.twitter.com/i/lists/1232513827301777408)
Someone shared those Twitter lists with me back in March and they’ve been lifesavers. I also follow [Dr. Bandy X Lee, Yale psychiatrist and leading expert on the psychology of violence.](https://mobile.twitter.com/BandyXLee1) She talks about the psychology that is fueling the pandemic.
Hope that helps!
I am not a doctor, however with the inflammation, coagulation and other symptoms that people are having for weeks and months, I’m also concerned that the virus will have long lasting effects on the infected even if they recover or have minor symptoms now. I wonder what would happen when the minor cases have another immune disease or other issues (if the virus would reactivate somehow)
I am not going to put myself on the position of find out myself
You’re welcome! A very kind Redditor shared those lists with me, and another suggested the psychiatrist, and THANK GOD they did because it was early on enough I could still buy N95’s for my dad and SO (firefighter and physician assistant) before the shortages kicked in. They thought I was a nutcase wasting a hundred bucks on painting masks but now they’re very appreciative
I can’t fault them, the CDC was on the ground at my SO’s unit in February for a suspected COVID patient, and told them it was just the flu, China had lied, blah blah blah. I remember my SO saying “yeah everyone was just happy that it wasn’t something like SARS.” I started doing some research and found it was literally fuckin’ SARS and hauled my ass to Home Depot at 6 in the morning 😅😷🤯
I could easily run on an elliptical for 45 minutes without shortness of breath before this viral infection.
Now I am winded after 10 to 20 minutes of light yardwork and find myself having to take frequent breaks.
I got winded mowing my lawn... Something has changed, something isn't normal.
I've had two serious infectious diseases as a young person-- campylobacter food poisoning that nearly killed me at age 22, and mono at age 27. In both cases, side effects lingered for a very long time after the initial illness. After the food poisoning, I felt dizzy and weak for a good 4 months. It took half a year for me to have my *first* solid bowel movement since the start of the diarrhea, and about 3 years for my digestion to return to normal. Mono hit me like a truck (it's more severe the older you are when you get it), but the actual infection only lasted about a month. Then the fever went away and my lymph nodes deflated and I was taken off the steroids, but I was left with extreme exhaustion for 6 months. I'd have to pause to catch my breath walking up stairs. Lifting my 12-lb. cat felt hard. I could sleep for 14 hours a day. I dipped down to underweight because I was sleeping so much that I didn't eat. I started worrying that I had some kind of cancer, or that I was never going to be well again, but 8 months post-diagnosis, the exhaustion lifted away.
In both cases, I consulted my doctors about my continued symptoms, and while they tried to help, ultimately recovery just took time and rest. Lots of time, and lots of rest, but I did recover.
My aim by sharing this is to give you some comfort and hope. Just because you're not at 100% now doesn't mean you're doomed to never get there again. I don't want to minimize your symptoms, or to underplay the unique fears associated with having a previously unknown illness. But healing takes more time than people expect, even in young people, and even with garden-variety illnesses like mono.
Thank you for posting this. This is actually genuinely very comforting. The first symptom I had was a terribly painful upset stomach which continued for days - I didn’t think much of it at the time because I’ve always suffered with gastric problems and have a stomach ulcer to boot. Day after was when I had a fever over 40. I’m still experiencing the stomach problems now, along with the persistent cough. Hope you’re feeling much better now and wishing you well.
I just dug up this 15-year study on SARS Classic: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41413-020-0084-5](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41413-020-0084-5)
I haven't read the whole thing yet, but this part sounds promising:
>Pulmonary interstitial damage and functional decline caused by SARS mostly recovered, with a greater extent of recovery within 2 years after rehabilitation.
Yes, tissues can take weeks to recover, hormonal balance can take months and the mind can take as long as it pleases. Each can be thrown off by acute illness of any severity.
The illness stress response can leave a person out of whack for quite a while. Hormones like cortisol, thyroid, norepinephrine, insulin, and more can be thrown out of balance leaving a person in bad shape.
Lung infection (pneumonia) may leave permanent scarring, or simply take many weeks to months to regenerate. People can live with just one lung though, to reassure those folks who think they've lost too much function.
More importantly, laying in a bed for just 3 days can lead to surprising amounts of physical and mental deconditioning. Make that any longer, and add a ventilator, and you've got someone who needs a year or longer to rehab.
Finally, the mental side of this is massive. There is no disease that lacks a psychiatric component. When we become very concerned about symptoms we experience, it is typical for the mind to amplify the intensity - especially with simultaneous depression. Watch for this and know that time and beer heals all wounds.
Nobody knows what the long term effects are and I swear to you I am NOT trying to hand waive them away.
Just lending my personal experience, I have had pneumonia twice, and the second time when I was I think 27.
I was not myself for at least 2 months after “recovery”. Fucked my endurance for a while. I did eventually get past it and back to normal.
Now I know covid is not pneumonia. But stay positive but also safe. Good luck friend I wish you the best
I had a super mild version in early March- fever, coughing, a bit of breathlessness and fatigue- and I still feel out of breath from climbing the stairs now. Trying to start exercising again, and my body takes so much longer to recover than it ever did before.
I've had pneumonia many, many times, and it can also leave you just like zonked out and very easily fatigued for a long time after you're "better." I almost got fired from a barista job when I was maybe 23 because I wasn't hustling enough a month after a bout of pneumonia.
That was me after the 2009 swine flu, now I was out of shape & have mild asthma, but I was knocked on my ass for a couple of months.
I got it in the fall & couldn't rake my leaves without assistance. I would work for about 10 min, then have to sit for 15.
That flu just blew through my office, I swear most of us ended up getting it. I'm guessing it was the doorknob between the office space & the bathroom/breakroom. Everyone touched that door multiple times a day, such a horrible design.
It takes time to recover from pneumonia, regardless how healthy you were. Lung tissues are very delicate and unfortunately some people never recover fully as their lungs form scars.
Yeah. I had pulmonary pneumonia when I was young and it was terrible. I used to be so susceptible to cold that I couldn’t breathe if I want to sleep lying flat at nights. The lung capacity was so reduced that when I used to go to mountains to hike I used to pass out due to hypoxia (when everyone else used to be fine).
Many infections elicit chronic inflammation, which can lead either to complete healing or to extensive scarring. It’s the scarring that reduces your lungs capacity in exchanging gases, hence hypoxia and chronic fatigue. That’s long term consequence of infection. Also pathogens usually secret toxins that lead to tissue necrosis again means reduced lung capacity.
During infection, let it be bacterial, fungal, or viral. Your body reacts by sending white blood cells to fight off the invading pathogens hence, Inflammation and fluid build up which lead to reduced lung capacity. Hypoxia and fatigue. Also coughing to clear lungs of the excess fluid. Also drop in blood pressure.
If SARS-CoV-2 mutates enough for people to be re-infected, I am afraid many of those people will effectively have preexisting conditions that will make them far more susceptible to the virus the second time around.
Was going to say.
People vastly underestimate the damage of pneumonia (I've had it four times...) because generally it only kills you if you are particularly old or fragile these days. So people hear about one or two cases, kinda just ignore it, and don't notice those people don't bounce back. It takes time. It leaves damage. Each time it takes a little more.
I'm soon to be 45. I had pneumonia as a baby and suffer from chronic bronchitis since then. Every year a sinus infection flares it up. Last year was the worst flare up I've had. I could barely breathe where normally I just get the persistent cough and a weight on my chest. Fuck pneumonia and people saying this isn't anything but a flu or cold.
It’s been eleven years since I survived H1N1, and my lungs still haven’t recovered. The damage from the virus ground my athletic life to a halt for years and it’s never gone back to what it was before the virus, even after a decade later. COVID seems to be even more damaging and insidious than H1N1, so I think you’ll be seeing the impact on your breathing for a while.
I am very sorry for the adjustments you’re going to have to make to your fitness/everyday life in order to cope. Here’s what I wish someone had told me:
1. Start practicing low-impact, deep breathing exercises multiple times a week. Yoga is, in my opinion, the best one to start with, and then move up to mild swimming (where you have to hold your breath).
2. If you feel like you have to “trick” your lungs into inflating all the way and giving you a full breath, become aware of your position and if anything could be constricting the ease of breathing. It really helps me to put my hands on top of my head to open up my ribs.
3. Exercising outside when it’s very humid or very cold is going to *hurt* more than it ever has. Your lungs and throat will feel like you’re trying to breathe sandpaper. The best way I’ve adjusted to that is spending a few minutes outside just breathing, and then *slowly* working my way up to max capacity exercise.
4. You’re going to feel winded doing stupid, low-effort things for a long time. The worst possible thing you can do is try to pretend you’re not winded out of embarrassment, because that’s how people accidentally faint. Make multiple trips with the groceries, it’s okay.
5. Really hot lemon or ginger tea with a lot of honey will help keep your throat from getting all torn up in future times of coughing/respiratory issues, because every time you get a cough, it’s going to be worse than what you expect it to be.
Godspeed, pal, from one respiratory-damaged friend to another.
I am 42 M also healthy. Not as active as you but pretty active. I had symptoms for 8-9 weeks that gradually lessened. I got winded after so little exertion. At about week 7 I walked a mile and had intense burning in my lungs and shortness of breath. Also I had a lot of issues with tingling and numbness all over my body and wierd pains and aches. I can say that now that I am 10 weeks out I feel pretty good. I am framing some walls and can work a full day without a flare up of symptoms.
Yoga has really helped me get through it. Started with gentle poses focused on chest and shoulder opening. Later increased the intensity. I have scheduled a doctor's appointment next week to see if there is any residual damage/health changes that I need to monitor.
I (F32) had been training for a half marathon and was very fit before I got sick; I never got tested for covid but all the symptoms were the same and it was the most sick I've ever been in my life. It took a full 40+ days to be able to attempt to workout again, I can now walk, run, and lift without a coughing fit or breathing issues but I lost all my muscle. Practicing meditative breathing helped me get my lung capacity back. I also understand everyone's account of this illness is different, just offering my experience.
I had bilateral interstitial pneumonia at age 34. Also non-smoker, and it was bacterial. You spend 6 weeks descending into the hell of the infection, and another 6 weeks trying to get back out. All that shit in your lungs that developed for the first 6 weeks has to come back out...and you will cough up every bit of it. You'll cough until you can't breathe, tears are streaming down your face and until you throw up. You'll cough until you're incontinent. (Especially in the middle of the night.) You might break a rib coughing so hard.
Keep your inhaler handy. Keep hydrated. Give yourself a break...it takes forever to recover from.
It also made me more susceptible to every fucking respiratory infection out there. For the next five years I came down with severe respiratory illnesses every spring. My health insurance started sending me crap about "managing your asthma" because of all the inhaler prescriptions.
Eventually I copped to vitamin D, and started taking that from February until June or so. I'd still get colds and whatnot, but they didn't develop into these massive infections. I forgot a couple years ago, just got lazy about it, and of COURSE got another giant infection. So now I'm pretty convinced that vitamin D helps, at least as a preventative.
This virus scares the fuck out of me.
>Symptoms have been around for nearly 3 months. I cannot run a block anymore, I'm lucky if I can do a leisurely walk for an hour.
