After all of the vaccine discussion today, i thought I’d share my experience with Long Covid, in case anyone is on the fence about getting the jab.
My history
I got the virus last August. I was more or less 100% back to my normal exercise routine in November (ie. running four times a week and cycling about three with the odd swim here and there). I was on a slow gradual build for an ultra and feeling great. Came down with Covid symptoms again in April (but tested negative) and the symptoms have never left. Some of the acute symptoms went away, but i still have daily waves of nausea, extreme fatigue, and a general hungover feeling. Worst part is what they call post-exertional malaise. Exercise does not seem to help, but rather I feel worse after. I can still work but it’s tough to concentrate at times.
Next health crisis
Apparently according to most reputable news sites and scientific organizations, Long Covid is going to be the next health crisis with 20% to 30% (and up to 50% according to some sites) of those who have had Covid still experiencing some symptoms more than 3 months after recovery. If you want a real horror show, join some Long Covid groups and see how many people out there are on month 12, month 15, or month 18 of feeling like trash.
Possible relief from vaccine
For those with Long Covid, some find relief from the vaccine (which is baffling some scientists). Very small studies so far, but some have reported 30% of Long Covid sufferers get better once they have the vaccine, but 11% feel worse. I’ve had my first vaccine and no change. Crossing my fingers for some relief after vaccine #2 next week.
Don’t mean to scare anyone, but it’s tiring hearing the “it’s just the flu, I’ll get it, recover, and be done with it” because chances you won’t get that lucky.
Thanks for the post. Although I have not had Covid I have had similar symptoms in the past which seemed like CFS so I have an idea of what you are experiencing and I know it sucks.
Never found a reason for it, but the only thing that helped was rest and moderation of exercise with very gradual increases.
I have been vaccinated but still being pretty cautious due to the Delta variant and my compromised immune system.
Hope it gets better for you.
Thanks for the encouragement. I haven’t exercised in about a month-in-a-half…although it’s killing me, I’ve learned to be patient and hopeful for the future, whether it be through the 2nd Pfizer shot or simply by giving my body time to heal. Or, perhaps some medical breakthrough. If the numbers are as high as they are predicting, no doubt there will be a significant amount of research happening soon.
I don’t believe I ever had COVID, but I’ve been dealing with slightly elevated heart rate since I received my second dose… over 1.5 months ago. I’ve tracked my heart rate throughout all my training for 7 years… the only times it’s this high is in January after I detrain for a month and eat pizza and drink beer.
I’m going to my primary care doctor in two weeks to try and get a handle on all of this.
This was always my concern. Dying would be obviously horrible for my family, but have some of these symptoms would be down right miserable to live with indefinitely.
We live in Colorado and do all of the outdoor things. That would basically be gone.
I hope you get better. I couldn’t imagine dealing with this for so long.
The part I’d add to that is that people choosing not to vaccinate partly base that decision on their perceived chance of catching it.
Depending on where you live that chance has varied depending on local measures. Eventually everywhere will open up, it’s inevitable. At that point the number of cases will probably eclipse anything seen before where you are. The options to shield yourself will drop as employers want to get back to normal and gradually people are less careful.
Once you decide to get vaccinated you (typically) get the best protection about 3 weeks after the second vaccination with say 8 weeks between vaccination. Obviously the details vary with the vaccine available.
My point is if someone hasn’t been vaccinated by now they are months away being fully protected even if they do something about it tomorrow. I think your cautionary tale is timely. We have the back and forth here with the vaccine hesitant but I wouldn’t wish poor health on someone just because of that. The game is changing and if people aren’t careful that time lag will catch people out.
Good luck with your own health. Given the scale I imagine lots of research into this is ongoing as we speak.
To Route66, I’m tempted to say the usual things like “never say never, keep up hope, this can’t last forever” but after 15 months it’s easy to understand your lack of positivity. Personally I’m researching Long Covid in the news daily. There seems to be a surge of articles these days…every day there’s at least two or three new posts. Most are just reporting on the extent of the problem, but even that, for me, is something to be grateful for. As the problem becomes more widespread we’ll see more research into cures or at least strategies to cope. Good luck!
Been living with it for over 15 months now. Endurance sports is pretty much over for me.
I have fibromyalgia, which I’ve had for about a decade. What I’ve had to accept is that there are good days and bad days, and that what I’m able to do at my peak I couldn’t even think about at my lowest. I’m never going to be a pointy-end racer, but I can still train in some capacity and race to the best of my ability. I hope that you’re able to find a way to get back to sports.
Been living with it for over 15 months now. Endurance sports is pretty much over for me.
I have fibromyalgia, which I’ve had for about a decade. What I’ve had to accept is that there are good days and bad days, and that what I’m able to do at my peak I couldn’t even think about at my lowest. I’m never going to be a pointy-end racer, but I can still train in some capacity and race to the best of my ability. I hope that you’re able to find a way to get back to sports.
Yes, COVID is bad for those with autoimmune disorders. But they sorta know how to deal with it already.
But now there’s a large number of newly affected that face these challenges for the first time.
Good news is that there’s plenty of resources and help out there for those suffering from autoimmune.
You don’t have to give up endurance sports, you just have to adapt and accept certain limitations.
As one thing is for sure:
Life with endurance sport is always healthier than Life without.
You don’t have to give up endurance sports, you just have to adapt and accept certain limitations.
As one thing is for sure:
Life with endurance sport is always healthier than Life without.
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m not blaming you for saying it or anything, but its honestly an exhausting and insulting thing to hear.
My last race was literally Kona and now my endurance sports (16 months post-infection) amount to the days I’m well enough to walk my dog. I’m hoping I don’t have to give up my job
I understand the sentiment. I had Covid in late March 20 and I’ve been suffering from Long Covid since, full spectrum of symptoms some of which have eased significantly (joint pain, tachycardia, arthiritis etc) and some which persist relentlessy in up/down cycles (headaches, brain fog, fatigue).
