8 ms·

Long Covid is real. I had a mild case back in August, but it took around 5 months to feel 'normal' again. Lots of inexplicable things: Minor heart palpitations,

Long Covid is real. I had a mild case back in August, but it took around 5 months to feel 'normal' again. Lots of inexplicable things: Minor heart palpitations, feeling of 'heaviness' behind my breastbone. When I exercised, even moderately like running a half mile, I would feel strangely exhausted for many hours later. All of this has gone away now, but I can easily see how someone who is hospitalized could have a relapse, either by overdoing it because they think they should be fully recovered, or through some other mysterious after-effect. Personally I believe it is caused by an immune system that is on 'high alert' after being attacked in every organ for multiple weeks (this is how Covid feels). It is logical to me that it might take multiple months for an immune system to gain back its equilibrium. Just guesses, I am not a doctor.

anoncake 6y ago
> Long Covid is real. But temporary -- and not all that long compared to the hell we've all had to endure for more than a year now -- except in extremely rare cases. Evidence to the contrary is welcome, after more than a year there should be some.
- itake 6y ago
  > surveys conducted by patient groups indicate that 50% to 80% of patients continue to have bothersome symptoms three months after the onset of COVID-19 — even after tests no longer detect virus in their body. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-tragedy-of-the-post-covid-long-haulers-2020101521173 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-tragedy-of-the-post-... Search for the term "covid long haulers" to get more information.
  - anoncake 6y ago
    Avoiding three months of suffering for some people is hardly a reason to make everyone suffer for 15 months and counting. > Search for the term "covid long haulers" to get more information. No. https://thelogicofscience.com/2016/09/27/dont-tell-people-to-google-it-thats-your-job-not-theirs/ https://thelogicofscience.com/2016/09/27/dont-tell-people-to...
- mvid 6y ago
  Death isn’t temporary.
- b3kart 6y ago
  > Evidence to the contrary is welcome You understand the burden of proof is on the person who's making a claim, not on people who disagree with the claim? I've too suffered being stuck at home for more than a year, but in my book this is still better than me or somebody else getting sick with god-only-knows what long term complications, which we don't have data for one way or another, and won't for some time still.
  - krona 6y ago
    > You understand the burden of proof is on the person who's making a claim, not on people who disagree with the claim? Interesting idea, but false in this case unless you are arguing that lockdowns are and will be, in perpetuity, the status quo. > this is still better than me or somebody else getting sick with god-only-knows what long term complications, which we don't have data for one way or another Are you arguing your presence in society is outweighed by the mere possibility of you having a negative effect on it?
    - b3kart 6y ago
      > unless you are arguing that lockdowns are and will be, in perpetuity, the status quo I am not arguing either way, what I am saying is shouting "here's what I think, prove me wrong" is not how it works. "Here's what I think, and here is the evidence" is how it works. Lack of data can't support any claim. If we don't have good data on whether lockdowns are effective, it doesn't mean they aren't. It means we don't know. In which case we do a risk analysis, taking our uncertainty and potential benefits/drawbacks into account. > Are you arguing your presence in society is outweighed by the mere possibility of you having a negative effect on it? I don't consider myself absent from society. I am talking to you now, am I not? And yes, I consider my temporary suffering to be outweighed by potentially permanent suffering of myself or someone else.
  - anoncake 6y ago
