rona moved in: ilx0rs with the bug report on their progress

good perspectives, thx ppl

yes, good to read.

my breathing remains about the same, seemingly some definite improvement in last week on the sort of symptoms that seem responsive to guaifenisin, but with everything persisting around that. it wouldn't worry me as much if this didn't seem to portend the possibility of worsening: it's like an earlier stage when the virus was attacking me, fever threatening to rise, a touch of perspiration on my face, a slight tightness in the chest, but without a notable fever on the thermometer and with good oxygen and acceptable but perhaps shallower breathing. i take it that my immune system did a lot of fighting a while back, i'm just uncertain how to judge the nature of the remnants of the virus or, if it's not really that, its aftereffects. since i seem to have some trouble expectorating much despite medication, i'm especially uncertain about mucus. i take it that it may harbor substantial remnants of viral material that i would do well to get rid of. but is it possible that the well-known hard/dry/tough mucus deposited by this thing is just in itself a major source of inflammation and infection symptoms now, meaning that there is less to worry about supposing that it will pass given patience? when the source of lung congestion is not chronic, i have read things that seem to suggest that the normal airflow-clearing bodily processes do their thing given time (warming and moistening of lung contents, coughing, cilia moving things up, etc). are there any other processes that accomplish this? if there can remain sufficient amounts of virus in a person's system after the immune system has done its primary job to continue affecting the body, should i worry that my lungs will continue to produce excess mucus of the problematic sort, so that there is an issue of one process winning out against another? these are the kinds of things i worry about for hours a day.

since my lingering symptoms seem to manifest mostly on my face / in my thorax between lungs and face (warm back of the neck etc), i have surmised that either they may be connected to the mucus itself or that this is kind of a last outpost for battling back viral material (leaving aside, of course, whatever mysterious things could be going on in other locales in organs i have no clue about, things having a systemic effect, etc.). my sinuses seem to be fairly well supplied. the guaifenesin i've been taking comes with phenylephrine, a nasal decongestant, which seems prudent enough (don't want your lungs getting it from above when you're trying to free them up), but that seems to mean that when i'm medicating my nasal airways are much more likely to be impeded, an unfortunate detraction from my ability to get the best breaths possible down to my lungs.

mrs g spoke to our gp again this morning after a few more days of high temperature, headaches and tiredness

the gp booked her an appointment at a medical centre for evaluation and - who knows? - maybe even a test. the prospect of a chest x-day was floated since she’s still getting winded easily

she’s just headed off now. hopefully we’ll at least get a better sense of whether she does have the ‘rona or whether it’s something she can actually be treated for

gl

hang in there bg. how many days of fever now?

pretty much a low-grade temp the entire time, getting hotter through the day up but with periods of cooler temperatures interspersed just to keep it interesting

very weird

good luck, hope it's reassuring

bg just looking back - so it's been 4 weeks of fever now? that's a long time. she must be really frustrated.

yeah, it’s been a long slog - she’s never been as acutely ill as you were but she’s never felt this shit for so long

it's good that she's getting looked at. it's a long time to have a fever. sometimes it can actually be two things on top of each other that just feels like one long thing i.e. first covid, then a chest infection etc. let us know how it goes.

lol they just asked her the same questions that they asked over the phone, did a quick temp and blood-oxygen test and sent her on her way to keep sitting it out

until she has three days in a row without a temperature i’m quarantined, and then once she does i need to give it seven days before going out again

back to the slog i guess

ooh fuck I feel kind of a bit achey and tired, not hugely so, but can't think what else it would be, haven't been out anywhere for a month, except weekly to the supermarket, wearing mask each time and scrubbing everything with alcohol gel when I return.

how are you doing today camaraderie?

hope your missus is ok BG, just read your posts from t'other day because i tend to avoid this thread because I find people talking about symptoms a bit uncomfortable and triggery - hope all on here are alright.

thanks calz - she’s getting there, albeit frustrated at the pace of her recovery

Had a bit of a bad day today - went a gentle 5000-step walk with my kid and when I came back was really pretty breathless and knackered. So interesting to read this with people saying that in some cases recovery is taking a relatively long time. Ffs CV

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/lingering-and-painful-long-and-unclear-road-to-coronavirus-recovery-long-lasting-symptoms

how are you doing today camaraderie?

how are yall doing?

i stopped taking my OTC medications since they didn't seem needed or helpful (and some seemed to make me feel worse). still have the same symptoms, but more and more mild. don't know what that means. i've been walking every night to try to get some exercise, use my lungs. still limited in taking deep breaths as i was, but the tightness is less otherwise. not that these walks are at all challenging to my usual range of activity.

going to see a doctor this week, hope he or she can say something consoling about all the four million other ways this thing attacks the body. i don't want to be surprised by a blood vessel thing or an immune system thing.

i still feel some tightness in my chest. i'm basically back to normal, though.

