Hypno Toad

I watched this last night on 60 Minutes ... scary long-term effects of COVID-19 on healthy people

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-l...es-2020-11-22/

tds101 

I'm still experiencing the fatigue, on and off cough, and sinus issues. If I lose my sense of taste again I'm heading straight to the doctor again for testing. I'm a "long hauler".

Hypno Toad

I feel your pain tds101 - I was sick with something bad back in early April, I didn't need medical care (just buckets of NyQuil). Testing wasn't available for mild cases, so I don't know that it was COVID-19. But now seeing the news about "long COVID" or "long haulers", I feel certain it was COVID-19 back in the spring. I've been struggle with fatigue, low energy, and brain fog for many months. Fortunately, I never struggled like some of the folks in this story - I've keep up a fairly normal level of activity, biking most every day and not missed out on work. And I feel like I've returned to normal over the last few weeks.

To anybody promoting the 'herd immunity' concept with COVID-19, or claiming this is just a bad flu: there are significate residual effects, and they are affecting people that were healthy prior to contracting COVID-19. It is so frustrating to see anybody that doesn't understand how serious COVID-19 is to every. single. person.

Please take care, mask up, cancel Thanksgiving plans, and hold tight for the vaccines to hit the market. Together, we can do this!

livedarklions

Have you had the antibody test? Might be a good thing to confirm just in case those are symptoms of something else.

Hypno Toad

I have though about it many times, but the accuracy of these tests have left me questioning the value of a them.

"... serologic test results do not indicate with certainty the presence or absence of current or previous infection with SARS-CoV-2."

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...uidelines.html

livedarklions

You don't have to answer this, but have you ever been tested for sleep apnea? Those symptoms might fit that. I ask because I thought I had COVID and wasted some time I could have gotten treatment for what I actually had waiting a couple days for test results. I just think right now there's a natural tendency to confirmation bias pretty much any ailment into COVID and there's some danger in missing what's really going on.

I could be totally full of crap here, and realize you're going to know a lot more about your own health than my rando stranger self.

gsteinb

Plus, the antibodies seem to only hang around for 90 days so the ship probably sailed on useful information.

zurgalay

to tell you the truth, everyone of us has probably had this slight symptoms which were too slight for going to the doctors who were actually occupied with hard cases and many of us had already been ill but don't even realize that now

canklecat

I suspect that many viruses considered "respiratory" viruses have long term consequences that haven't yet been proven. Research into the early 2000s SARS pandemic indicated the coronavirus may be associated with some forms of damage to the brain and nervous system, including dementia, as well as permanent cardiovascular damage, inflammatory disease and auto immune disorders.

Tell an anti-vaxxer or pandemic denier that this "harmless flu bug" might cause infertility and impotence and they'll be demanding massive government spending to find a cure.

Until some comparison finally hits the mark for some folks they'll never take it seriously.

CycleryNorth81

Long hauliers update

Drew Eckhardt 

Yup.

Nine months later without drugs for CNS inflammation I'd be disabled and my career over from brain fog.

It gave me Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, cut my aerobic threshold in half from 140W at 140 bpm to 75W at 110 bpm, and I don't want to find out what my anaerobic threshold is because that risks Post Exertional Malaise.

(Muscles are powered by the energy released when adeonsine triphosphate loses a phosphate, with one molecule of glucose producing 36 of ATP via aerobic glycolysis in your mitochondria or 2 via anaerobic glycolysis. CFS includes mitochondrial dysfunction where they don't work correctly and you switch to anaerobic at very low intensities)

I'm not the same since overdoing it on June 20th, where "overdoing it" was 110 minutes at my 140 bpm aerobic threshold heart rate which should be sustainable for 4-5 hours.

According to my infectious disease doctors I'm not supposed to get my heart rate over 120; although 110 seems to be the practical limit which would otherwise be an all-day, 20 hour pace for me. It would be nice to have known that - apparently over doing it and being set back months if not permanently is not uncommon among new CFS patients.

I now have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia syndrome. When not medicated I can increase my heart rate 30 bpm standing up and diastolic blood pressure 20mm/hg, unless I'm tired which can increase that to 50 bpm. My heart rate can increase when I stop bicycling to stand.

I've had a headache (one headache) since my second week around March 14th.

My airway is now borderline hyper reactive.

I have insatiable thirst.

It probably gave me Sjögren's Syndrome; where that means my eyes are dry, my nose is dry, my snot is sticky so I can't blow snot rockets, and I have antibodies against carbon anhydrase six which only exists in saliva and salivary glands.

0/10, do not recommend.

AdkMtnMonster

Sometimes, sort of. There are some people who have titers below detectable limits after a surprisingly short period of time, and others who maintain an adequate level to be antibody positive after 6+ months. At this point in history, the assays are not quite sensitive and specific enough* to truly tell us how long the average human will have a positive ab titer. Safest bet: stay away from people when you can, wear masks when you can’t; exercise lots; drink good beer; get lots of fulfillment in your life and wash your hands vigorously and often. Hope for the best, expect worst. Be safe out there.

*I do SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing as part of my daily job. I work in a hospital laboratory. We have done some small studies with our antibody assay. It’s still all too new and too early to be certain of a lot of aspects of CoVid, but science is working very hard on finding answers and fighting hard against the virus. Keep hoping.

ThermionicScott 

Drew Eckhardt , quite a list of horrible symptoms. I'm sorry to hear your life has been impacted so badly.

HardHard

Oh, I am so tired of these endless pandemic news

gsteinb

Cool. Why the literal **** would you go into a forum devoted to pandemic news?