    I completely agree that the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. The claim in question is that a significant percentage of those who get Covid will have permanent (or at least long-term) damage. > which we don't have data for one way or another, and won't for some time still. Exactly. There is no evidence for "long Covid" as a frequent phenomenon. The pandemic has been going on for 15 months. Yet those who believe in long Covid still only provide evidence that people aren't always fully recovered after timespans like 3 months. If Covid frequently caused permanent damage, there would be a lot of people who were infected, say, a year ago, who haven't recovered and show no sign of doing so (their condition has plateaued). There would be studies showing that, there isn't exactly a shortage of scientists researching the topic. And, obviously, people would provide that evidence as it would support their point better. Yet they don't.
- castis 6y ago
  I wish to point out that the hell you're describing is also temporary, and would have possibly been much shorter if everyone had just gone along with it from the start.
  - spookthesunset 6y ago
    > would have possibly been much shorter if everyone had just gone along with it from the start. So what you are saying is, despite "the experts" saying exactly the opposite... by slowing the spread of covid we'd somehow be out of this sooner? Do you guys realize how insane this logic sounds? The goal of these lockdowns was to intentionally slow down the spread. Not stop or eradicate covid. Harder lockdowns mean this goes on much longer. How can people genuinely think otherwise? It's like basic math.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- raarts 6y ago
  I fully agree with you. And considering the fact that a virus cannot be eradicated and will continue to mutate we will have to live with covid just like we do with the flu. There is a minimum number of deaths that we should accept as a society just like we accept other causes of death.
- pengaru 6y ago
  > compared to the hell we've all had to endure for more than a year now Speak for yourself! My life was largely unchanged by covid beyond wearing a facial covering in public which I actually prefer. What a joy to not only walk into banks dressed like a bandit without getting arrested, but to be asked to do it and thanked for cooperating! This certainly hasn't been any sort of hell for me, but catching covid let alone "long covid" seems likely to be quite awful and potentially life-changing for anyone.
  - twox2 6y ago
    Funny, my life even changed for the better in many ways... work from home is wonderful.
    - pengaru 6y ago
      Yeah, I ended up getting a shitload of projects done on my property instead of the usual summer vacation. It was probably the better path since I had been procrastinating many of those things for too long already.
    - moate 6y ago
      Legitimately, my finances are in such better shape than the were in March 2020, and I've been laid off twice and on unemployment for extended periods. Living in US, NJ FWIW
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
a_brawling_boo 6y ago
Thanks for this. I had a mild case in January and have been feeling 'off' in multiple ways including the above. Glad to know there is light at the end of the tunnel.
guscost 6y ago
This may be unpopular to say, but anxiety could have caused some or all of these symptoms.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ckosidows 6y ago
  Sounded like anxiety to me. I experience a number of those things on and off again and as far as I can tell they've always been because of anxiety. They can feel serious but it's often just your mind telling you something is wrong when it's not. Not a doctor. Could be wrong. Just sound like anxiety symptoms from my experience.
  - kayodelycaon 6y ago
    I have anxiety and asthma that are well-controlled and I’ve never been afraid or worried about COVID-19. I got sick last March for four months with severe symptoms that were described above. I was having many anxiety and asthma attacks with no obvious cause. I still haven’t gotten fully back on my feet.
  - Twounwhe 6y ago
    (I'm not the person you were replying to.). I've had similar symptoms, and more, for the past 8 months. Heart palpitations, feeling of heaviness in the chest, strange exhaustion... I admit this does sound like anxiety. However, after suffering from anxiety for two decades, I've learned what my anxiety feels like. This is different. It's like comparing grits and runny oatmeal--I can understand why many descriptions are insufficient to distinguish between them, and even how one might be able to masquerade as the other, but having had both, it's clear they are not the same.