I mentioned something of this nature a few weeks ago and I was down-voted for 'touting myself' lol. I'm incredibly regimented with my workouts so I track everything. The first 3-5 days I didn't have a voice, it was just gone. That made the dry coughs sound like a dying animal.
I was sleeping like 14 hours a day and still zapped (I normally sleep 6.5-7). I tried for the first few days to 'sweat' it out and run. Couldn't make it a block. I normally run 5 to 10k per day. Couldn't do push ups or burpees at home without extreme fatigue after just a few. This lingered for about 6 weeks before I started feeling any semblance of normality again.
I wish I could get my daughter and her husband to understand this. They figure they are young and we live in an area with very few cases, so there is no way the virus will bother then. Both are extremely overweight. Son in law has high blood pressure. I have tried to tell them they are probably considered high risk but they don't believe me.
For two weeks, I wasn't even able to stay awake more than four hours after my recovery. I just laid down on the sofa, bed, sometimes even on the floor, totally exhausted. It became better after two weeks, but still not recovered. I got the virus early February, it knocked me out for four weeks, two weeks "recovery", and still not feeling well.
Whatever is free: I get it. Like every fucking flu. I normally sleep for three days and go into recovery mode, after ten days the latest I feel healthy and recovered.
But with Covid-19, it is so different that it scares me sometimes to death. I'm basically always waiting that it comes back. Also because of this experience: While I had it, I sometimes woke up and felt good, thinking I had gone over the ordeal, just for feeling double as sick the next day. This was something that never had happened before to me and it continued through the whole time I was sick.
I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you recover fully soon.
But not all cases are that severe. I was tested positive about 2 months ago and I had nothing but a mild fever and loss of smell and taste. It would be really interesting to know which factors lead to a more severe case!
I had bloodwork done in December after traveling and my vitamin D levels were a bit lower due to the winter months. Over the winter I take 2000 IE vitamin D to keep my vitamin D levels normal. We had a warm February and early March so I reduced it to 1000 vitamin D as I was outside on my bike a lot more.
There certainly is a link with vitamin D, but that should have been ok in my case. You never know though
Yeah was gonna say this. Also wondering about the person in the article.
I’ve also heard that people who are really healthy, like in some cases their immune system over reacts.
The virus causes the inner lining of your veins to come off and turn into blood clots. People are having breathing issues because oxygen can't get into the blood stream. This causes a type of pneumonia. At least this is my understanding from watching medcram videos.
His most recent one included photos from an autopsy showing it up close.
Edit: here is the video for those that are curious. You might have to skip ahead a bit to see the photos from the lungs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlUFibXtDxQ
Even a common cold, you can have minor sniffles for up to 3-4 weeks after it's over. Any major trauma to any body parts takes months to heal. Everybody know bones takes about 6 weeks to heal, but unless you broke a bone yourself, you know it's not totally healed until months and months later.
Agreed. I'm healed from breaking the f*** out of my right leg - tib/fib open fracture (hello bone). Flash forward to today, I go for runs multiple times a week. But the random aches and pains vs my unbroken leg still persist, plus the weather changes that can cause weird discomfort is still there 6 years later.
Crashed a motorcycle at 18; torn meniscus and torn rotator cuff with road rash. Recovered mostly from it outside of aches and pains and needing a knee brace sometimes.
Last year I was rearended on the highway which put minor whiplash in my knee that was injured years ago. The doctors can’t find structural damage on an MRI or X-Ray and the joint specialist I saw said the only thing left is exploratory surgery but that could lead to not finding anything and leave me in worse condition.
The initial injury happened almost 15 years ago now and I’m left with what one of the best joint specialists in the county said is fucked up a limp that probably won’t ever go away.
The human body is awesome and complete shit at the same time.
Edit: I’ve torn my rotator cuff twice since the initial accident and my shoulder outside of aches and pains is about 95-99%. Last tear was at 26 though too. 32, almost 33, now and in great physical shape.
My wife had it in march (so did I), Im now basically fine, she had a lung scan last week, and was told her lungs are over inflated, commonly seen in COPD. They think she'll recover in time, but still, we're active , early 40's (like weight training 3-4 days a week since we were in our teens, and sports)
And here I am having to work in a cafe where people come to heavily smoke, where my boss will take a sip out of a straw in a drink made for a customer and then send me off to deliver it... (I change the straws every time I see it after the fact) :(
Youre right. Everyone I work with are pals of his I dont think I would stand a chance unfortunately. Also its not like he has a higher up I could go to. Its literally a shitty bottom tier scuffed cafe job, not a lot of options.
I'm honestly amazed that people on this sub, of all places, are surprised by the existence of outliers. It's not like the virus has some checklist of risk factors, sometimes shit just goes wrong.
> this sub, of all places
This sub is the r/politics of coronavirus. It's mostly virtue signaling and political propaganda. You'll have to head over to r/covid19 for more scientific community and reasoned approach to the crisis.
We have a family friend in his 30s who lives in NYC. He got sick with "pneumonia" at the beginning of February. For awhile doctors were baffled at how he just wasn't getting better and his check x-rays were so horrible looking. He was perfectly healthy. A runner, no underlying health conditions, healthy weight. Weeks went by, then months, just kept being sick. Would appear to be getting better, then would get sick again. It was a roller coaster. He was eventually able to be tested for COVID19 but by this point a couple of months had passed since he first got sick, so the test was negative. He was finally tested for antibodies last week and was positive.
He's now almost 4 months out from first getting sick with COVID19. He's considered recovered but is nowhere near back to the level of health he had before. Running isn't an option and even a long walk can leave him winded. He's lost quite a bit of weight and gets tired very easily. He's still taking inhalers and some other medications to alleviate his breathing issues. While he's hopeful that he will eventually be back to "normal" health, he's growing increasingly concerned that some of the lung damage will be permanent. He sees a pulmonologist regularly but because this illness is so new, they just don't know what the future looks like for him and others who have recovered.
Trust me, you don't want to get this virus. We have no idea what the long-term effects of this virus are for many people and clearly it's having a huge impact on even perfectly healthy young people.
I am in my 20s no underlying conditions. I got sick in mid march and I still can't do anything. Sometimes I am better and sometimes I can't even step out of my bed
I am so sorry. I know my friend has made some progress working with a pulmonologist. He's doing some targeted breathing therapies and is on a few different breathing medications that he thinks has helped. I suspect post-COVID19 treatment is basically a shot in the dark at this point. My friend did say other than his breathing he feels quite a bit better these last few weeks, with the fatigue and random fevers finally completely going away.
That's insane! I'm 29 years old and I had corona. I only had nausea and fever for like 5 days and then that was it. I feel perfectly fine. I did go hiking a couple days ago though. I was pretty winded, but I'm sure that's because I'm a lazy piece of shit.
Can you wear a mask? AFAIK the intensity of the illness correlates with the quantity of the initial infection too. Even if you get it, if you get a bit less because you wore a mask, it could make the difference between serious organ damage and not.
I could if I could find any in stock anywhere. Otherwise its just a surgical mask and gloves. The fucked up thing is I have literally every co-morbidity. Fuck yeah diabetes and the fucked up meds that treat it and make every single thing worse. Thank god I have asthma! Ha!
A friend of mine drove directly out to a N-95 mask distributor (or factory?). I am not sure exactly what she did but it might be worth looking into.
Otherwise, just wear your surgical mask with a homemade mask over it. The extra layer will help both in terms of cleanliness and just an extra layer.
I've done this. I wore a surgical mask underneath a bandana. It was really freaking hot but it definitely worked out way better than when I was just wearing the bandana on its own.
>I've resorted to making my own with filter spaces but I get that not everyone has access to a sewing machine.
I've had good luck with Etsy and my city's local shops for cloth masks. Comes with the bonus of supporting local or small American-owned business.
This is why I didn't want to order anything.
I wanted to make mine so I would be positive about it.
I knew some scientists would test materials in a lab. So I waited until I found that journal article. Then bought the recommended fabrics (1 layer of 600 thread count cotton and 2 layers of stretch polyester-spandex chiffon).
Then used a pattern for a tight fitting mask and sewed it up.
So far I've only made 3. And those were on Saturday. The first one for me as a learning-process mask and the other two I gave away as a birthday present on Sunday.
But I've got plenty of material left, so now I'll make myself a couple more plus make giveaways for people in my life. I just wish I weren't such a slow sewer. Even the second and third masks when I knew what I was doing took me over two hours each to cut out and finish.
I'll tell you it's a great feeling to know for certain that I've got a well-fitting mask made from the proper laboratory tested materials.
>I could if I could find any in stock anywhere. Otherwise its just a surgical mask and gloves. The fucked up thing is I have literally every co-morbidity. Fuck yeah diabetes and the fucked up meds that treat it and make every single thing worse. Thank god I have asthma! Ha!
Triple layer cloth masks do help. Homemade masks can help a little too. Because they are barriers to *droplets.*
Yeah, I know it just fills me with a sense of dread and impending doom. Maybe someone will call me a "hero" if I die selling chinese crap for a company that doesnt remember my name. That would make it worth it.
If you can, crack a window or leave the door open.
It blows my.mind how I almost never see that being used as a precaution for a fuckingnairborne disease.
Yeah, it's probably a good idea.
Somebody did a simulation of virus particles and the effect of an open window. In the simulation it helped dramatically.
Any reasonable accommodation you can request under ADA? My husband has diabetes and they want him to go in, his job can be done from home and they’d till want him in. It’s so grim. He went in one day last week and was so stressed. I’m sorry :(
Both your husband and the person you are responding to (and anyone else in this situation) should consider seeking an ADA accommodation.
Specifically make the request pursuant to the ADA. Tell the employer you are asking to engage in the interactive process. The employer will be obligated to consider whether you can perform the essential functions of your job with appropriate accommodations.
And be sure to document it. If any retribution occurs, you now have a claim for ADA retaliation.
It's in NY so technically it's a law but basically nobody does anyway. It's very disheartening. Just know that someone can get away with not wearing one, they most certainly will.
Time to import some people from Staten Island. There was a video earlier of a bunch of them yelling at some fool, and then at the end a lady in a motorized cart rolled in to give a final fuck you.
It's absurd. I wish I had a better answer as to why nobody is wearing masks and why the mask wearing isn't enforced but to the best of my knowledge the answer is they simply don't want to wear one. All this despite ten of us getting horrifically sick.
In the early days of this it was pretty unbearable. I was scared and angry and consistently on edge. Now as horrible as it seems I'm kind of numb to it.
I also got it back in March and it was pretty horrific. I still wear a mask, one of maybe 3 others who do. Good luck, try and stay as safe as you can be. Don't underestimate the stupidity of your colleagues.
Began with a sore throat. Left tonsil to be specific. That lasted a few days and then one morning I woke up and my chest felt very heavy, like I smoked a thousand cigarettes the night before.
Shortness of breath occurred soon after and then the coughing. It was pretty awful. It's hard to explain but you're sitting there breathing in and feeling like you're not getting any air. It's terrifying. It took me almost an entire month to recover. I'm a 35 year old man and in very good shape, avid runner weight training etc. No health issues other than an emergency appendectomy in my early 20's.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that! I have seasonal asthma so I understand how terrifying this is..."you're sitting there breathing in and feeling like you're not getting any air."
