1 in 5 adults have post-Covid conditions
cdc.gov
cdc.gov
I’m lucky to have had the time to research a lot on my own and find private healthcare to get to the bottom of this.
My initial diagnosis was stress and a second attempt allergies. Took me six months and tests to finally get a diagnosis.
Before I got a diagnosis, I was ashamed of telling people I had self-assessed myself with long COVID, it honestly sounded crazy at the time.
Now in some good news, I did fully recover after 12 months.
Rather than dismissing long COVID, I would ask that we at least accept we do not fully understand COVID. This is not to create fear, but to avoid dismissing suffering some are still experiencing.
I haven’t said this out loud to anyone before, but I’m starting to worry how many of us are going to dodge COVID but catch complications from a sedentary, high stress, low socialization lifestyle. And for myself I know I’ve had a lot less variety in my diet not going to work and not making the rounds of various restaurants. Some large fraction of my vegetable intake, and the majority of the variety, coming from cycling through several different Asian cuisines per week.
I've wondered the same thing. In the end I think fewer people will have died than had we taken the alternative route, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're not going to face negative consequences. It's been over two years already and I would say I'm just now learning how to really WFH and get out and socialize. I think we're all going to be better off in the long-run by not centering our lives so much around whom we work for, but it's going to take time to get there. This is a huge cultural shift every bit as impactful as when we moved from the farm to the city!
Completely resolved itself over a couple of months, after about 2 years.
Viruses do very strange things to the body.
This is very much the case. A friend of mine has a bag of symptoms and the smallest hypothesis to explain them is long COVID. Or a sudden, but severe, onset, of several usually live long conditions like allergies and respiratory problems after a case of bad fevers. However, since they were never diagnosed with COVID, they will most likely never be diagnosed with long COVID. It's just a strange increase in respiratory problems in adults.
(if you don't mind sharing)
She had oxygen drops below 80% many times a day and had problems to even talk without running out of oxygen. Pain in the chest, chronic fatigue, lack of memory + concentration and absolutely all the symptoms associated to long covid.
It has been a nightmare, the first GP was blaming her for smoking or not doing sport (both false), the second did some tests but he said nothing can be done and the tests were inconclusive.
Finally she went to a physiotherapist who saw her condition and said that no action was unacceptable. He found a physiotherapist who is specializing in long covid, he monitors her condition at muscular level, recommends some exercises and not much more because little is known. But at least he keeps up to date and investigates.
Now it’s 5 months already and she went from having the strength of a 80+ year old ill granma to a 40+ with CF… she can now walk slowly and talk without losing breath. But still her body and brain are not working even at 50% than before.
My big hope is that a heightened interest in these syndromes can finally help my friends.
If they want help from the traditional medical system, then Mayo's Chronic Fatigue Clinic offers a decent overview of what can be done and they have a good track record of helping patients achieve total or close to total recovery. But the process is not easy and involves several wholesale lifestyle changes for a sustained period of time (6-12 months) and then what is essentially a lifelong commitment to managing personal wellbeing.
Why you didn't do that?
> https://www.cdc.gov › me-cfs › index.html
> Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a serious, long-term illness that affects many body systems. People with ME/CFS are often not able to do their usual activities. At times, ME/CFS may confine them to bed. People with ME/CFS have severe fatigue and sleep problems.
> Symptoms and DiagnosisWhat is Me/CfsTreatmentplus iconME/CFS in ChildrenCDC's ME/CFS Program
> https://www.cdc.gov › me-cfs › about › index.html
> What is ME/CFS? | Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ... Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling and complex illness. People with ME/CFS are often not able to do their usual activities. At times, ME/CFS may confine them to bed. People with ME/CFS have overwhelming fatigue that is not improved by rest.
I am afraid this is how most of medical research works.
I'm guessing you meant months.
Dang. Would have liked to see the outcome here.
Odd that the data is missing on vaccination status.
"There's a new study out from the NIH (open access) tracking a cohort of people who became infected with SARS-CoV-2, and following them for an extended period... As mentioned, this is an ongoing study, but so far there are no diagnostic findings that would allow you to even say for sure that post-Covid even exists, biochemically."
I had every symptom you can think about. Heart palpitations, gastrointestinal issues, chest tightness, chronic fatigue, muscle soreness, and much more. I’m an active 30 year old who loves to exercise. I even saw a sudden drop in my running performance too. (About 20% or 2 minutes)
I saw a number of medical professionals only to be told nothing was wrong with me each time. I couldn’t find an answer, so I had to go find one myself. It seemed that no medical professional wanted to touch the “C” word even though hospital policy tells you to speak up about it. Which I did each time.
Perhaps one day we will know much more about long Covid and why it happens, whether that’s virus still hiding in the body or the complete shock it has on the nervous system.
The good news of this all is that my second time going through a milder version of Covid had me recovering after about a week instead of on and off again symptoms for more than a year. I found many good habits through a year of struggling that I’m thankful for.
When I first got covid, it felt like a punitive mark such as a scarlet letter. I was so ashamed. That also didn’t help.
Perhaps it was all a combination of getting a virus, the stress that had at the time, and the pressure to keep living life as normal when I’m operating at 80% for a year.
I personally came down with three separate, new, health problems less than a week after getting the first dose of the vaccine (two mostly better within 6-9 months, one still lingering and without any particularly effective treatment). My wife had a similar experience.
This isn’t something that’s going to show up in vaers or elsewhere because these are relatively common ailments, and other than the temporal relationship there is no way to say that they were or weren’t actually caused by the vaccines.
On balance I don’t doubt the evidence that shows that the vaccines are able to reduce the severity of covid itself, but I do wish that as a society we wouldn’t be so dismissive of the concerns about the baseline safety profile of these vaccines.
If a reasonable, reputable scientist had legitimate concerns with the safety of the approved vaccinations, those concerns would be blown out of proportion by the antivaxx community. That is why there is so much-self censorship in this debate: no actual scientist wants to be responsible for potential illnesses and deaths because their academic concerns have between twisted and deliberately misinterpreted.
Now like most HN users I know my statistics and I guess we've just been unlucky or it's all a coincidence, but my emotional response is to never take one of those things again.
It’s disingenuous to suggest safety steps were not skipped. You can find the safety steps that could be skipped in the FDA’s guidance for industry: https://www.fda.gov/media/139638/download
Well, that's an extremely vague word, so that "1 in 5 adults" number is probably not very meaningful.