- taste for alcohol is back
- weird sweet/burnt taste is gone
- ringing in ears much less
- can do a half hour run with no problem

however any time i do even slightly significant exercise i.e. a run, or joe wicks etc - i need to get a LOT of sleep that night. if i don't, Bad Stuff happens - day-long headaches, total exhaustion the next day etc. That never used to be the case. Also, anything out of my 'normal' range for food will cause disproportionate consequences. Like, if i have something really salty like a pizza or sausages I'll wake up feeling hung over.

A friend of mine was diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf and he's getting a CV test because there can apparently be a clotting connection.

I have a couple of similar things to TH – can exercise now, but really need to sleep afterwards. Also with the food – we had fish and chips recently and it had ~disproportionate consequences~. It's hard to know how much of this is linked to being at home and not exercising or eating greasy food for six weeks tho.

glad you're improving, j.!

yes!

Glad everyone on this thread is recovering.
super minor but i never figured out (and likely never will) why i had a week's worth of shortness of breath. I've been just as panicked since but that - first time - symptom faded with antibiotics.

more about the lingering effects

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-recovery.html

Q for the diagnosed: any recurrence of fever long after recovery? What about an accompanying fizzy/tingly sensation?

i'm still waiting for an official confirmation (which i can't have until a serological test, given my timeframe—but those are not available here), but one of my complaints has been lingering feverish feelings and yes i guess you could say tingliness. not sufficiently elevated by the thermometer to count as a fever, and apparently more localized/less central in body, but decidedly something, well after the fever associated with fighting off the virus had passed (i guess they tend to be fairly confident about that only taking so much time, if you don't take a turn toward needing hospitalization). still sorting that out with doctors.

can i ask where?

ive been getting rushes of hot/cold up my neck/back of head for several weeks now

Graun on the lingering effects

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/weird-hell-professor-advent-calendar-covid-19-symptoms-paul-garner

xp yeah, back of neck/shoulders and face. maybe arms and hands on top of that intermittently.

mind you i don't know that my doctor was very interested in where i felt hot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

thks, and thks for article ed

Yes, Ed, thanks, that was really well written.

The long term effects of the rona are the things that give me the fear the most.

I wonder (with no knowledge whatsoever) if some of the long tail folk are being affected by repeatedly exposing themselves to the virus as they go back into the workplace with perceived immunity.

i worried abt that just with like, home contamination

got my negative pcr test, maybe someday there will be serological tests and i can also know that i was sick with the rona. (a friend who had also been sick for months got both tests done, both negative! not a cool feeling.)

also got some diagnostic tests back from the doctor's visit. nothing abnormal, so i'm just biding my time as my remaining symptoms decline slowwwwwly.

glad that the symptoms are declining and you are not

i will decline any further encounters with virii should invitations be extended to me in advance of said encounters

j & TH, be well dears

🚨I wrote about COVID-19 long-haulers—the thousands of people who’ve been struggling with *months* of debilitating symptoms. Many have faced disbelief from friends and medical professionals because they don’t fit the typical profile of the disease. 1/ https://t.co/EvIOcwve0x

— Ed Yong (@edyong209) June 4, 2020

how are the ilxors doing? do you feel a godlike invincibility having had it, or are you still feeling rough?

incrementally better. civil unrest kinda threw my regime of mild constitutionals for a loop.

i feel good. my chest sometimes still feels kind of.. donked out. tight and hurty. but it passes. the ringing in the ears is finally going away i think - or maybe i’m just habituated.

gonna go read that thread

I'm pretty much better. Occasionally I'll cough a bit if I've been leaning back against a chair or something for a while, but if I hadn't already been sick I probably wouldn't suspect it was related. Same for hacking up mucous, which is characteristic of whatever allergies I have.

yeah generally my cough/chest congestion is rarely in evidence and could increasingly look like a cold (not so much allergies for me, those are higher up normally)

but the other day i about died coughing after this, guess there's still some hard stuff in there

this is so cathartic pic.twitter.com/tBF2mAoIOA

— iana murray (@ianamurray) June 3, 2020

It's weird, every time I think I'm completely better something happens that I look back on a few weeks later and realise "no, I wasn't better, that was probably another symptom because it's no longer happening when I do X".

Terrifying thread here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1268250750121017346.html

It's those sort of experiences being reported fairly frequently that are scaring me the most. I'm supposed to be deciding if I send my kid back to school and it seems am impossible decision.

https://nltimes.nl/2020/06/12/shocking-nearly-recovered-covid-19-health-issues-months-later Netherlands Lung Foundation study says 90% of those who had Covid but didn't have to be hospitalised still having effects 3 months later, 60% have breathing symptoms which make walking difficult.

that makes me feel extremely lucky.

Not sure where to post this but wrt testing & results: my in-laws were tested 1 week ago and were told results would be available in 2-3 days... they've followed up 2x and were told to hang tight.