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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Ah yes, the heart thing. Forgot to mention that because it hasn't happened for a couple of months now but I would wake up at night every now and then with my heart going like I just ran a marathon. But that fortunately completely went away.

As for lung capacity: I used to play saxophone pretty fanatically and I think that is one of the reasons I got through this with a relatively low amount of damage.

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> As for lung capacity: I used to play saxophone pretty fanatically and I think that is one of the reasons I got through this with a relatively low amount of damage.

Funnily enough, I used to play the flute and sing before contracting COVID. With my lung capacity halved, my ability is nowhere near what it used to be. Long COVID has taken all my hobbies away from me: running, singing, hip-hop dancing. If anyone knows of any support groups relating to Long COVID, please let me know.

Gah that sucks, I really feel for you. But: you will recover. For the longest time I thought that I wouldn't and then bit by bit it got better. If you can find an exercise bike I would really recommend you find one, it is super motivating to see your distance creep up day-by-day as you regain your strength and wind.

There’s are many Facebook groups, and a Slack. (No idea the overlap.)

http://survivorcorps.com

The particular FB group I'm in is called (creatively enough) "Long Covid Support Group", but a search there reveals there are many more.

My email is in my profile if you want to connect further over this. I consider myself mostly healed by this point (infected March 2020) and can share my vitamin regime (its efficacy is anecdotal, my sample size is 2) but I still have lingering health issues over a year later.

Breathing exercises and meditation/yoga may help, both with heart and lungs. Worth a try along with long covid support/meetups.

Yep. I do breathing exercises daily. It helps with the dysautonomia (long covid causes dysautonomia) too.

You may want to look into the Airofit Pro: https://www.airofit.com/

One may also learn Ujjayi breath. It needs no technology and has other benefits.

Have you tried postural drainage for your lungs? I ask because if you've lost half your lung capacity (and I expect a singer and flute player would know), then you must have some kind of junk in there.

For those not familiar with the term: You position yourself with your head a foot lower than your hips (and your back straight). You hold that for 15 minutes or so. You let gravity pull the junk out of your lungs down to where you can cough it out. Warning: It's not fun. First, your head feels like it's going to explode from the lung pressure. Second, when a chunk comes out, oxygen starts hitting an area of your lungs for the first time in maybe months. That hurts. (Or so my daughter says. She had to do this.)

That sounds like the kind of thing you should do on the advice of your doctor, rather than on the advice of a stranger on the Internet.

Well, my daughter did it on the advice of a retired nurse (her grandmother).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postural_drainage#Risks

"Postural drainage is considered safe and effective, but may cause some side effects. The procedure is discontinued if the patient complains of headache, discomfort, dizziness, palpitations,[3] fatigue, or dyspnea. Patients may be dyspnic after the various manuovers, since the head-down position increases the work of breathing, reduces tidal volume, and decreases functional residual capacity (FRC).[citation needed]"

We have a lively long covid discord group here: https://discord.gg/HcxrH7xZ

Sounds terrible. Did you (and u/mygoodaccount) have loss of smell among the symptoms? I recall reading somewhere that it correlates with protracted recovery.

During the first three weeks, yes. But afterwards that came back to fairly normal levels quickly.

My sister had this. Even today (5 months after infection) she says some things taste and smell funny. She can't eat mint ice cream anymore because she says it tastes like cigarettes.

Can relate. Been 3 months since I recovered. Sense of smell has recovered definitely but since the past 2-3 weeks I've noticed it's still not fully there. A rare house plant blooming in the night which for everyone at home triggers a strong sweet fragrance which can be sensed even on the second floor, for me it was like a lingering placebo. Additionally, there is this weird stench that permeates everything I eat. I can't explain it, just a kind of smell I've never come across but now have to every other hour because it colors pretty much any earlier-pleasant-smelling thing

> Additionally, there is this weird stench that permeates everything I eat. I can't explain it, just a kind of smell I've never come across

Yes, this is exactly what she describes. The closest she could get to describing it was "cigarettes" when I pressed her, but she really insisted should couldn't even characterize it.

Is she having gastrointestinal problems too? Like digestion issues attimes, weird random pains in the abdomen, around the liver or stomach? I've been facing these since the last 2 months.

Sometimes I wonder how much our sense of smell is connected to the gut microbiome.

Yes but hard to say if they are due to COVID since she’s always had GI issues, which cause her to avoid a lot of food (eggs, milk, fruits).

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