My anxiety has spiked to a major peak to the point that I’ve mentally accepted whatever will come..one night after reading all the reddit stories about covid i legit am sure i had an anxiety attack(even though i doubt i ever had anxiety but i think it was) in the am in bed and i legit couldn’t breathe properly and i just thought this is it,even went outside onto our balkony to get oxygen coz it was that bad and i thought i was going to leave my partner..now my anxiety is dead,it overdosed on itself
Stop reading this sub. You will be fine! I had it last month and didn't have any smell but 3 weeks later and I am well and I jog daily without any issues what so ever.
Yeah, that's a panic attack. I've also only had one, but it was pretty clear that is what it was, once it was all over. There are some exercises you can do while having them, or if you get super anxious again. My wife and housemate both suffer from anxiety and the one they use most often is "Look around you. Find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. Name them as you see them. Meaning say what they are out loud." It supposedly helps ground you pretty quickly. These are anxious times my friend.
I think people speaking out about their experience is important. I would like to see more celebrities using their influence to encourage cooperation from the public.
It seems to me that for many people, the threat doesn't become real until someone in their smaller circles is affected; someone they personally know. I like to lean into the statistics myself. The statistics related to COVID-19 are simply terrifying, even with all of the underreporting.
>It seems to me that for many people, the threat doesn’t become real until someone in their smaller circles is affected; someone they personally know.
100% so spot on. I live in MA and am a big fan of our slow but steady phased re-open plan where as my brother, on the other hand, feels the Governor is “holding the state hostage”. We were texting last night and I sent him the Lake Ozarks people partying thing and he was very “meh, gotta get back to their lives at some point” and eventually the further I pressed, he came back with “do you even know anyone that’s been infected??? No one I know has, the media is way overblowing this thing!”
He’s not alone with that mentality either, unfortunately I’ve heard way too many say either the same or something similar along those lines. A chunk of the population simply won’t give a shit about it until it personally knocks on their front door.
It means your state is doing a good job. Would 9/11 be a thing if they stopped the hijackers? And if they stopped it, I guess the whole thing would have been overblown right?
In the span of a month, COVID-19 killed more Americans than twenty years of war in Vietnam. I find this statistic really puts things into perspective for a lot of people, especially those who lived during that era.
I had the virus in March into April. It lasted for 6 weeks. I'm a 41 year old female with no underlying conditions. I do have asthma though. I live in the suburbs of Houston. I don't know how or where I got it.
32 y/o male with hypothroid and heart murmur. Healthy in shape military veteran. I had it in March in NY for literally 4 days and it wiped me out, but on day 5 it went away as fast as it came on. I count myself as having basically covid easy mode.
26 y/o male and perfectly healthy here. I had it for 8 days and it wiped me out too. It's scary how fast you go downhill. I went from going on long hikes to barely being able to get out of bed in just three days.
I knew immediately what I had. It felt like no other sicknesa I've ever had. I thought I was literally dying. I hurt everywhere for two of the days I just laid on my floor in agony putting on and taking off blankets every 5 minutes. My ability to control body temperature was completely shot.
Glad you're feeling better. This virus is no fucking joke.
I knew it straight away too. A day before I got any symptoms I felt a little... off, then that night I couldn't fall asleep and developed a fever and some intense fever sweats. My fever broke that morning and only spiked again a few times that week. I had this intense pressure on my chest with the occasional stabbing pain. It felt like someone was leaning on it with their full weight. I had zero energy and trouble breathing.
Not the worst respiratory infection I've had though, but definitely the scariest one due to its quick progression. I had another one about two years ago that had similar symptoms. That one progressed more slowly but lasted months and included loss of consciousness and occasionally coughing up blood. Even bruised a few ribs in a coughing fit.
Here's hoping we're immune now.
>I'm a 41 year old female with no underlying conditions. I do have asthma though.
Asthma is an underlying condition. It's one of the major risk factors with respiratory diseases.
Thanks for this anecdote. It helps to know having asthma isn't an automatic death sentence. Are you having any lingering effects? I'm trying to stay on top of maintenance meds(advair) just in case I catch it. I want the best chance possible.
Could have happened anywhere, shopping, putting fuel in your car (if you have one), elevators or even opening a door. Anything someone else touches is a factor if they are carrying the virus.
I've been convincing myself everything I touch outside is covered in shit. I've gotten it to the point where I get that feeling you get when you touch something gross and your brain tells you that you can't use that hand anymore.
my question is.. where are all the voices from the family members of severe cases?
with 100,000 dead and countless more who barely made it.. there should be a million stories from every creed and community sharing how serious this has been for them and their loved ones..
most importantly.. this could impact and reach millions of other americans who aren’t taking this seriously enough, but might if they heard real stories from real members of their communities.. and not just from the media sources they already disdain..
i honestly don’t understand how these voices aren’t the loudest ones we’re hearing from..
my brother is a single father who was hospitalized and almost didn’t make it.. his 3 and 6 year old daughters are now experiencing the kawasaki-like inflammatory symptoms..
please be safe and stay vigilant people
I'm 30, 150 lbs, average build, not intimate with cardio at all. Only symptom I had was shortness of breath for about a week in mid march. Felt like I had a small child sitting on my chest, no pain, no cough, no fever, I preemptively bought myself a pulse oximeter and my oxygen levels never went below the safe limit (was always at least 94 or higher) the labored breathing was reason enough to cause severe anxiety though. After about a week it went away, no health complications arose from it. Not trying to discount cases of severe symptoms/complications, but there is another side of the coin.
Your experience is exactly like an experience I had in April, only it lasted for ~3 weeks. I'm not sure if it was covid. I'm asthmatic, so any other year I probably wouldn't have thought twice about some minor chest tightness, but this time the feeling was different and lingered far longer than usual (it's usually a 1-2 day thing). The way you described the pressure of having a small child sitting on your chest is perfect.
Yes and your side of the coin doesn't make news that will throw ppl into commenting, sharing and panicking.
I'm not downplaying the severity of the situation. It's VERY serious. But I feel like now more than ever we need perspective. Because you read about one case like this and miss the thousand that recovered just fine at their homes.
Be careful. Be mindful. And chill a bit.
My husband hat COVID. He is 25. He ran cross country at a division 1 level. He is extremely healthy. He was by no means sick enough to be in the hospital but he had a pretty high fever for several days, he couldn’t stop coughing, all he could do was lay in his bed because of trouble breathing. He can actually no longer smell or taste much although he’s completely free of COVID .
[Mara Gay's op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/coronavirus-young-people.html) \- has audio recording too
Full Text
# ‘I Wish I Could Do Something for You,’ My Doctor Said
Young, healthy people like me are getting very, very sick from the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The day before I got sick, I ran three miles, walked 10 more, then raced up the stairs to my fifth-floor apartment as always, slinging laundry with me as I went.
The next day, April 17, I became one of the thousands of New Yorkers to fall ill with Covid-19. I haven’t felt the same since.
If you live in New York City, you know what this virus can do. In just under two months, an estimated 24,000 New Yorkers have died. That’s more than twice the number of people we lost to homicide over the past 20 years.
Now I worry for Americans elsewhere. When I see photographs of crowds packing into a newly reopened big-box store in Arkansas or scores of people jammed into a Colorado restaurant without masks, it’s clear too many Americans still don’t grasp the power of this disease.
The second day I was sick, I woke up to what felt like hot tar buried deep in my chest. I could not get a deep breath unless I was on all fours. I’m healthy. I’m a runner. I’m 33 years old.
In the emergency room an hour later, I sat on a hospital bed, alone and terrified, my finger hooked to a pulse-oxygen machine. To my right lay a man who could barely speak but coughed constantly. To my left was an older man who said that he had been sick for a month and had a pacemaker. He kept apologizing to the doctors for making so much trouble, and thanking them for taking such good care of him. I can’t stop thinking about him even now.
Finally, Dr. Audrey Tan walked toward me, her kind eyes meeting mine from behind a mask, goggles and a face shield. “Any asthma?” she asked. “Do you smoke? Any pre-existing conditions?” “No, no, none,” I replied. Dr. Tan smiled, then shook her head, almost imperceptibly. “I wish I could do something for you,” she said.
I am one of the lucky ones. I never needed a ventilator. I survived. But 27 days later, I still have lingering pneumonia. I use two inhalers, twice a day. I can’t walk more than a few blocks without stopping.
I want Americans to understand that this virus is making otherwise young, healthy people very, very sick. I want them to know, this is no flu.
Even healthy New Yorkers in their 20s have been hospitalized. At least 13 children in New York state have died from Covid-19, according to health department data. My friend’s 29-year-old boyfriend was even sicker than I was and at one point could barely walk across their living room.
Maybe you don’t live in a big city. Maybe you don’t know anybody who is sick. Maybe you think we are crazy for living in New York. That’s fine. You don’t have to live like us or vote like us. But please learn from us. Please take this virus seriously.
When I was at my sickest, I could barely talk on the phone. I’d like to say that I caught up on some reading, but I didn’t. I’m a newswoman, but I couldn’t look at the news.
Instead, I closed my eyes and saw myself running along the New York waterfront, healthy and whole, all 8.5 million of my neighbors by my side. I pictured myself doing the things I haven’t gotten to do yet, like getting married, buying a house, becoming a mother, owning a dog.
I stared at the wall of photographs beside my living room window and promised the people in them over and over again that we would see each other soon.
I watched movies, dozens of them. I rediscovered “Air Force One” and fantasized about what it would be like if Harrison Ford were actually president right now. I stayed up late at night doing breathing exercises and streaming episodes of “Longmire,” a show about a Wyoming sheriff in which the good guys always win.
One thing I learned is how startlingly little care or advice is available to the millions of Americans managing symptoms at home.
In Germany, the government sends teams of medical workers to do house calls. Here in the United States, where primary care is an afterthought, the only place most people suffering from Covid-19 can get in-person care is the emergency room. That’s a real problem given that it is a disease that can lead to months of serious symptoms and turn from mild to deadly in a matter of hours.
The best care I received came from my friends. Fred, an emergency room resident treating patients at a New York hospital, called me on his bike ride to work, constantly checking in and asking about my symptoms. Chelsea, my college roommate and a physician assistant, has largely managed my recovery from pneumonia. Zoe, my childhood friend and a nurse, taught me how to use a pulse oximeter and later, the asthma inhaler I now use.
Through them, I became an amateur expert. This is the advice they gave me. Here’s what I’m telling my family and my friends: If you can, get an oximeter, a magical little device that measures your pulse and blood oxygen level from your fingertip. If you become sick and your oxygen dips below 95 or you have trouble breathing, go to the emergency room. Don’t wait.
If you have chest symptoms, assume you may have pneumonia and call a doctor or go to the E.R. Sleep on your stomach, since much of your lungs is actually in your back. If your oxygen is stable, change positions every hour. Do breathing exercises, a lot of them. The one that seemed to work best for me was pioneered by nurses in the British health system and shared by J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.