    - ckosidows 6y ago
      Is this after you had Covid? I've never been diagnosed with anxiety (though I have had pretty significant panic attacks around family) nor have I had Covid. I only started feeling these particular things since Covid became a world-wide event. Maybe it's a particular kind of anxiety caused by isolation? So maybe I'm wrong and I haven't been experiencing anxiety when I have these symptoms. I agree it's a bit different than having a panic attack in my experience.
bserge 6y ago
I'll just add my own experience. I had almost no symptoms, no cough, no taste loss, not even sniffles. Likely infection date 15th of February. PCR test on the 24th of February. No symptoms at that point. 2 days later, I started feeling more tired than usual. The next day I had a mild fever and was sweating more than usual when exercising. This lasted 3 days, after which I only felt the fatigue for another 5 days. No lasting effects that I can name. I'm 31, male. I had a cold around 5th-10th of February. I take levothyroxine every day, multivitamin everyday, Gabapentin every day, Vitamin C 500mg twice a week. Light exercise everyday, a more thorough workout twice a week. I drink alcohol and smoke tobacco regularly, and everyday between 24th of February - 15th of March. I mention all that because some research said the cold and CV viruses are competitive, plus having the immune system "battle ready" after a simple cold could've helped. Levothyroxine increases metabolism, vitamins and exercise probably help. Smoking has been linked to lesser symptoms, too. I wonder what the effects would've been without all that. Anxiety over Covid (I scared myself reading reports on Reddit) and losing my job (unrelated, but bad timing) was by far a bigger problem than the virus itself.
- timr 6y ago
  I now personally know over a dozen people (ranging from mid-20s up through upper 40s) who have had Covid-19. All had minor illness and are now fine. Which is not to say that others do not have lingering symptoms -- but if we're going to emphasize scary anecdotes, it seems like we should spend proportional time reporting the vastly larger number of anecdotes that are not scary, as well?
  - bserge 6y ago
    It would be great to have such a database of reports from anyone with a confirmed Covid infection. Like Erowid for Covid. Most people (I read it's around 86%) having such mild symptoms that they don't even realize it's Covid must've contributed a lot to its rapid spread. The more vulnerable people get the same virus and suffer much more. Perhaps vulnerable people should've been subjected to stricter lockdown measures, not sure what else could help reduce the deaths.
rriepe 6y ago
Maybe get your iron checked out? I have iron issues (overload) and noticed the spike after Covid was really intense. If your 'heaviness' is on the right side it could be liver swelling. All cold/flu will give you a spike like this because your body absorbs all the iron from the cells that died. It throws off your balance of circulating/stored iron for a while. Normal people won't notice it but if you have iron issues you will. But this is just a guess too, I am also not a doctor.
notahacker 6y ago
> feeling of 'heaviness' behind my breastbone. You may already be aware of this but there's an organ there called the thymus which is a core part of the immune system (especially in younger people) Seems to be a symptom with relatively little discussion even in medical journals but can confirm I also had it for months after a relatively mild case, tending to reemerge due to tiredness or exercise.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  I think it could also be due to damaged heart tissue as there have been reports of covid having that affect on people.
- hiisukun 6y ago
  I think you might mean there "was" an organ there! The thymus (the favourite organ of a friend of mine) is quite unusual, being replaced by regular boring fatty tissue after childhood.
  - tim333 6y ago
    ...gradually replaced by fatty tissue. Nevertheless, some T cell development continues throughout adult life. (wikipedia)