A good day for me means being able to do a full day of my job (desk job at home which I’ve had to take a more junior role), walk the dog round the block and spend time playing with my kid. A bad day, I’m exhausted for walking the dog, have to lie down and can’t concentrate to look after my son. I went for about 9 months without being able to watch even a film or ‘complex’ tv show due to lack of concentration & light sensitivity. Sport is out of the question right now, I’ve probably had about 5 days in the past 16 months where I thought I may be able to do something more, but I refuse to give up hope and sell my bikes/treadmill etc. I was at my worst about 6-8 weeks after the original infection and merely walking up the stairs or stepping in the shower was too much, as was emptying a dishwasher, these are incredibly trivial tasks considering what most of us are used to be able to do.
People do need to understand the long term impacts that lots of people are suffering. The more people are talking about it the more progress that will be made and hopefully this provides some momentum for those who have been living with ME/CFS for sometime.
Thanks for posting and happy to share any experiences, I don’t have the answers, but have had limited success with purely pacing and breathing exercises.
Possible relief from vaccine
For those with Long Covid, some find relief from the vaccine (which is baffling some scientists). Very small studies so far, but some have reported 30% of Long Covid sufferers get better once they have the vaccine, but 11% feel worse. I’ve had my first vaccine and no change. Crossing my fingers for some relief after vaccine #2 next week.
Don’t mean to scare anyone, but it’s tiring hearing the “it’s just the flu, I’ll get it, recover, and be done with it” because chances you won’t get that lucky.
BQ
Sorry to hear that. That sucks. My dad is a physician, and what he’s told me about the long covid and the vaccine, is that it is typically AFTER the second dose. Frequently with worse that normal symptoms that resolve in 36 hours, along with the long covid symtoms.
You don’t have to give up endurance sports, you just have to adapt and accept certain limitations.
As one thing is for sure:
Life with endurance sport is always healthier than Life without.
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m not blaming you for saying it or anything, but its honestly an exhausting and insulting thing to hear.
My last race was literally Kona and now my endurance sports (16 months post-infection) amount to the days I’m well enough to walk my dog. I’m hoping I don’t have to give up my job
No worries, it’s the internet and there is a spectrum for long covid, ranging from tiredness to (rare) death ( Guillaume Barret Syndrome / Creutzfeld Jacobs).
Sounds like you’re severely affected and I hope that you get all the medical expert care you may need. There’s treatments and there’s hope.
Wishing you all the best!
You don’t have to give up endurance sports, you just have to adapt and accept certain limitations.
As one thing is for sure:
Life with endurance sport is always healthier than Life without.
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m not blaming you for saying it or anything, but its honestly an exhausting and insulting thing to hear.
My last race was literally Kona and now my endurance sports (16 months post-infection) amount to the days I’m well enough to walk my dog. I’m hoping I don’t have to give up my job
I’m sorry, man.
I think that has to be harder in some ways than having been chronically sick for a long time; I have no high peak to have fallen off of, so any time I’m able to do a thing it feels like an achievement. I don’t have Kona as a reference point. That has to make “adapting and accepting” really, really sting, and it’s just plain shitty.
You two make me glad we’ve got a cat instead of a dog, because I’d hate to be on the hook for daily walks, lol. Some days no problem, but others, no way. I get the impression that there are quite a few endurance athletes who have been hit with long covid from the various long covid groups I’ve monitored through all this. I know that I was doing some heavy bike work on the trainer between the time I presume I was exposed to the virus and when I developed first symptoms in March last year, so possibly that played a role. I’ve read comments from a couple people who seem to have made a return to some longer running (slower than before), but that’s about it. I thought I was making a slow return to normalcy and had done a very gentle return to some activity 3-4 days a week, but that all came crashing down late last year when I got greedy one day and went outside for a 5k slow jog which sent me into many more months of heavy fatigue and my first experience with brain fog. So I’m much more careful now with exertion on good days. Pfizer vaccine gave me horrible headaches for several weeks and has left me prone to them pretty much daily, but a couple of months out now and the constant fatigue has become more sporadic. Not sure if the vaccine is to thank for that or a prolonged period of little activity.
Anyway, good luck to all of you with your recoveries. I’m looking at it in term of a multi-year recovery to whatever degree of health I achieve again, but know that I’ll never want to tax my body with endurance training again even if I feel I’m up to it eventually.
Possible relief from vaccine
For those with Long Covid, some find relief from the vaccine (which is baffling some scientists). Very small studies so far, but some have reported 30% of Long Covid sufferers get better once they have the vaccine, but 11% feel worse. I’ve had my first vaccine and no change. Crossing my fingers for some relief after vaccine #2 next week.
Don’t mean to scare anyone, but it’s tiring hearing the “it’s just the flu, I’ll get it, recover, and be done with it” because chances you won’t get that lucky.
BQ
Sorry to hear that. That sucks. My dad is a physician, and what he’s told me about the long covid and the vaccine, is that it is typically AFTER the second dose. Frequently with worse that normal symptoms that resolve in 36 hours, along with the long covid symtoms.
Pfizer vaccine gave me horrible headaches for several weeks and has left me prone to them pretty much daily, but a couple of months out now and the constant fatigue has become more sporadic. Not sure if the vaccine is to thank for that or a prolonged period of little activity.
Interesting you say that about the vaccine. Was the onset fairly immediate or did it come on gradually? I had sporadic headaches in the initial months but the crushing migraine type have only been an issue for maybe 6-8 weeks. I’m ten weeks removed from my second dose of Pfizer. Seems other people around the internet have mentioned something similar.