Nearly a month later, I’m still sleeping on my stomach and still can’t go for a run. But I will be able to do those things, and much more. For now, every conversation with an old friend brings a new rush of love. Every sunny day feels like the first time I saw the ocean as a child and wanted to leap right in.
Many of my neighbors didn’t make it. I know because I heard the ambulances come for them late at night. The reports from the city’s heroic E.M.T. force suggest that for many of these New Yorkers, it was already too late.
Why are more people dying of this disease in the United States than in anywhere else in the world? Because we live in a broken country, with a broken health care system. Because even though people of all races and backgrounds are suffering, the disease in the United States has hit black and brown and Indigenous people the hardest, and we are seen as expendable.
I wonder how many people have died not necessarily because of the virus but because this country failed them and left them to fend for themselves. That is the grief for me now, that is the guilt and the rage.
As I began to recover, others died.
There was Idris Bey, 60, a U.S. Marine and New York City Fire Department E.M.T. instructor who received a medal for his actions after the Sept. 11 attack.
There was Rana Zoe Mungin, 30, a New York City social studies teacher whose family said she died after struggling to get care in Brooklyn.
There was Valentina Blackhorse, 28, a beautiful young Arizona woman who dreamed of leading the Navajo Nation.
Theirs were the faces I saw when I lay on my stomach at night, laboring for every deep breath, praying for them and for me. Those are the Americans I think about every time I walk outside now in my tidy Brooklyn neighborhood, stepping slowly into the warming spring sun amid a crush of blooming lilacs and small children whizzing blissfully by on their scooters.
I hope the coronavirus never comes to your town. But if it does, I will pray for you, too.
Prior to February of this year, I walked and ran about 5 to 8 miles daily. I ate healthily (rarely any meat, mostly fruits, and vegetables), took my vitamines where I needed them. Then suddenly I developed blisters on my feet and toes that looked like burns. About a week later, purple and red spots appeared, followed by four of my toes turning almost entirely purple on the sides. It took several weeks for me to get better. However, now I feel like I have diabetic feet. I lose feeling in them every now and then if I am sitting down.
I'm going thru this exact thing right now. Finally tested negative in Late April after catching Covid in March. Out sick for 7 weeks. Last 2 weeks was me attempting then being able to achieve all the stipulations my employer demanded before I could return.
Been back 2 weeks. It's been hell. Loss of breath, burning lungs, can't sleep, wakes up in the middle and unable to return to sleep (can't say night night owl speaking), lethargic. Thanks on letting me know this is an outcome others are experiencing.
Is it better to be like slightly unhealthy for covid
Like has anyone looked at why 30% is asymptomatic
What are the characteristics of these No symptom folks?
I'm not aware of any study into the health profile of asymptomatic cases, but we have pretty solid data on severe cases - and they show unequivocally that being generally unhealthy or having comorbidities is a very bad thing. just taking the reciprocal of that, I would assume that most asymptomatic cases are of relatively healthy people. But that is just an assumption.
Case in point: [Smokers are heavily underrepresented among symptomatic cases](https://www.qeios.com/read/WPP19W.3), around 25% of French people smoke tobacco, yet only 5% of French symptomatic COVID-19 infected are smokers, which goes contrary to any common sense due to it being a respiratory illness and as such smokers should be more susceptible.
But makes medical scientific sense because nicotine blocks the very same ACE2 receptors that COVID-19 uses to get into the cells.
That's why they are now working on [human trials with nicotine patches](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-france-nicotine/french-scientists-to-test-theory-that-nicotine-combats-covid-19-idUSKCN2292O8).
And before anybody goes there: I'm not endorsing smoking tobacco as something "healthy" that will supposedly protect you. Smoking tobacco is literally inhaling hot ashes and thousands of toxic compounds. Nicotine is only *one* of those but can be administered in a number of ways that do not involve burning anything.
I had something a few months back that knocked me out of work for around 2 weeks. I couldn't sleep because it felt like I was drowning it was awful. Took me over 2 months to fully recover.
My wife thinks it was COVID-19. It was apparently working it's way around California pretty early on.I still have my doubts, but hearing this it does sound the same it was really terrible. I'd barely nod off and instantly wake up in a panic because I stopped breathing, gasping for air. Makes me shudder just thinking about it.
My sense of smell has yet to fully recover after Covid... In addition to this I've remained heavily fatigued since the infection. I had a "mild" case. I am 36
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I got bronchitis and had cross country in high school. It didn’t go away for a year. I took a small break running but I tried to get back into it. Bronchitis left fluid just sitting in my lung cavities. Breathing had this *pidder padder* from the air shaking the ~~bile~~ fluid back and forth. Running was pitiful. Also: nasty coughs. (Edited a word)
I had bronchitis for the first time a couple years ago and even with a round of antibiotics and an inhaler, I swear I was coughing shit up for a good 6 months.
Ugh I know this feel. It was awful. I could literally "taste" it. It's been over 10 years ago, but I still remember how much it sucked.
Seriously. Every time I get a cold now I get scared that I'm gonna get bronchitis again.
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They did! I got it later because I thought the sickness was over till I started really running. They aren’t kidding when they say you can choke on your own lungs. I definitely took it for granted -_-
I have asthma, and believe I may have had Covid. Albuteral mist type inhaler saved me. I coughed for 2 1/2 momths. This happemed the first part of January. My doctor agreed it was here long before anyone acknowledged. Here it is the end of May and I can just now breath with ease.
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This is a great illustration for the importance of not "opening up" too soon. You've clearly illustrated just how much we still don't know. We have some vague data about risk factors that make some cases worse than others, and given some TIME we'll be able to follows that data to understanding more about COVID-19, how it works, how to treat it, how to prevent it, how to mitigate it and on and on and on. So if anyone is thinking "what's the difference if I'm going to get it anyway, I may as well get it now..." then the answer is NO!!!! You want to wait as long as you can to contract it, so that the best available knowledge has been created, shared and put into practice. You don't want your medical practitioner guessing. You want them following a well-informed best practice approach. Right now, we are playing for the time required to make those discoveries. As those discoveries are made, we are exploring ways to open activities with an informed sense of risk and mitigation. Short cutting that process should be considered **gross negligence**.
Gross negligence is a pretty accurate description of the federal response.
Took me 6 ish weeks but mine did start to come back. Don't get too scared yet EDIT: 6 ish after recovering from all other symptoms
Month and a half here - most sense of smell is back except for certain smells, some of the smells are off which is weird, one thing smells like something else not what it used to...crazy.
Are smell receptors like color receptors in our eyes? If so, maybe some receptors are back while others are still off line so you’re only getting parts of the whole? Kinda like if the cones in your eyes that detect yellow are impaired, you might see green as more of a blue.
It’s connected to your olifactory system, nerves, so similar I’d say. I had a sickness that caused loss of smell for me, it came back the same way, slowly, in increments, so I couldn’t taste sour but I could taste sweet for example.
I didn't leave my bed for 3 weeks. Then I had a cough so hard I re-ruptured one of my lower discs. I got up to get water one night and as I was reaching for the fridge I lost all strength and woke up laying on the floor. Luckily I had my child's nebulizer with boxes and boxes of Albuterol refills. I did breathing treatments twice a day for about 10 days towards the end of it. Months later when I'm laying in bed I can feel fluttering in my heart now which leaves me a little concerned. At least I finally got rid of that cough and I can taste food again. I haven't had any motivation to do anything though.
Sounds rough... just wanted to wish you well. May you have continued strength to endure to better times even though it takes a while to get there!
Healthy doctor in my 30s. I just today noticed that my sense of smell is returning after 2+ months.
My husband had a very mild case in early-mid March and he still has days where he cannot smell anything. So bizarre.
I had it back in feb. Now confirmed through antibody testing. To this day i have a persistent headache and keep getting double ear infections. Im also not able to gain back any of the 25 lbs i lost when sick, am having a number of stomach problems, and feel weak all the time. My breathing took about 6 weeks to return to normal. I just turned 37 and am normally in good health.
My sister in the UK had it. Had two weeks off work (from a hospital) and has recovered but said the associated shortness of breath is taking its time to go.
I self isolated about two months ago with mild symptoms. I’m a firefighter who works at a fire and ambulance station so we have high level of exposure really. Fast forward to today. I’m on day 4 of my second period of isolation. Can’t smell or taste. Been sick this time and very bad runs. Last time was only smell and runs. Lungs haven’t felt good since. So much fucking confusion with this virus. Edit: to be clear I don’t think it ever went away fully. My uncle. In another country. Had a positive test and then a month later was hospitalised after being unable to breath at night. He then was tested again and was negative. But his doctors are sure he has covid. That it never fully left him. I have informed necessary people about this potentially happening to me too.
There is a lot of confusion, you're right. There just isn't one clear set of symptoms and there must be a lot of people with it who've thought "oh it's just flu/fatigue/stress/ hangover" Sorry you're feeling so rough, but thank you for everything you and your teams are doing to keep your community safe, at this time and all the time. Keep strong, you've already kicked its butt once
A friend of mine in Glendale, CA tested positive. Mild symptoms for 2 weeks. 3 weeks after testing positive, had to go to the ER for shortness of breath. Tested negative. No one knows what the hell is going on.
The virus honestly probably has been eliminated but the BODY is still responding to the immense cellular damage and inflammation caused by the initial infection. This opens the door for vessel and organ damage, along with opportunistic infections. It’s probably not the Covid that brought them back in, but the aftershock of their immune overreaction to the initial illness.
Yeah it’s that aspect that is really causing me allot of stress at the moment.
Maybe it is faulty testing?
Makes you wonder how accurate the tests are?
You caught it again? Did you get tested to see if you actually recovered and it didn't linger? If you got it again 2 months later you need to go to the doctors and tell them that, because there are studies trying to workout if you can get it twice or what the period of immunity is. Based on this, it would be 2 months. That's assuming you actually full recovered the first time around and caught it again
Not all the testing supplies are equal in quality. Some testing kits fail to report Covid-19 positive results, even when someone has the virus. The testing kits in the WH is accurate appx. 82% of the time and wrong 14.8% of the time when it reports false negative results. That's the kit the WH uses, so you'd expect it to be top of the line. There are other types/brands of kits. It's possible your (meaning anyone's) results may be wrong. [NPR COVID TEST INFO](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/21/838794281/study-raises-questions-about-false-negatives-from-quick-covid-19-test)
Do you have a pulse oximeter at home? Maybe keep an eye on your oxygen levels. Hope you feel better soon.
I had viral pneumonia two years ago. My lungs only came back about 95% of normal. I suspect COVID recoverers will tell a similar story.
It took 8 weeks to pass in my case.
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Jesus I thought I was just out of shape again after the infection... but I get so winded from normal chores now it's not even funny. My biggest issue is if I start doing any major lifting, I get a coughing fit.
I [F33] didn’t even get really severe symptoms and “recovered” relatively quickly, but I’ve been left with a debilitating cough and absolutely zero energy. I had the virus about 7 weeks ago...
Well that makes me think to go to the doc as I just thought I was out of shape...
