5 ms·

A friend from college got long covid. In two years he lost the job, the GF, and the house. Went from being a buff, agile jujitsu black belt to shuffling alon

A friend from college got long covid. In two years he lost the job, the GF, and the house. Went from being a buff, agile jujitsu black belt to shuffling along like an old drunk. In some sort of cruel irony he got crippling fatigue and insomnia at the same time. Can barely think clearly enough to write a simple email. Long covid is not a pretty thing to see.

mjr00 4y ago
Are you completely sure that's due to Long COVID? Because that sounds like an extremely common story of drug addiction: someone turns their normal life, complete with career and family and a white picket fence, into homelessness and relying on petty theft to survive. It's incredible (in a bad way) how quickly fentanyl can ruin people's lives.
- fragmede 4y ago
  This, by the way, is why I don't discuss that a had long covid ever, with anyone. I don't need random strangers on the Internet that I've never met to believe me, or even believe in Long Covid (half the Internet thinks the vaccine has microchips anyway) but almost none of my friends believe me, which hurt, but fine. It's the medical professionals who didn't believe my symptoms until after there had been a preponderance of outside evidence that they bothered to take my symptoms seriously that were the worst. Yeah I'm not in the best of shape, but if I can't walk from my bedroom to my kitchen without getting winded, something is seriously wrong, and it's not simply my muscles atrophying from being indoors due to lockdowns. Eventually medical science was able to be convinced of long covid, thanks to, or unfortunately because enough doctors and nurses caught it, pre-vaccine, that it was impossible for the medical industry to ignore. When a healthy 20-year old athlete has the same problems with extreme fatigue, doctors aren't as readily able to dismiss it. These days there are clinics that specialize in Long Covid. Even though they're not able to help everybody, it's still better than going through it, along, mid 2020. But yeah, sure, dismiss it as a drug problem if it'll help you go about your day.
  - ianai 4y ago
    I have history with medical doctors (neurologists) telling me that “men don’t get migraines, I don’t believe you’re in pain and have migraines.” For many years. (It’s more manageable now, but without careful treatment I’ll get a migraine every day across almost every type I’ve heard of existing.) The medical profession has a lot wrong with it. Yes some blame for people who just want drugs and lie. But that doesn’t excuse forced suffering at denial of treatment. Though realistically medicine isn’t that helpful. They probably don’t have a lot of medicine for long covid, for example. Personally with my migraines I had to very intensely monitor, react, and try all sorts of odd things until good treatments existed. Including rubbing hot pepper powder up my nose daily to try to exhaust the pain transmitters in the area.
    - tcoff91 4y ago
      Have you tried LSD or psilocybin for your migraines? I believe there is a pretty decent body of evidence that they are effective, even at small doses that don’t make you trip.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - monetus 4y ago
      Have any anecdotes to share with treatment? For me, adding lamotrigine and cbd have done wonders for being able to head migraines off.
      - ianai 4y ago
        Ginger is surprisingly useful. Apparently it works similar to a cgrp antagonist. Ask a Dr about cgrp antagonists and cgrp inhibitors. I’ve even pushed ice to the roof of my mouth to fight the migraine pain before. For a migraine, I once fell asleep in a yoga position that relaxes the trapezius, tens unit across my face and back (separately), a cooling pad across my forehead, and heating pad on my back for 50+ minutes. I had probably taken ginger and a cup of coffee too. I did wake up without the migraine. Traps felt very worn out. Magnesium lotion might help. I’ve done aloe Vera plus menthol/something cooling before. Definitely avoid alcohol like it’s the plague. Minimal caffeine per day (double edged sword), proper hydration, never second hand smoke, no strong scents, basically any triggers, etc. The list goes on. The real trick is finding someone good. For me it was someone with a phd in psychiatry and md neurology who specializes in migraines and is familiar with movement disorders. Probably related to scoliosis of my spine. Dr has some mixture of stuff (including the dental pain killers) to inject for migraines that works miracles. For long Covid I’m thinking paxlovid, then try to just nuke inflammation with anything known to fight it. But be careful…
ezekg 4y ago
That sounds like depression possibly due to the pandemic or other compounding life circumstances, not long COVID.
- astrange 4y ago
  Post-viral syndromes are real and if anything aren't exclusive to covid.
fragmede 4y ago
Crippling fatigue is a pretty common long covid ailment. One belief is it stems from a previous ebv (mono) infection. Has he been tested for that? Been to any of the Long Covid clinics?