anoncake 6y ago

> Long Covid is real. But temporary -- and not all that long compared to the hell we've all had to endure for more than a year now -- except in extremely rare cases. Evidence to the contrary is welcome, after more than a year there should be some.

itake 6y ago
> surveys conducted by patient groups indicate that 50% to 80% of patients continue to have bothersome symptoms three months after the onset of COVID-19 — even after tests no longer detect virus in their body. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-tragedy-of-the-post-covid-long-haulers-2020101521173 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-tragedy-of-the-post-... Search for the term "covid long haulers" to get more information.
- anoncake 6y ago
  Avoiding three months of suffering for some people is hardly a reason to make everyone suffer for 15 months and counting. > Search for the term "covid long haulers" to get more information. No. https://thelogicofscience.com/2016/09/27/dont-tell-people-to-google-it-thats-your-job-not-theirs/ https://thelogicofscience.com/2016/09/27/dont-tell-people-to...
mvid 6y ago
Death isn’t temporary.
b3kart 6y ago
> Evidence to the contrary is welcome You understand the burden of proof is on the person who's making a claim, not on people who disagree with the claim? I've too suffered being stuck at home for more than a year, but in my book this is still better than me or somebody else getting sick with god-only-knows what long term complications, which we don't have data for one way or another, and won't for some time still.
- krona 6y ago
  > You understand the burden of proof is on the person who's making a claim, not on people who disagree with the claim? Interesting idea, but false in this case unless you are arguing that lockdowns are and will be, in perpetuity, the status quo. > this is still better than me or somebody else getting sick with god-only-knows what long term complications, which we don't have data for one way or another Are you arguing your presence in society is outweighed by the mere possibility of you having a negative effect on it?
  - b3kart 6y ago
    > unless you are arguing that lockdowns are and will be, in perpetuity, the status quo I am not arguing either way, what I am saying is shouting "here's what I think, prove me wrong" is not how it works. "Here's what I think, and here is the evidence" is how it works. Lack of data can't support any claim. If we don't have good data on whether lockdowns are effective, it doesn't mean they aren't. It means we don't know. In which case we do a risk analysis, taking our uncertainty and potential benefits/drawbacks into account. > Are you arguing your presence in society is outweighed by the mere possibility of you having a negative effect on it? I don't consider myself absent from society. I am talking to you now, am I not? And yes, I consider my temporary suffering to be outweighed by potentially permanent suffering of myself or someone else.
- anoncake 6y ago
  I completely agree that the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. The claim in question is that a significant percentage of those who get Covid will have permanent (or at least long-term) damage. > which we don't have data for one way or another, and won't for some time still. Exactly. There is no evidence for "long Covid" as a frequent phenomenon. The pandemic has been going on for 15 months. Yet those who believe in long Covid still only provide evidence that people aren't always fully recovered after timespans like 3 months. If Covid frequently caused permanent damage, there would be a lot of people who were infected, say, a year ago, who haven't recovered and show no sign of doing so (their condition has plateaued). There would be studies showing that, there isn't exactly a shortage of scientists researching the topic. And, obviously, people would provide that evidence as it would support their point better. Yet they don't.
castis 6y ago
I wish to point out that the hell you're describing is also temporary, and would have possibly been much shorter if everyone had just gone along with it from the start.
- spookthesunset 6y ago
  > would have possibly been much shorter if everyone had just gone along with it from the start. So what you are saying is, despite "the experts" saying exactly the opposite... by slowing the spread of covid we'd somehow be out of this sooner? Do you guys realize how insane this logic sounds? The goal of these lockdowns was to intentionally slow down the spread. Not stop or eradicate covid. Harder lockdowns mean this goes on much longer. How can people genuinely think otherwise? It's like basic math.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
raarts 6y ago
I fully agree with you. And considering the fact that a virus cannot be eradicated and will continue to mutate we will have to live with covid just like we do with the flu. There is a minimum number of deaths that we should accept as a society just like we accept other causes of death.
pengaru 6y ago
> compared to the hell we've all had to endure for more than a year now Speak for yourself! My life was largely unchanged by covid beyond wearing a facial covering in public which I actually prefer. What a joy to not only walk into banks dressed like a bandit without getting arrested, but to be asked to do it and thanked for cooperating! This certainly hasn't been any sort of hell for me, but catching covid let alone "long covid" seems likely to be quite awful and potentially life-changing for anyone.
- twox2 6y ago
  Funny, my life even changed for the better in many ways... work from home is wonderful.
  - pengaru 6y ago
    Yeah, I ended up getting a shitload of projects done on my property instead of the usual summer vacation. It was probably the better path since I had been procrastinating many of those things for too long already.
  - moate 6y ago
    Legitimately, my finances are in such better shape than the were in March 2020, and I've been laid off twice and on unemployment for extended periods. Living in US, NJ FWIW

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

a_brawling_boo 6y ago

Thanks for this. I had a mild case in January and have been feeling 'off' in multiple ways including the above. Glad to know there is light at the end of the tunnel.