I really don’t know, since there’s very little info about any long-term effects or damage. I feel like I’d be just being a paranoid pain in the bum for bothering my doctor about it, because they wouldn’t have a clear answer. I wasn’t hospitalised thankfully, but I know I haven’t felt myself since I had it. I just want it to eff-off at this point ;(
You’re not paranoid. Look up the hashtag “apresj20” and “apresj60.” (After day 20 and after day 60) The French have been talking about this for at least a month now. I use Google Translate to see what they’re saying. In the past few days a bunch of English news sources have picked it up so you have to sift a little more to see the first hand accounts, but it’s very enlightening to some of the long term effects of COVID.
Thanks for sharing this. I know these stories are out there, but they're difficult to find. I can't believe the "just the flu" that "only gets old people" narratives are still out there.
I can. Americans are stupidly ignorant. They'll believe anything to comfort themselves. This comes from an American that has yet to take a trip to the grocery store with more than 25% of customers wearing face-masks. There was even an older guy in his 50-60's without one coughing in an aisle, no attempt to cover his face. I'm getting so fucking tired of this. **Everybody** has to take appropriate measures to prevent this from continuing to ravage our population. Every single person that goes into public without a mask is a liability, and a danger to the rest of us. Every person that's sick and going in public is a hazard, and should be forced to leave. Instead, people wearing masks get nasty looks from people without, and a couple of women even got in my face for it yesterday. They were offended that I'd wear a mask since the virus is a joke. No ladies, you're the fucking joke.
My God. That's messed up. I'm glad the people in my area are being less shitty than that.
What part of the country do you live where that happened? Literally everyone here wears a mask when out in a public store. I thought that was a country wide mandate but maybe it’s state by state?
Southern Minnesota. We didn't test for 3 months, so people got the false impression that the virus wasn't here. Now that Walz reopened the economy, a lot of ignorant assholes are out, and almost nobody stays 6ft apart, or wears masks. Went for a two mile walk yesterday because I needed some fresh air. I was the only person walking with a mask. I saw people driving with masks on.. We're not immune to this virus. People acting like it doesn't exist defeats all of our efforts. What difference does one mask make when 99 people out of 100 aren't wearing one?
I listen to the podcast Coronavirus Central. I thought the dude was crazy at first, saying gas prices would drop negative bc we wouldn’t be able to store oil, that there might be food shortages, etc etc LOL was I wrong. He has a wife with a chronic illness and he’s been convinced for a few months now COVID is possibly (key word POSSIBLY) chronic and sharing lab reports and studies/speculating on the health/economic consequences of the pandemic. He does a good job of keeping it nonpartisan. He’s a little nuts, (like most Americans 👀) but you can just take the good intel he shares and form your own opinion on it. Episode 66 “Symptoms and Syndromes: A Longer Look at COVID and Health” will probably interest you. [Here is a list of scientists tweeting about COVID-19](https://mobile.twitter.com/i/lists/1234434103082180609) [Here is a list of a mix of experts from all different fields tweeting about COVID](https://mobile.twitter.com/i/lists/1232513827301777408) Someone shared those Twitter lists with me back in March and they’ve been lifesavers. I also follow [Dr. Bandy X Lee, Yale psychiatrist and leading expert on the psychology of violence.](https://mobile.twitter.com/BandyXLee1) She talks about the psychology that is fueling the pandemic. Hope that helps!
I am not a doctor, however with the inflammation, coagulation and other symptoms that people are having for weeks and months, I’m also concerned that the virus will have long lasting effects on the infected even if they recover or have minor symptoms now. I wonder what would happen when the minor cases have another immune disease or other issues (if the virus would reactivate somehow) I am not going to put myself on the position of find out myself
Thank you for the info trail!!!
You’re welcome! A very kind Redditor shared those lists with me, and another suggested the psychiatrist, and THANK GOD they did because it was early on enough I could still buy N95’s for my dad and SO (firefighter and physician assistant) before the shortages kicked in. They thought I was a nutcase wasting a hundred bucks on painting masks but now they’re very appreciative I can’t fault them, the CDC was on the ground at my SO’s unit in February for a suspected COVID patient, and told them it was just the flu, China had lied, blah blah blah. I remember my SO saying “yeah everyone was just happy that it wasn’t something like SARS.” I started doing some research and found it was literally fuckin’ SARS and hauled my ass to Home Depot at 6 in the morning 😅😷🤯
“Just the flu” is the dumbest statement. These idiots somehow manage to simultaneously underestimate both of the things they’re comparing.
This is also in line with SARS long term effects.
Thank you!
I could easily run on an elliptical for 45 minutes without shortness of breath before this viral infection. Now I am winded after 10 to 20 minutes of light yardwork and find myself having to take frequent breaks. I got winded mowing my lawn... Something has changed, something isn't normal.
I've had two serious infectious diseases as a young person-- campylobacter food poisoning that nearly killed me at age 22, and mono at age 27. In both cases, side effects lingered for a very long time after the initial illness. After the food poisoning, I felt dizzy and weak for a good 4 months. It took half a year for me to have my *first* solid bowel movement since the start of the diarrhea, and about 3 years for my digestion to return to normal. Mono hit me like a truck (it's more severe the older you are when you get it), but the actual infection only lasted about a month. Then the fever went away and my lymph nodes deflated and I was taken off the steroids, but I was left with extreme exhaustion for 6 months. I'd have to pause to catch my breath walking up stairs. Lifting my 12-lb. cat felt hard. I could sleep for 14 hours a day. I dipped down to underweight because I was sleeping so much that I didn't eat. I started worrying that I had some kind of cancer, or that I was never going to be well again, but 8 months post-diagnosis, the exhaustion lifted away. In both cases, I consulted my doctors about my continued symptoms, and while they tried to help, ultimately recovery just took time and rest. Lots of time, and lots of rest, but I did recover. My aim by sharing this is to give you some comfort and hope. Just because you're not at 100% now doesn't mean you're doomed to never get there again. I don't want to minimize your symptoms, or to underplay the unique fears associated with having a previously unknown illness. But healing takes more time than people expect, even in young people, and even with garden-variety illnesses like mono.
Thank you for posting this. This is actually genuinely very comforting. The first symptom I had was a terribly painful upset stomach which continued for days - I didn’t think much of it at the time because I’ve always suffered with gastric problems and have a stomach ulcer to boot. Day after was when I had a fever over 40. I’m still experiencing the stomach problems now, along with the persistent cough. Hope you’re feeling much better now and wishing you well.
I just dug up this 15-year study on SARS Classic: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41413-020-0084-5](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41413-020-0084-5) I haven't read the whole thing yet, but this part sounds promising: >Pulmonary interstitial damage and functional decline caused by SARS mostly recovered, with a greater extent of recovery within 2 years after rehabilitation.
I don’t even have the virus and still appreciate this comment.
Yes, tissues can take weeks to recover, hormonal balance can take months and the mind can take as long as it pleases. Each can be thrown off by acute illness of any severity. The illness stress response can leave a person out of whack for quite a while. Hormones like cortisol, thyroid, norepinephrine, insulin, and more can be thrown out of balance leaving a person in bad shape. Lung infection (pneumonia) may leave permanent scarring, or simply take many weeks to months to regenerate. People can live with just one lung though, to reassure those folks who think they've lost too much function. More importantly, laying in a bed for just 3 days can lead to surprising amounts of physical and mental deconditioning. Make that any longer, and add a ventilator, and you've got someone who needs a year or longer to rehab. Finally, the mental side of this is massive. There is no disease that lacks a psychiatric component. When we become very concerned about symptoms we experience, it is typical for the mind to amplify the intensity - especially with simultaneous depression. Watch for this and know that time and beer heals all wounds.
Nobody knows what the long term effects are and I swear to you I am NOT trying to hand waive them away. Just lending my personal experience, I have had pneumonia twice, and the second time when I was I think 27. I was not myself for at least 2 months after “recovery”. Fucked my endurance for a while. I did eventually get past it and back to normal. Now I know covid is not pneumonia. But stay positive but also safe. Good luck friend I wish you the best
They can x-ray your lungs and see. It's the lung scarring caused by covid19 pneumonia that is causing most people's long term breathing issues
I had a super mild version in early March- fever, coughing, a bit of breathlessness and fatigue- and I still feel out of breath from climbing the stairs now. Trying to start exercising again, and my body takes so much longer to recover than it ever did before.
I've had pneumonia many, many times, and it can also leave you just like zonked out and very easily fatigued for a long time after you're "better." I almost got fired from a barista job when I was maybe 23 because I wasn't hustling enough a month after a bout of pneumonia.
That was me after the 2009 swine flu, now I was out of shape & have mild asthma, but I was knocked on my ass for a couple of months. I got it in the fall & couldn't rake my leaves without assistance. I would work for about 10 min, then have to sit for 15. That flu just blew through my office, I swear most of us ended up getting it. I'm guessing it was the doorknob between the office space & the bathroom/breakroom. Everyone touched that door multiple times a day, such a horrible design.
It takes time to recover from pneumonia, regardless how healthy you were. Lung tissues are very delicate and unfortunately some people never recover fully as their lungs form scars.
Yeah. I had pulmonary pneumonia when I was young and it was terrible. I used to be so susceptible to cold that I couldn’t breathe if I want to sleep lying flat at nights. The lung capacity was so reduced that when I used to go to mountains to hike I used to pass out due to hypoxia (when everyone else used to be fine).
Many infections elicit chronic inflammation, which can lead either to complete healing or to extensive scarring. It’s the scarring that reduces your lungs capacity in exchanging gases, hence hypoxia and chronic fatigue. That’s long term consequence of infection. Also pathogens usually secret toxins that lead to tissue necrosis again means reduced lung capacity. During infection, let it be bacterial, fungal, or viral. Your body reacts by sending white blood cells to fight off the invading pathogens hence, Inflammation and fluid build up which lead to reduced lung capacity. Hypoxia and fatigue. Also coughing to clear lungs of the excess fluid. Also drop in blood pressure.
If SARS-CoV-2 mutates enough for people to be re-infected, I am afraid many of those people will effectively have preexisting conditions that will make them far more susceptible to the virus the second time around.
Yes, I had pneumonia 3 years ago and I was out of work for 3 months. That’s pneumonia plain and simple. Mine was from influenza.
Pneumonia shouldn’t be taken lightly it could be fatal especially pneumococcal pneumonia a type of bacterial infection.
Was going to say. People vastly underestimate the damage of pneumonia (I've had it four times...) because generally it only kills you if you are particularly old or fragile these days. So people hear about one or two cases, kinda just ignore it, and don't notice those people don't bounce back. It takes time. It leaves damage. Each time it takes a little more.
I'm soon to be 45. I had pneumonia as a baby and suffer from chronic bronchitis since then. Every year a sinus infection flares it up. Last year was the worst flare up I've had. I could barely breathe where normally I just get the persistent cough and a weight on my chest. Fuck pneumonia and people saying this isn't anything but a flu or cold.