mjr00 4y ago

Are you completely sure that's due to Long COVID? Because that sounds like an extremely common story of drug addiction: someone turns their normal life, complete with career and family and a white picket fence, into homelessness and relying on petty theft to survive. It's incredible (in a bad way) how quickly fentanyl can ruin people's lives.

fragmede 4y ago
This, by the way, is why I don't discuss that a had long covid ever, with anyone. I don't need random strangers on the Internet that I've never met to believe me, or even believe in Long Covid (half the Internet thinks the vaccine has microchips anyway) but almost none of my friends believe me, which hurt, but fine. It's the medical professionals who didn't believe my symptoms until after there had been a preponderance of outside evidence that they bothered to take my symptoms seriously that were the worst. Yeah I'm not in the best of shape, but if I can't walk from my bedroom to my kitchen without getting winded, something is seriously wrong, and it's not simply my muscles atrophying from being indoors due to lockdowns. Eventually medical science was able to be convinced of long covid, thanks to, or unfortunately because enough doctors and nurses caught it, pre-vaccine, that it was impossible for the medical industry to ignore. When a healthy 20-year old athlete has the same problems with extreme fatigue, doctors aren't as readily able to dismiss it. These days there are clinics that specialize in Long Covid. Even though they're not able to help everybody, it's still better than going through it, along, mid 2020. But yeah, sure, dismiss it as a drug problem if it'll help you go about your day.
- ianai 4y ago
  I have history with medical doctors (neurologists) telling me that “men don’t get migraines, I don’t believe you’re in pain and have migraines.” For many years. (It’s more manageable now, but without careful treatment I’ll get a migraine every day across almost every type I’ve heard of existing.) The medical profession has a lot wrong with it. Yes some blame for people who just want drugs and lie. But that doesn’t excuse forced suffering at denial of treatment. Though realistically medicine isn’t that helpful. They probably don’t have a lot of medicine for long covid, for example. Personally with my migraines I had to very intensely monitor, react, and try all sorts of odd things until good treatments existed. Including rubbing hot pepper powder up my nose daily to try to exhaust the pain transmitters in the area.
  - tcoff91 4y ago
    Have you tried LSD or psilocybin for your migraines? I believe there is a pretty decent body of evidence that they are effective, even at small doses that don’t make you trip.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - monetus 4y ago
    Have any anecdotes to share with treatment? For me, adding lamotrigine and cbd have done wonders for being able to head migraines off.
    - ianai 4y ago
      Ginger is surprisingly useful. Apparently it works similar to a cgrp antagonist. Ask a Dr about cgrp antagonists and cgrp inhibitors. I’ve even pushed ice to the roof of my mouth to fight the migraine pain before. For a migraine, I once fell asleep in a yoga position that relaxes the trapezius, tens unit across my face and back (separately), a cooling pad across my forehead, and heating pad on my back for 50+ minutes. I had probably taken ginger and a cup of coffee too. I did wake up without the migraine. Traps felt very worn out. Magnesium lotion might help. I’ve done aloe Vera plus menthol/something cooling before. Definitely avoid alcohol like it’s the plague. Minimal caffeine per day (double edged sword), proper hydration, never second hand smoke, no strong scents, basically any triggers, etc. The list goes on. The real trick is finding someone good. For me it was someone with a phd in psychiatry and md neurology who specializes in migraines and is familiar with movement disorders. Probably related to scoliosis of my spine. Dr has some mixture of stuff (including the dental pain killers) to inject for migraines that works miracles. For long Covid I’m thinking paxlovid, then try to just nuke inflammation with anything known to fight it. But be careful…

ezekg 4y ago

That sounds like depression possibly due to the pandemic or other compounding life circumstances, not long COVID.

astrange 4y ago
Post-viral syndromes are real and if anything aren't exclusive to covid.

fragmede 4y ago

Crippling fatigue is a pretty common long covid ailment. One belief is it stems from a previous ebv (mono) infection. Has he been tested for that? Been to any of the Long Covid clinics?