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comrade_batman t1_iqmur72 wrote

I had my third Covid jab last Christmas Eve, got Covid for the first time at the end of March this year and started getting symptoms of long-Covid the day after I recovered from the infection. The symptoms got better as time went on, hardly noticed them at one time and then I got Covid again over Jubilee weekend. Recovered again but it aggravated the long-Covid symptoms again and have only started to feel normal again a majority of time in the last several weeks. Some flair ups of the symptoms but nothing as bad as it used to be.

It just feels as though people with long-Covid have been forgotten and ignored and no real work has been done to try and combat it. It’s greatly effected my year since I’ve been in the middle of my MA dissertation, which resulted in me having to get a 6 month extension because of how much it effected me, plus how it effected me day to day in my personal life too.

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jacksnsticks05 t1_iqngnk1 wrote

Actually there are plenty of medical scientists trying to sort it out... so no it hasnt been forgotten and ignored.

One point worth mentioning though. Long COVID, per se, is more of the emergence of symptoms after recovery, persistent and NEW symptoms, and that often occurs around 3 months.

Long COVID symptoms (brain fog, fatigue, breathlessness, palpitations, post exertional malaise) that occur at the end of "recovery" are still COVID symptoms. The virus doesnt suddenly get up and walk out of you at the 10th day. Having these symptoms at the end of the acute illness requires lifestyle and exercise modifications as instructed by your Primary Doctor - rest, modification of exercise regimen, etc. (e.g. people are instructed to avoid exercise for 2 weeks, and then start with short walks) Not doing so can lead to Long COVID, or Long COVID can just develop (seems to happen both ways)

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Slapbox t1_iqnjjd9 wrote

> Actually there are plenty of medical scientists trying to sort it out... so no it hasnt been forgotten and ignored.

The government funding and messaging is abysmal, so even though people are working on it, crucial actors in fixing this situation are asleep at the wheel.

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jacksnsticks05 t1_iqnkyil wrote

The government is by no means the crucial actor in this. This work is being done entirely by Academic Medical Institutions around the world.... the university medical centers and the medical schools around the world.... Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Karolinska Institute, even University of Alabama and the lesser known medical schools. The article in the OP is from Peking University, School of Public Health.

The governments only role in this is registering the clinical trials for official purposes. As far as funding, write to your legislator. The universities have to secure their own funding, and sometimes it does come from the government, and often it doesnt.

Here's the list of 309 ongoing clinical trials that are registered with the US government for regulatory purposes.... not to mention the hundreds of other studies that are being done to try to determine the causes of Long COVID (studies not involving the trial of treatments but the biochemical causes)

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Long+COVID&term=&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=

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cearahn t1_iqo77md wrote

is there any way to tell if you might have long covid symptoms later if you had a mild case and didn't know/didn't test positive for it? but are maybe having symptoms later? (I say this as someone who randomly developed heart palpitations last week, but to my knowledge have never actually had covid...) not looking for a diagnosis online just curious! thanks

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jacksnsticks05 t1_iqo8ebl wrote

There are tests to see if you had previous infection, nucleocapsid Ab, or T cell assay... it is unclear how long these test remain positive / useful after infection.

You'd need to go to a doctor that is familiar with Long COVID, and get an evaluation. There are plenty of well known reasons to get these symptoms (particularly palpitations) and these need to be ruled out.

The near-universal feature of Long COVID symptoms is that they have no objective physical finding (similar to fibromyalgia and CFS), and they come in patterns and constellations. These are all syndromes - there are common or well known features, but there are subtle patterns, and associations/connections.

So you'd need to see a doctor that has become familiar with Long COVID... after ruling out the more dangerous or more well-described reasons for palpitations, they would ask about other symptoms that you are aren't thinking about. If the constellation appears... that's what it might be.

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cearahn t1_iqoadkz wrote

would those tests distinguish between a covid infection and prior immunization/vaccination?

thank you for the recommendations. I did go to a doctor, they did a lot of testing (EKG, blood work), didn't really find much except for a "boring, normal -ish" arrhythmia. they said I could do a holter monitor if I wanted to but I haven't yet. otherwise generally healthy so it really made me wonder. It is super interesting to me that it is more of a constellation type syndrome vs a diagnosis for long covid. That probably makes it much more challenging to quantify. If I continue having symptoms I will look into seeing a doctor familiar with long covid. Thank you!

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jacksnsticks05 t1_iqocoq2 wrote

The nucleocapsid Ab is different from the spike protein Ab, so those will distinguish infection from vaccination. The T cell test is not widely available.... so getting the test isn't likely to convince clinicians one way or another.

palpitations alone, in absence of other symptoms, is probably just palpitations. you'd rule out a more abnormal arrhythmia with a holter, and then carry on with live.

Long COVID as certainly a constellation of symptoms in a syndrome, and it falls into various constellations - neurologic, dysautonomia, chronic fatigue, etc. There is no "test" to diagnose it... similar to fibromyalgia, and several rheumatic diseases...

... such is the nature of medicine. Physicians take a medical history and run confirmatory tests sometimes. 90% of the diagnoses is made in the mind of the physician based on the story you tell, and your physical exam findings

diagnosing Long COVID is really no more challenging than diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis most of the time

(I actually find it odd that most people don't realize that what doctors do is use their mind to make a diagnosis on pattern recognition... (that 5 different kinds of arthritis look wildly different to them)... and they use tests to either narrow, confirm, or rule out)

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Crash0vrRide t1_iqos4mm wrote

And is long covid less or more prevalent in unhealthy overweight people with comorbidities?

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jacksnsticks05 t1_iqotnvs wrote

Certain types of Long COVID tend to be more prevalent in healthy people.

Otherwise, there is no increase in prevalence among overweight people, but a trend toward athletic people and people who did not, or could not take time off to recover from COVID before going back into an active life or exercise regimen.

The dysautonomia type of long COVID (which encompasses, chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, and inability to exercise) tends to be more profound in athletic people who had previously conditioning themselves to have better cardiovascular fitness (and therefore had lower resting heart rates, and less rise of heart rate during exercise).

There is a relatively close association with mental health concerns like depression and anxiety with Long COVID - particularly the neurologic type of Long COVID as well as the Dysautonomia type (dysautonomia being an issue of the autonomic nervous system)

So aside from underlying psychologic comorbidities, it seems to be more prevalent in healthy active individuals.

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DrMyAce80 t1_iqmxi7n wrote

What symptoms were you experiencing?

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comrade_batman t1_iqn1cga wrote

The first and worse of them was a difficulty reading and concentrating, I would have to concentrate more on reading just one sentence. Best way I can describe it is that usually you could glance at a word, phrase or sentence and get the gist of it. I couldn’t do that and would have to concentrate and actually think about reading rather than it flowing naturally.

I’d write or type something out and afterwards see a bunch of spelling errors I’d written and have to correct them.

That’s got a lot better, and but it was accompanied by slight head pains, almost like a pressure around the forehead. Then after my second infection I started to get fatigue symptoms which meant some days I just didn’t feel like doing anything outside and just stay in.

I still have some but it’s far better than it was and I’m hoping that as long as I don’t get another infection the symptoms will keep weakening until they are just gone one day.

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Toastie33 t1_iqok58n wrote

stay strong my friend, I have the same reading and concentration issues but hope it will get better one day and suddenly disappear. But lets not loose hope

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Crash0vrRide t1_iqos17a wrote

My entire family has gotten covid no issues. My wife has gotten it twice and none of is have had any issues. Infact covid was a cold nearly for everyone.

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