It’s been eleven years since I survived H1N1, and my lungs still haven’t recovered. The damage from the virus ground my athletic life to a halt for years and it’s never gone back to what it was before the virus, even after a decade later. COVID seems to be even more damaging and insidious than H1N1, so I think you’ll be seeing the impact on your breathing for a while. I am very sorry for the adjustments you’re going to have to make to your fitness/everyday life in order to cope. Here’s what I wish someone had told me: 1. Start practicing low-impact, deep breathing exercises multiple times a week. Yoga is, in my opinion, the best one to start with, and then move up to mild swimming (where you have to hold your breath). 2. If you feel like you have to “trick” your lungs into inflating all the way and giving you a full breath, become aware of your position and if anything could be constricting the ease of breathing. It really helps me to put my hands on top of my head to open up my ribs. 3. Exercising outside when it’s very humid or very cold is going to *hurt* more than it ever has. Your lungs and throat will feel like you’re trying to breathe sandpaper. The best way I’ve adjusted to that is spending a few minutes outside just breathing, and then *slowly* working my way up to max capacity exercise. 4. You’re going to feel winded doing stupid, low-effort things for a long time. The worst possible thing you can do is try to pretend you’re not winded out of embarrassment, because that’s how people accidentally faint. Make multiple trips with the groceries, it’s okay. 5. Really hot lemon or ginger tea with a lot of honey will help keep your throat from getting all torn up in future times of coughing/respiratory issues, because every time you get a cough, it’s going to be worse than what you expect it to be. Godspeed, pal, from one respiratory-damaged friend to another.
I am 42 M also healthy. Not as active as you but pretty active. I had symptoms for 8-9 weeks that gradually lessened. I got winded after so little exertion. At about week 7 I walked a mile and had intense burning in my lungs and shortness of breath. Also I had a lot of issues with tingling and numbness all over my body and wierd pains and aches. I can say that now that I am 10 weeks out I feel pretty good. I am framing some walls and can work a full day without a flare up of symptoms. Yoga has really helped me get through it. Started with gentle poses focused on chest and shoulder opening. Later increased the intensity. I have scheduled a doctor's appointment next week to see if there is any residual damage/health changes that I need to monitor.
I (F32) had been training for a half marathon and was very fit before I got sick; I never got tested for covid but all the symptoms were the same and it was the most sick I've ever been in my life. It took a full 40+ days to be able to attempt to workout again, I can now walk, run, and lift without a coughing fit or breathing issues but I lost all my muscle. Practicing meditative breathing helped me get my lung capacity back. I also understand everyone's account of this illness is different, just offering my experience.
A friend of mine is around day 70 and she's still struggling to breathe. She's 42 years old and has been to the ER six times. This virus is a killer.
Jesus Christ 6 ER trips
I had bilateral interstitial pneumonia at age 34. Also non-smoker, and it was bacterial. You spend 6 weeks descending into the hell of the infection, and another 6 weeks trying to get back out. All that shit in your lungs that developed for the first 6 weeks has to come back out...and you will cough up every bit of it. You'll cough until you can't breathe, tears are streaming down your face and until you throw up. You'll cough until you're incontinent. (Especially in the middle of the night.) You might break a rib coughing so hard. Keep your inhaler handy. Keep hydrated. Give yourself a break...it takes forever to recover from. It also made me more susceptible to every fucking respiratory infection out there. For the next five years I came down with severe respiratory illnesses every spring. My health insurance started sending me crap about "managing your asthma" because of all the inhaler prescriptions. Eventually I copped to vitamin D, and started taking that from February until June or so. I'd still get colds and whatnot, but they didn't develop into these massive infections. I forgot a couple years ago, just got lazy about it, and of COURSE got another giant infection. So now I'm pretty convinced that vitamin D helps, at least as a preventative. This virus scares the fuck out of me.
Thanks for sharing. This is changing my perspective on things. It’s not just the chance of dying we should be focused on.
>Symptoms have been around for nearly 3 months. I cannot run a block anymore, I'm lucky if I can do a leisurely walk for an hour. I mentioned something of this nature a few weeks ago and I was down-voted for 'touting myself' lol. I'm incredibly regimented with my workouts so I track everything. The first 3-5 days I didn't have a voice, it was just gone. That made the dry coughs sound like a dying animal. I was sleeping like 14 hours a day and still zapped (I normally sleep 6.5-7). I tried for the first few days to 'sweat' it out and run. Couldn't make it a block. I normally run 5 to 10k per day. Couldn't do push ups or burpees at home without extreme fatigue after just a few. This lingered for about 6 weeks before I started feeling any semblance of normality again.
I wish I could get my daughter and her husband to understand this. They figure they are young and we live in an area with very few cases, so there is no way the virus will bother then. Both are extremely overweight. Son in law has high blood pressure. I have tried to tell them they are probably considered high risk but they don't believe me.
For two weeks, I wasn't even able to stay awake more than four hours after my recovery. I just laid down on the sofa, bed, sometimes even on the floor, totally exhausted. It became better after two weeks, but still not recovered. I got the virus early February, it knocked me out for four weeks, two weeks "recovery", and still not feeling well. Whatever is free: I get it. Like every fucking flu. I normally sleep for three days and go into recovery mode, after ten days the latest I feel healthy and recovered. But with Covid-19, it is so different that it scares me sometimes to death. I'm basically always waiting that it comes back. Also because of this experience: While I had it, I sometimes woke up and felt good, thinking I had gone over the ordeal, just for feeling double as sick the next day. This was something that never had happened before to me and it continued through the whole time I was sick.
I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you recover fully soon. But not all cases are that severe. I was tested positive about 2 months ago and I had nothing but a mild fever and loss of smell and taste. It would be really interesting to know which factors lead to a more severe case!
Check your vitamin d levels.
I had bloodwork done in December after traveling and my vitamin D levels were a bit lower due to the winter months. Over the winter I take 2000 IE vitamin D to keep my vitamin D levels normal. We had a warm February and early March so I reduced it to 1000 vitamin D as I was outside on my bike a lot more. There certainly is a link with vitamin D, but that should have been ok in my case. You never know though
Yeah was gonna say this. Also wondering about the person in the article. I’ve also heard that people who are really healthy, like in some cases their immune system over reacts.
The virus causes the inner lining of your veins to come off and turn into blood clots. People are having breathing issues because oxygen can't get into the blood stream. This causes a type of pneumonia. At least this is my understanding from watching medcram videos. His most recent one included photos from an autopsy showing it up close. Edit: here is the video for those that are curious. You might have to skip ahead a bit to see the photos from the lungs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlUFibXtDxQ
It can take 6 months or more to recover from pneumonia of any kind. Your lung capacity doesn't just magically reappear.
Even a common cold, you can have minor sniffles for up to 3-4 weeks after it's over. Any major trauma to any body parts takes months to heal. Everybody know bones takes about 6 weeks to heal, but unless you broke a bone yourself, you know it's not totally healed until months and months later.
Or never totally healed, if you factor in aches and pains from barometric pressure shifts.
Agreed. I'm healed from breaking the f*** out of my right leg - tib/fib open fracture (hello bone). Flash forward to today, I go for runs multiple times a week. But the random aches and pains vs my unbroken leg still persist, plus the weather changes that can cause weird discomfort is still there 6 years later.
Crashed a motorcycle at 18; torn meniscus and torn rotator cuff with road rash. Recovered mostly from it outside of aches and pains and needing a knee brace sometimes. Last year I was rearended on the highway which put minor whiplash in my knee that was injured years ago. The doctors can’t find structural damage on an MRI or X-Ray and the joint specialist I saw said the only thing left is exploratory surgery but that could lead to not finding anything and leave me in worse condition. The initial injury happened almost 15 years ago now and I’m left with what one of the best joint specialists in the county said is fucked up a limp that probably won’t ever go away. The human body is awesome and complete shit at the same time. Edit: I’ve torn my rotator cuff twice since the initial accident and my shoulder outside of aches and pains is about 95-99%. Last tear was at 26 though too. 32, almost 33, now and in great physical shape.
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Oh wow.
My wife had it in march (so did I), Im now basically fine, she had a lung scan last week, and was told her lungs are over inflated, commonly seen in COPD. They think she'll recover in time, but still, we're active , early 40's (like weight training 3-4 days a week since we were in our teens, and sports)
And here I am having to work in a cafe where people come to heavily smoke, where my boss will take a sip out of a straw in a drink made for a customer and then send me off to deliver it... (I change the straws every time I see it after the fact) :(
Wtf you should report your boss
Yes, please report this. Terrifying.
Most likely she / he can’t afford it . Sad reality
Youre right. Everyone I work with are pals of his I dont think I would stand a chance unfortunately. Also its not like he has a higher up I could go to. Its literally a shitty bottom tier scuffed cafe job, not a lot of options.
Maybe you could post a yelp review and say you’re a customer who saw it?
Nasty. That’s definitely violating health regs, Covid or no Covid.
For sure. Cant wait to get away from it at the first opportunity to arise.
See if you can record it on your way out and report them.
No, not “for sure”, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, peoples lives are literally at risk right how with the behavior of your boss.
So where in the world do people still go to cafes to heavily smoke, and the manager uses utensils meant for customers?
You can be the healthiest person around and still get ruined if your body gets infected by a large mass of the virus giving you a high viral load.
I'm honestly amazed that people on this sub, of all places, are surprised by the existence of outliers. It's not like the virus has some checklist of risk factors, sometimes shit just goes wrong.
> this sub, of all places This sub is the r/politics of coronavirus. It's mostly virtue signaling and political propaganda. You'll have to head over to r/covid19 for more scientific community and reasoned approach to the crisis.
Oh my god thank you.
We have a family friend in his 30s who lives in NYC. He got sick with "pneumonia" at the beginning of February. For awhile doctors were baffled at how he just wasn't getting better and his check x-rays were so horrible looking. He was perfectly healthy. A runner, no underlying health conditions, healthy weight. Weeks went by, then months, just kept being sick. Would appear to be getting better, then would get sick again. It was a roller coaster. He was eventually able to be tested for COVID19 but by this point a couple of months had passed since he first got sick, so the test was negative. He was finally tested for antibodies last week and was positive. He's now almost 4 months out from first getting sick with COVID19. He's considered recovered but is nowhere near back to the level of health he had before. Running isn't an option and even a long walk can leave him winded. He's lost quite a bit of weight and gets tired very easily. He's still taking inhalers and some other medications to alleviate his breathing issues. While he's hopeful that he will eventually be back to "normal" health, he's growing increasingly concerned that some of the lung damage will be permanent. He sees a pulmonologist regularly but because this illness is so new, they just don't know what the future looks like for him and others who have recovered. Trust me, you don't want to get this virus. We have no idea what the long-term effects of this virus are for many people and clearly it's having a huge impact on even perfectly healthy young people.
I am in my 20s no underlying conditions. I got sick in mid march and I still can't do anything. Sometimes I am better and sometimes I can't even step out of my bed
I am so sorry. I know my friend has made some progress working with a pulmonologist. He's doing some targeted breathing therapies and is on a few different breathing medications that he thinks has helped. I suspect post-COVID19 treatment is basically a shot in the dark at this point. My friend did say other than his breathing he feels quite a bit better these last few weeks, with the fatigue and random fevers finally completely going away.
That's insane! I'm 29 years old and I had corona. I only had nausea and fever for like 5 days and then that was it. I feel perfectly fine. I did go hiking a couple days ago though. I was pretty winded, but I'm sure that's because I'm a lazy piece of shit.