guscost 6y ago

This may be unpopular to say, but anxiety could have caused some or all of these symptoms.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ckosidows 6y ago
Sounded like anxiety to me. I experience a number of those things on and off again and as far as I can tell they've always been because of anxiety. They can feel serious but it's often just your mind telling you something is wrong when it's not. Not a doctor. Could be wrong. Just sound like anxiety symptoms from my experience.
- kayodelycaon 6y ago
  I have anxiety and asthma that are well-controlled and I’ve never been afraid or worried about COVID-19. I got sick last March for four months with severe symptoms that were described above. I was having many anxiety and asthma attacks with no obvious cause. I still haven’t gotten fully back on my feet.
- Twounwhe 6y ago
  (I'm not the person you were replying to.). I've had similar symptoms, and more, for the past 8 months. Heart palpitations, feeling of heaviness in the chest, strange exhaustion... I admit this does sound like anxiety. However, after suffering from anxiety for two decades, I've learned what my anxiety feels like. This is different. It's like comparing grits and runny oatmeal--I can understand why many descriptions are insufficient to distinguish between them, and even how one might be able to masquerade as the other, but having had both, it's clear they are not the same.
  - ckosidows 6y ago
    Is this after you had Covid? I've never been diagnosed with anxiety (though I have had pretty significant panic attacks around family) nor have I had Covid. I only started feeling these particular things since Covid became a world-wide event. Maybe it's a particular kind of anxiety caused by isolation? So maybe I'm wrong and I haven't been experiencing anxiety when I have these symptoms. I agree it's a bit different than having a panic attack in my experience.

bserge 6y ago

I'll just add my own experience. I had almost no symptoms, no cough, no taste loss, not even sniffles. Likely infection date 15th of February. PCR test on the 24th of February. No symptoms at that point. 2 days later, I started feeling more tired than usual. The next day I had a mild fever and was sweating more than usual when exercising. This lasted 3 days, after which I only felt the fatigue for another 5 days. No lasting effects that I can name. I'm 31, male. I had a cold around 5th-10th of February. I take levothyroxine every day, multivitamin everyday, Gabapentin every day, Vitamin C 500mg twice a week. Light exercise everyday, a more thorough workout twice a week. I drink alcohol and smoke tobacco regularly, and everyday between 24th of February - 15th of March. I mention all that because some research said the cold and CV viruses are competitive, plus having the immune system "battle ready" after a simple cold could've helped. Levothyroxine increases metabolism, vitamins and exercise probably help. Smoking has been linked to lesser symptoms, too. I wonder what the effects would've been without all that. Anxiety over Covid (I scared myself reading reports on Reddit) and losing my job (unrelated, but bad timing) was by far a bigger problem than the virus itself.

timr 6y ago
I now personally know over a dozen people (ranging from mid-20s up through upper 40s) who have had Covid-19. All had minor illness and are now fine. Which is not to say that others do not have lingering symptoms -- but if we're going to emphasize scary anecdotes, it seems like we should spend proportional time reporting the vastly larger number of anecdotes that are not scary, as well?
- bserge 6y ago
  It would be great to have such a database of reports from anyone with a confirmed Covid infection. Like Erowid for Covid. Most people (I read it's around 86%) having such mild symptoms that they don't even realize it's Covid must've contributed a lot to its rapid spread. The more vulnerable people get the same virus and suffer much more. Perhaps vulnerable people should've been subjected to stricter lockdown measures, not sure what else could help reduce the deaths.

rriepe 6y ago

Maybe get your iron checked out? I have iron issues (overload) and noticed the spike after Covid was really intense. If your 'heaviness' is on the right side it could be liver swelling. All cold/flu will give you a spike like this because your body absorbs all the iron from the cells that died. It throws off your balance of circulating/stored iron for a while. Normal people won't notice it but if you have iron issues you will. But this is just a guess too, I am also not a doctor.

notahacker 6y ago

> feeling of 'heaviness' behind my breastbone. You may already be aware of this but there's an organ there called the thymus which is a core part of the immune system (especially in younger people) Seems to be a symptom with relatively little discussion even in medical journals but can confirm I also had it for months after a relatively mild case, tending to reemerge due to tiredness or exercise.

jjeaff 6y ago
I think it could also be due to damaged heart tissue as there have been reports of covid having that affect on people.
hiisukun 6y ago
I think you might mean there "was" an organ there! The thymus (the favourite organ of a friend of mine) is quite unusual, being replaced by regular boring fatty tissue after childhood.
- tim333 6y ago
  ...gradually replaced by fatty tissue. Nevertheless, some T cell development continues throughout adult life. (wikipedia)