Our Discussion today started off by taking a deep look at “Long COVID”, which is a relatively new “thing” being put out by the media. The basic theory is that some people who’ve had COVID19 are suffering from many symptoms weeks and months after the initial “infection”. I read out loud an article from Sky News about “Long COVID”, and analyzed the basic information in the article, and took apart the glossed over aspects that jumped out at me.
LONG COVID SYMPTOMS
-Hair loss
-Depression, anxiety and cognitive difficulties
-Continuing headaches, sometimes severe
-Lymphadenopathy (disease of the lymph nodes, normally producing abnormal swelling)
-Long-term loss or change of smell and taste
-Respiratory problems
-Cardiovascular symptoms and disease – chest tightness, acute myocarditis and heart failure
-Liver and kidney dysfunction
-Gastrointestinal disturbance with diarrhoea
-Inflammatory disorders – myalgia, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, Guillain-Barre syndrome, neuralgic amyotrophy
-Clotting disorders and thrombosis
-Skin rashes
-exhaustion/lethargy sudden onset
-Joint and muscle pain and weakness
…. sounds a bit familiar eh?
Below, I’ve put a copy of Ann Callaghan’s research notes on “Long COVID”.
Ann’s Notes on Long COVID:
Long Covid sx
In the last five months, I have had the novel experience of arthritic pains in the hands and arms, a
healed-up injury becoming newly excruciating. GI issues, nausea and gastritis, have been flaring
up throughout. Muscle spasms and cramps, with electrolytes fast depleting and needing
replenished. At this stage, months in, this bevy of ills crowds in on the body during a ‘crash’, which
is triggered by physical, mental or emotional exertion. The first sign of a crash is an odd wired
sensation, a kind of head buzz, making sleep, or any kind of settled sleep, impossible. A strange,
uncanny electrified wakefulness, with nausea following on shortly after. This has been my
experience — it is fairly typical amongst Long Covid sufferers, or at least a subgroup of us (in
particular the 30% of us who had early GI issues).
The key experience is one of autonomic dysfunction, the body’s ability to self-regulate in the
expected way is upset.
. She self-isolated and, after about 10 days, the cough disappeared – but she still didn’t feel 100%.
“The roulette of other strange symptoms started,” she tells HuffPost UK. There were day-long
migraines, stabbing pains across her body, pressure in her ears and behind her eyes, confusion,
brain fog, rashes, a dry mouth, shortness of breath, pins and needles, hallucinations – the list goes
on.
I called NHS 111 numerous times and was told to stay at home,” she tells HuffPost UK. “I did get
my GP to give me antibiotics and have since had six lots for my chest and a urinary tract infection
(UTI).”
“From week 10, things have got worse,” she says, citing symptoms like shaking, shortness of
breath, night sweats and feeling like electricity was pulsing though her body.
Since that A&E trip, her symptoms have worsened or, bizarrely, moved around her body. “The
unpredictability of the virus has been one of the most challenging aspects to live with, both
physically and mentally,” she says.
Other symptoms she’s had include extreme acid reflux, abdomen pain, a burning sensation in her
right calf and left ear, muscle spasms and aches, a sore throat, hoarse voice, insomnia, joint pain,
tinnitus, sensitivity to sound, distorted taste and smell, and a burst blood vessel rash.
I had a temperature that jumped around, head and neck pain that felt like burning, blood shot eyes,
a crawling skin sensation, burning airways and a numb tingling tongue and lips.
During the whole of this illness I have felt a little strange as some days I would have a good day
and could function pretty normally whereas on other days I seemed to be a little unsure of what I
was doing and on these days would not drive my car for fear of making a mistake.
it would have leg pain for a few minutes and then it would go to my wrist on the opposite side of the
body and feel like it was branching fire through my veins, it could then go to pain in my face and
then shoot down my leg.
Audio hallucinations experienced during the first 2 weeks and then the following 7 weeks i was
incapacitated.
What followed was a period I can only describe as a high. It felt like my body was almost hyper and
my mood often euphoric. I begun doing HIIT classes a few times a week and weight resistance
training, feeling the fittest I have in years.
However, the highs were dotted with periods of lows that were the closest to depression I’ve ever
experienced. The lows would ease off naturally after a few days.
In the month of July something weird happen, my body became swollen, I had problems with
breathing, my eyes were swollen like I was heat by a boxer, I felt thirsty all the time, I started to
have hair loss and my menstrual flow just became irregular. Doctors made me an antibody test and
a new PCR, both came negative. Doctors send me some medicine for the menstrual flow and
some hormones for my inflammatory reaction. The swollen feeling calm down by the end of
August.
My doctor has been more interested in my mental health throughout. I’m usually quite resilient and
stable mentally, though I’ve noticed feeling a little manic at times with the fluctuating energy levels.
my throat felt as though it had a lump, was constructed/swollen the full length of the windpipe. With
worsening symptoms had to take 2 weeks off work and complete bed rest. During this time, I
experienced huge levels of anxiety and started to have panic attacks. Something which I had never
experienced before. I was genuinely afraid I would die,
memory is worse, even for a person with ADHD. Simple ideas get lost. Everyday vocabulary in
English gets forgotten. My passive vocabulary in English and German is normal, but thinking about
Spanish, which I could listen to easily before this, now just gives me a headache.
When I write at times, the word is only the beginning and the end, the middle letters are not coming
from my brain….I’m 103 days now of covid.
Some days it feels like I can’t speak, get my words out. i know what I want to say but my brain is
confused. My eyesight seems foggy some days. Also at times I’m unable to cope with loud noise or
sudden noise.My legs feel so heavy like walking through thick mud. And my glands keep swelling
up and seem to be affecting my throat.
My illness began with nausea, diarrhoea, chills, an ear ache, vivid strange dreams, a numbness on
the bridge of my nose, and other body aches which lasted for 8 days.
Fatigue that comes out of nowhere, when you know you better lie down or you will collapse.
Throughout this illness, there has been an ever present sense of Spiritual clam accompanying me.
Living with this illness in the time of a pandemic has really changed my views. I’m not interested in
people pleasing any longer, putting myself last as I did before. I’ve had no other choice, if I want to
live, to survive, I must care for myself first.
nerve pain/neuralgia (had a tooth removed thinking that was a cause of the nerve pain – it wasn’t!),
“power surges”/hot sweats – at least 10 x a day/night,
sudden onset severe headache
strange muscle fasciculation in my legs,
a feeling I describe as shutters coming down……I can barley speak, walk or think about what to
do.
can feel some foreign force pumping through my body.
I developed a weird shortness of breath that felt like being at around 4,500m without adequate
acclimatisation.
strange, wired electrified wakefulness that meant sleep was distant dream.
A lingering tooth infection flared up, and having not needed antibiotics for nearly 12 years, I started
a course prescribed by the dentist.
if I did too much the shutters came down.
a feeling that was something was coursing through my body and manifesting itself mainly in my
lungs and low energy.
Every interaction with another human (even the lovely ones in my house) has felt invasive and
difficult. I’ve not been able to read anything or watch anything really… just stare out off the window
and do virtually nothing. That’s what has felt most restorative.