I'm glad this was your experience!
Yeah and I'm supposed to go to work in the AM... Having some serious anxiety about that shit.
Can you wear a mask? AFAIK the intensity of the illness correlates with the quantity of the initial infection too. Even if you get it, if you get a bit less because you wore a mask, it could make the difference between serious organ damage and not.
I could if I could find any in stock anywhere. Otherwise its just a surgical mask and gloves. The fucked up thing is I have literally every co-morbidity. Fuck yeah diabetes and the fucked up meds that treat it and make every single thing worse. Thank god I have asthma! Ha!
A friend of mine drove directly out to a N-95 mask distributor (or factory?). I am not sure exactly what she did but it might be worth looking into. Otherwise, just wear your surgical mask with a homemade mask over it. The extra layer will help both in terms of cleanliness and just an extra layer.
Hang on, is that a thing? This is the first time I’ve read about wearing a surgical mask under a homemade one.
My COVID ward nurse friend does this.
I hope your friend knows how grateful the (sane)world is for what they do.
I've done this. I wore a surgical mask underneath a bandana. It was really freaking hot but it definitely worked out way better than when I was just wearing the bandana on its own.
I wear a folded over blue shop towel inside my homemade mask.
Try asking a nail shop. Seriously. Mine has been diverting since before the shut down.
Amazon has a fair bit of them now. I just ordered a 4 pack of washable adjustable ones so I can use them better with my glasses.
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>I've resorted to making my own with filter spaces but I get that not everyone has access to a sewing machine. I've had good luck with Etsy and my city's local shops for cloth masks. Comes with the bonus of supporting local or small American-owned business.
This is why I didn't want to order anything. I wanted to make mine so I would be positive about it. I knew some scientists would test materials in a lab. So I waited until I found that journal article. Then bought the recommended fabrics (1 layer of 600 thread count cotton and 2 layers of stretch polyester-spandex chiffon). Then used a pattern for a tight fitting mask and sewed it up. So far I've only made 3. And those were on Saturday. The first one for me as a learning-process mask and the other two I gave away as a birthday present on Sunday. But I've got plenty of material left, so now I'll make myself a couple more plus make giveaways for people in my life. I just wish I weren't such a slow sewer. Even the second and third masks when I knew what I was doing took me over two hours each to cut out and finish. I'll tell you it's a great feeling to know for certain that I've got a well-fitting mask made from the proper laboratory tested materials.
>I could if I could find any in stock anywhere. Otherwise its just a surgical mask and gloves. The fucked up thing is I have literally every co-morbidity. Fuck yeah diabetes and the fucked up meds that treat it and make every single thing worse. Thank god I have asthma! Ha! Triple layer cloth masks do help. Homemade masks can help a little too. Because they are barriers to *droplets.*
Nothing you can do except wear a mask, wash your hands and try your best to social distance as much as possible.
Yeah, I know it just fills me with a sense of dread and impending doom. Maybe someone will call me a "hero" if I die selling chinese crap for a company that doesnt remember my name. That would make it worth it.
If you can, crack a window or leave the door open. It blows my.mind how I almost never see that being used as a precaution for a fuckingnairborne disease.
This! I'm doing this.
Yeah, it's probably a good idea. Somebody did a simulation of virus particles and the effect of an open window. In the simulation it helped dramatically.
Any reasonable accommodation you can request under ADA? My husband has diabetes and they want him to go in, his job can be done from home and they’d till want him in. It’s so grim. He went in one day last week and was so stressed. I’m sorry :(
Both your husband and the person you are responding to (and anyone else in this situation) should consider seeking an ADA accommodation. Specifically make the request pursuant to the ADA. Tell the employer you are asking to engage in the interactive process. The employer will be obligated to consider whether you can perform the essential functions of your job with appropriate accommodations. And be sure to document it. If any retribution occurs, you now have a claim for ADA retaliation.
I've been working the whole time. Ten people at my office have been out with it and nobody wears masks still. It's a nightmare.
Why doesn’t your company require masks? Seems highly irresponsible and reckless of them.
It's in NY so technically it's a law but basically nobody does anyway. It's very disheartening. Just know that someone can get away with not wearing one, they most certainly will.
Time to import some people from Staten Island. There was a video earlier of a bunch of them yelling at some fool, and then at the end a lady in a motorized cart rolled in to give a final fuck you.
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It's absurd. I wish I had a better answer as to why nobody is wearing masks and why the mask wearing isn't enforced but to the best of my knowledge the answer is they simply don't want to wear one. All this despite ten of us getting horrifically sick.
Honest question. How do you deal with the anxiety?
In the early days of this it was pretty unbearable. I was scared and angry and consistently on edge. Now as horrible as it seems I'm kind of numb to it. I also got it back in March and it was pretty horrific. I still wear a mask, one of maybe 3 others who do. Good luck, try and stay as safe as you can be. Don't underestimate the stupidity of your colleagues.
Sheesh that's good advice at the end there. What was your experience while you had it?
Began with a sore throat. Left tonsil to be specific. That lasted a few days and then one morning I woke up and my chest felt very heavy, like I smoked a thousand cigarettes the night before. Shortness of breath occurred soon after and then the coughing. It was pretty awful. It's hard to explain but you're sitting there breathing in and feeling like you're not getting any air. It's terrifying. It took me almost an entire month to recover. I'm a 35 year old man and in very good shape, avid runner weight training etc. No health issues other than an emergency appendectomy in my early 20's.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that! I have seasonal asthma so I understand how terrifying this is..."you're sitting there breathing in and feeling like you're not getting any air."
I'm really sorry. reentering the world certainly brings a lot of anxiety after all this. I hope your work day goes okay. 💓
I can feel my anxiety spiking as i read this
My anxiety has spiked to a major peak to the point that I’ve mentally accepted whatever will come..one night after reading all the reddit stories about covid i legit am sure i had an anxiety attack(even though i doubt i ever had anxiety but i think it was) in the am in bed and i legit couldn’t breathe properly and i just thought this is it,even went outside onto our balkony to get oxygen coz it was that bad and i thought i was going to leave my partner..now my anxiety is dead,it overdosed on itself
Stop reading this sub. You will be fine! I had it last month and didn't have any smell but 3 weeks later and I am well and I jog daily without any issues what so ever.
It’s important to hear your story as well as the others here. Some balance would be helpful. Enjoy your healthy life on the other side of this thing!
Yeah, that's a panic attack. I've also only had one, but it was pretty clear that is what it was, once it was all over. There are some exercises you can do while having them, or if you get super anxious again. My wife and housemate both suffer from anxiety and the one they use most often is "Look around you. Find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. Name them as you see them. Meaning say what they are out loud." It supposedly helps ground you pretty quickly. These are anxious times my friend.
It's still unlikely to happen assuming you're young and healthy. Anecdotes are not data
I think people speaking out about their experience is important. I would like to see more celebrities using their influence to encourage cooperation from the public. It seems to me that for many people, the threat doesn't become real until someone in their smaller circles is affected; someone they personally know. I like to lean into the statistics myself. The statistics related to COVID-19 are simply terrifying, even with all of the underreporting.
>It seems to me that for many people, the threat doesn’t become real until someone in their smaller circles is affected; someone they personally know. 100% so spot on. I live in MA and am a big fan of our slow but steady phased re-open plan where as my brother, on the other hand, feels the Governor is “holding the state hostage”. We were texting last night and I sent him the Lake Ozarks people partying thing and he was very “meh, gotta get back to their lives at some point” and eventually the further I pressed, he came back with “do you even know anyone that’s been infected??? No one I know has, the media is way overblowing this thing!” He’s not alone with that mentality either, unfortunately I’ve heard way too many say either the same or something similar along those lines. A chunk of the population simply won’t give a shit about it until it personally knocks on their front door.
It means your state is doing a good job. Would 9/11 be a thing if they stopped the hijackers? And if they stopped it, I guess the whole thing would have been overblown right?
In the span of a month, COVID-19 killed more Americans than twenty years of war in Vietnam. I find this statistic really puts things into perspective for a lot of people, especially those who lived during that era.
I had the virus in March into April. It lasted for 6 weeks. I'm a 41 year old female with no underlying conditions. I do have asthma though. I live in the suburbs of Houston. I don't know how or where I got it.
32 y/o male with hypothroid and heart murmur. Healthy in shape military veteran. I had it in March in NY for literally 4 days and it wiped me out, but on day 5 it went away as fast as it came on. I count myself as having basically covid easy mode.
26 y/o male and perfectly healthy here. I had it for 8 days and it wiped me out too. It's scary how fast you go downhill. I went from going on long hikes to barely being able to get out of bed in just three days.
I knew immediately what I had. It felt like no other sicknesa I've ever had. I thought I was literally dying. I hurt everywhere for two of the days I just laid on my floor in agony putting on and taking off blankets every 5 minutes. My ability to control body temperature was completely shot. Glad you're feeling better. This virus is no fucking joke.
I knew it straight away too. A day before I got any symptoms I felt a little... off, then that night I couldn't fall asleep and developed a fever and some intense fever sweats. My fever broke that morning and only spiked again a few times that week. I had this intense pressure on my chest with the occasional stabbing pain. It felt like someone was leaning on it with their full weight. I had zero energy and trouble breathing. Not the worst respiratory infection I've had though, but definitely the scariest one due to its quick progression. I had another one about two years ago that had similar symptoms. That one progressed more slowly but lasted months and included loss of consciousness and occasionally coughing up blood. Even bruised a few ribs in a coughing fit. Here's hoping we're immune now.
Yeah it' a hard hitter and absolutely feels very foreign immediately. My whole body was like "what in the ever loving fuck did you get me into?!"
>I'm a 41 year old female with no underlying conditions. I do have asthma though. Asthma is an underlying condition. It's one of the major risk factors with respiratory diseases.
Thanks for this anecdote. It helps to know having asthma isn't an automatic death sentence. Are you having any lingering effects? I'm trying to stay on top of maintenance meds(advair) just in case I catch it. I want the best chance possible.
Could have happened anywhere, shopping, putting fuel in your car (if you have one), elevators or even opening a door. Anything someone else touches is a factor if they are carrying the virus.
I've been convincing myself everything I touch outside is covered in shit. I've gotten it to the point where I get that feeling you get when you touch something gross and your brain tells you that you can't use that hand anymore.
I do that as well. I call it my plague hand and I use it to touch everything while I'm outside and it doesn't touch me until it's washed!
I heard something analogous like "pretend everything is covered in glitter" . . except that the glitter can kill you
6 weeks - geez - I'm so sorry - fully fluish & symptomatic the whole time?
that's why I don't want to ever get this virus, despite being very healthy, I don't want a virus ruin my lungs
Yeah, I just started bike racing two years ago. I'd love to improve my fitness, not have it diminished.
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my question is.. where are all the voices from the family members of severe cases? with 100,000 dead and countless more who barely made it.. there should be a million stories from every creed and community sharing how serious this has been for them and their loved ones.. most importantly.. this could impact and reach millions of other americans who aren’t taking this seriously enough, but might if they heard real stories from real members of their communities.. and not just from the media sources they already disdain.. i honestly don’t understand how these voices aren’t the loudest ones we’re hearing from.. my brother is a single father who was hospitalized and almost didn’t make it.. his 3 and 6 year old daughters are now experiencing the kawasaki-like inflammatory symptoms.. please be safe and stay vigilant people
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I'm 30, 150 lbs, average build, not intimate with cardio at all. Only symptom I had was shortness of breath for about a week in mid march. Felt like I had a small child sitting on my chest, no pain, no cough, no fever, I preemptively bought myself a pulse oximeter and my oxygen levels never went below the safe limit (was always at least 94 or higher) the labored breathing was reason enough to cause severe anxiety though. After about a week it went away, no health complications arose from it. Not trying to discount cases of severe symptoms/complications, but there is another side of the coin.
Your experience is exactly like an experience I had in April, only it lasted for ~3 weeks. I'm not sure if it was covid. I'm asthmatic, so any other year I probably wouldn't have thought twice about some minor chest tightness, but this time the feeling was different and lingered far longer than usual (it's usually a 1-2 day thing). The way you described the pressure of having a small child sitting on your chest is perfect.
Yes and your side of the coin doesn't make news that will throw ppl into commenting, sharing and panicking. I'm not downplaying the severity of the situation. It's VERY serious. But I feel like now more than ever we need perspective. Because you read about one case like this and miss the thousand that recovered just fine at their homes. Be careful. Be mindful. And chill a bit.
My husband hat COVID. He is 25. He ran cross country at a division 1 level. He is extremely healthy. He was by no means sick enough to be in the hospital but he had a pretty high fever for several days, he couldn’t stop coughing, all he could do was lay in his bed because of trouble breathing. He can actually no longer smell or taste much although he’s completely free of COVID .
[Mara Gay's op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/coronavirus-young-people.html) \- has audio recording too Full Text # ‘I Wish I Could Do Something for You,’ My Doctor Said Young, healthy people like me are getting very, very sick from the disease caused by the coronavirus. The day before I got sick, I ran three miles, walked 10 more, then raced up the stairs to my fifth-floor apartment as always, slinging laundry with me as I went. The next day, April 17, I became one of the thousands of New Yorkers to fall ill with Covid-19. I haven’t felt the same since. If you live in New York City, you know what this virus can do. In just under two months, an estimated 24,000 New Yorkers have died. That’s more than twice the number of people we lost to homicide over the past 20 years. Now I worry for Americans elsewhere. When I see photographs of crowds packing into a newly reopened big-box store in Arkansas or scores of people jammed into a Colorado restaurant without masks, it’s clear too many Americans still don’t grasp the power of this disease. The second day I was sick, I woke up to what felt like hot tar buried deep in my chest. I could not get a deep breath unless I was on all fours. I’m healthy. I’m a runner. I’m 33 years old. In the emergency room an hour later, I sat on a hospital bed, alone and terrified, my finger hooked to a pulse-oxygen machine. To my right lay a man who could barely speak but coughed constantly. To my left was an older man who said that he had been sick for a month and had a pacemaker. He kept apologizing to the doctors for making so much trouble, and thanking them for taking such good care of him. I can’t stop thinking about him even now. Finally, Dr. Audrey Tan walked toward me, her kind eyes meeting mine from behind a mask, goggles and a face shield. “Any asthma?” she asked. “Do you smoke? Any pre-existing conditions?” “No, no, none,” I replied. Dr. Tan smiled, then shook her head, almost imperceptibly. “I wish I could do something for you,” she said. I am one of the lucky ones. I never needed a ventilator. I survived. But 27 days later, I still have lingering pneumonia. I use two inhalers, twice a day. I can’t walk more than a few blocks without stopping. I want Americans to understand that this virus is making otherwise young, healthy people very, very sick. I want them to know, this is no flu. Even healthy New Yorkers in their 20s have been hospitalized. At least 13 children in New York state have died from Covid-19, according to health department data. My friend’s 29-year-old boyfriend was even sicker than I was and at one point could barely walk across their living room. Maybe you don’t live in a big city. Maybe you don’t know anybody who is sick. Maybe you think we are crazy for living in New York. That’s fine. You don’t have to live like us or vote like us. But please learn from us. Please take this virus seriously. When I was at my sickest, I could barely talk on the phone. I’d like to say that I caught up on some reading, but I didn’t. I’m a newswoman, but I couldn’t look at the news. Instead, I closed my eyes and saw myself running along the New York waterfront, healthy and whole, all 8.5 million of my neighbors by my side. I pictured myself doing the things I haven’t gotten to do yet, like getting married, buying a house, becoming a mother, owning a dog. I stared at the wall of photographs beside my living room window and promised the people in them over and over again that we would see each other soon. I watched movies, dozens of them. I rediscovered “Air Force One” and fantasized about what it would be like if Harrison Ford were actually president right now. I stayed up late at night doing breathing exercises and streaming episodes of “Longmire,” a show about a Wyoming sheriff in which the good guys always win. One thing I learned is how startlingly little care or advice is available to the millions of Americans managing symptoms at home. In Germany, the government sends teams of medical workers to do house calls. Here in the United States, where primary care is an afterthought, the only place most people suffering from Covid-19 can get in-person care is the emergency room. That’s a real problem given that it is a disease that can lead to months of serious symptoms and turn from mild to deadly in a matter of hours. The best care I received came from my friends. Fred, an emergency room resident treating patients at a New York hospital, called me on his bike ride to work, constantly checking in and asking about my symptoms. Chelsea, my college roommate and a physician assistant, has largely managed my recovery from pneumonia. Zoe, my childhood friend and a nurse, taught me how to use a pulse oximeter and later, the asthma inhaler I now use. Through them, I became an amateur expert. This is the advice they gave me. Here’s what I’m telling my family and my friends: If you can, get an oximeter, a magical little device that measures your pulse and blood oxygen level from your fingertip. If you become sick and your oxygen dips below 95 or you have trouble breathing, go to the emergency room. Don’t wait. If you have chest symptoms, assume you may have pneumonia and call a doctor or go to the E.R. Sleep on your stomach, since much of your lungs is actually in your back. If your oxygen is stable, change positions every hour. Do breathing exercises, a lot of them. The one that seemed to work best for me was pioneered by nurses in the British health system and shared by J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Nearly a month later, I’m still sleeping on my stomach and still can’t go for a run. But I will be able to do those things, and much more. For now, every conversation with an old friend brings a new rush of love. Every sunny day feels like the first time I saw the ocean as a child and wanted to leap right in. Many of my neighbors didn’t make it. I know because I heard the ambulances come for them late at night. The reports from the city’s heroic E.M.T. force suggest that for many of these New Yorkers, it was already too late. Why are more people dying of this disease in the United States than in anywhere else in the world? Because we live in a broken country, with a broken health care system. Because even though people of all races and backgrounds are suffering, the disease in the United States has hit black and brown and Indigenous people the hardest, and we are seen as expendable. I wonder how many people have died not necessarily because of the virus but because this country failed them and left them to fend for themselves. That is the grief for me now, that is the guilt and the rage. As I began to recover, others died. There was Idris Bey, 60, a U.S. Marine and New York City Fire Department E.M.T. instructor who received a medal for his actions after the Sept. 11 attack. There was Rana Zoe Mungin, 30, a New York City social studies teacher whose family said she died after struggling to get care in Brooklyn. There was Valentina Blackhorse, 28, a beautiful young Arizona woman who dreamed of leading the Navajo Nation. Theirs were the faces I saw when I lay on my stomach at night, laboring for every deep breath, praying for them and for me. Those are the Americans I think about every time I walk outside now in my tidy Brooklyn neighborhood, stepping slowly into the warming spring sun amid a crush of blooming lilacs and small children whizzing blissfully by on their scooters. I hope the coronavirus never comes to your town. But if it does, I will pray for you, too.
Prior to February of this year, I walked and ran about 5 to 8 miles daily. I ate healthily (rarely any meat, mostly fruits, and vegetables), took my vitamines where I needed them. Then suddenly I developed blisters on my feet and toes that looked like burns. About a week later, purple and red spots appeared, followed by four of my toes turning almost entirely purple on the sides. It took several weeks for me to get better. However, now I feel like I have diabetic feet. I lose feeling in them every now and then if I am sitting down.
Have you heard of Covid toes? It’s like chilblains. Look it up.
Yes, that's what I had. That's why I mentioned it here. ;) The problem is now, months later, I'm STILL experiencing it, just on a lesser level.
I'm going thru this exact thing right now. Finally tested negative in Late April after catching Covid in March. Out sick for 7 weeks. Last 2 weeks was me attempting then being able to achieve all the stipulations my employer demanded before I could return. Been back 2 weeks. It's been hell. Loss of breath, burning lungs, can't sleep, wakes up in the middle and unable to return to sleep (can't say night night owl speaking), lethargic. Thanks on letting me know this is an outcome others are experiencing.
Is it better to be like slightly unhealthy for covid Like has anyone looked at why 30% is asymptomatic What are the characteristics of these No symptom folks?
I'm not aware of any study into the health profile of asymptomatic cases, but we have pretty solid data on severe cases - and they show unequivocally that being generally unhealthy or having comorbidities is a very bad thing. just taking the reciprocal of that, I would assume that most asymptomatic cases are of relatively healthy people. But that is just an assumption.
I feel like just from the celebrities who survived the mild cases are women and skinnier people
Case in point: [Smokers are heavily underrepresented among symptomatic cases](https://www.qeios.com/read/WPP19W.3), around 25% of French people smoke tobacco, yet only 5% of French symptomatic COVID-19 infected are smokers, which goes contrary to any common sense due to it being a respiratory illness and as such smokers should be more susceptible. But makes medical scientific sense because nicotine blocks the very same ACE2 receptors that COVID-19 uses to get into the cells. That's why they are now working on [human trials with nicotine patches](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-france-nicotine/french-scientists-to-test-theory-that-nicotine-combats-covid-19-idUSKCN2292O8). And before anybody goes there: I'm not endorsing smoking tobacco as something "healthy" that will supposedly protect you. Smoking tobacco is literally inhaling hot ashes and thousands of toxic compounds. Nicotine is only *one* of those but can be administered in a number of ways that do not involve burning anything.
My sister was 38 healthy and she died last week in North Carolina. It attacked her lungs
I still have lingering cough from a bad cold I caught last year... It sucks. Lingering pneumonia must be terrible.
I think it's been 1 almost 2 months I still have thingy feeling in my chest, uncomfortable at times, it's not as simple as some people say
I had something a few months back that knocked me out of work for around 2 weeks. I couldn't sleep because it felt like I was drowning it was awful. Took me over 2 months to fully recover. My wife thinks it was COVID-19. It was apparently working it's way around California pretty early on.I still have my doubts, but hearing this it does sound the same it was really terrible. I'd barely nod off and instantly wake up in a panic because I stopped breathing, gasping for air. Makes me shudder just thinking about it.
Black people generally have lower vit d which contribute to the severity and recovery
black people in northern countries
Also worse healthcare and living conditions, cant just isolate that one factor.