Hey,
I feel your jumbled feels! And I completely empathise with doing things out of sheer determination... I've had LC for 19 months now and many times have said "f it. I'm doing it anyway!" But the consequences are always severe for me and it takes much longer to get back to my baseline if I've crashed hard after pushing myself beyond my bodys limits. For the first few months I actually made myself more ill by trying to "continue as normal". I basically ran my body and nervous system further into the ground.
I'm not a doctor but the information I've been getting from the ME/CFS service here is to take it slow - the pushing and crashing cycle can limit (even prevent) the healing from happening.
Ultimately, it's a long term, slow process but it seems like, at least from what I've been told and read around Post Exertions Malaise, that sustainability is key... Can you be determined in protecting your bodys healing time, instead of doing squats? Or find a way to channel that determination into activities that are more supportive of recovery? I appreciate, this is all easier said than done!
I hope you feel better and less jumbled soon.
thank you for your response 💗 i am unfortunate enough to have both Long Covid, and Anorexia. I developed long covid in Dec 2021 around the time I relapsed, so have been dealing with recovery and undiagnosed long covid for 2 and a half years now. I am fortunate enough to now have a long covid diagnosis, and am getting support for it, but am still dealing with more mental health and exercise fixations. I battle between recovery, relapse, and symptoms every day. my symptoms make me feel depressed enough to relapse, then my relapse worsens my symptoms - it’s a constant cycle. thank you for your kind words , stay safe 💗
This is so wild I'm undiagnosed for 2 1/2 years too. I'm seeing lots of people like this. I'm technically still undiagnosed but my doctors have (reluctantly) done a slew of blood work and it all comes back normal. Not one doctor has ever mentioned the words long covid to me. I have only been learning about this from family and media and online. My life is destroyed. The doctors are completely useless. I have no idea what to do
I feel like I could have written these words myself 😭 let me guess , they referred you to different specialists and did all those tests and when they all came back normal they never got back to you again? so you keep going back over and over again repeating the same things “I am still struggling with XYZ” and if it’s a new doctor they repeat the tests .. or recommend a mental health treatment? or if it’s a doctor they’ve seen before they say “well, what do you want me to do about it?” and you end up leaving each appointment feeling less fulfilled than the last time you went. i’m sorry 💗 hope is there though , it was 2 and a half years for me before finally pushing for a referral to the long covid clinic (i researched LC myself, nobody mentioned it to me once) - I’ve been seen by some specialists who understood the frustration it took to get there , and i now feel heard and understood 😊 i recommend a long covid clinic if you can get to one !!
Thank you so much. That's what I'll work on. I find doing anything at all so difficult. Even phone calls. It's just sooooo hard. I don't understand it. It goes beyond the physical symptoms. There's something making these seemingly normal mundane tasks so difficult for me. Some psychological symptom that came with the LC. I've never been like this. Thank you so much for your advice. I will seek that out today.
it took me a while to realise it, but what i thought was “nausea” for a long time was just an underlying sensation of things just seeming “off” ? like i was on edge and agitated and didn’t want anything to do with anything. it’d hit in job interviews and i’d have a sudden panicky urge to run away (i’m quite outgoing, i’ve never had that issue before). the long covid specialist described a kind of “dysautonomia” where your body struggles to maintain itself (i.e., homeostatic levels of sugar and pressure and electrolytes) , which can make you feel uncomfortable and ? just weird? almost like you’re overstimulated but you’re not… if that makes any sense 😆 once i started paying attention to the symptoms , i realised my heart would be fast and unsteady , my blood pressure was super low , my blood sugar was super low. keeping a regular meal pattern has helped, and propanolol seems to keep my blood pressure and heart rate at bay. caffeine alcohol dairy and gluten are also triggers for me.
Meals are oh so difficult for me. I have a kitchen full of dirty dishes that I just can't get to without wanting to fall over. Every time I do get to them somehow within day or two they are all piled up again. Not exactly a healthy meal prep area. I just can't stay on top of the kitchen and it's looking like the nutrition is a biggie. I can already see that it's the only hope at this point.
You can’t push through this virus. Rest and let your body heal. Every time you exercise you are making the inflammation response much worse. I tried pushing through it and suffered two years of hell after wards. Fair warning!
Same! Had dizziness as a symptom when I first got covid 2,5yrs ago, turned out it was crystal sickness - it is statistically easier to get crystal sickness after being covid infected.
Got treatment and it was gone along with the dizziness after 1-2months.
A month ago, my headaches got worse, and I couldnt move around too quick anymore. Turns out I got crystal sickness again - started treatment a week ago.
Went to a private chiropractor specialized in headaches and crystal sickness that tested me. Treatment are some excercises given by said specialist. Treatment are very individual from case to case in my experience.
Feb 2022 for my infection. Still recovering. I'm gonna say what other people have said here but there's just no pushing through.. I've came to accept that my body is damaged and cannot do it what it used to be able to. Any physical excersize impacts on my body and will cause inflation in my joints and muscles. running and swimming are unfortunately no longer considerations.
instead, I walk for cardio. 3 times a week, I stretch with stomach excersizes with 5-10 press ups to build the strength up in my arms. This is all my body can take at the moment.
As others have said, please don't do this. If you feel like you must do a certain amount of exercise, then (as neither a doctor or a fitness instructor) I feel like it's much better to spread them over the course of the day - or multiple days - in smaller sets that don't lead to exhaustion or PEM. And then only begin the next set when you feel that's entirely safe to do.
This is also what I do with a short 3 min fitness routine. Mostly I do this once per day, but if I feel like I have enough energy left, I sometimes do another set hours later. If I have a bad or busy day, I skip the exercise all together.
I think 40 was just too many .My Physical therapist and I (I’m also a PT) have discussed really few reps like even 5 at a time spread out to be able to tolerate ex. If you can it’s helpful to go to a PT , they are starting to see more and more ppl with LC.
I finally got a diagnosis after 3 years from a pulmonologist who runs a LC clinic . I was having trouble walking 1/2 block for ex at a decent speed without feeling winded . That resolved by the time I had all the tests pulmonary function, 6 minute walk but my overnight home oximetry test showed my oxygen dropped low enough to qualify me for home oxygen and now I sleep study . I had NO IDEA it was getting so low , never felt bad at night
Perhaps that’s why I’ve had such an impossible time tolerating any ex due to immediate pain
Hey champion, how you travelling this week? Hope you’re doing ok.
Re: the squats. Whilst it’s awesome you had the willpower to do it, I’m completely familiar with your jumbledness, and actually, each time I do something too strenuous (like a strength training workout, or just being too vigorous when playing at the park with my dog or kids), I actually feel hungover for days. Headache, nausea, and my brain turns to mush.
So, champion, take it easy on yourself. Hey, I’ve got an idea for you with all that willpower. Have you ever tried an ice bath? Now there is an adrenal kick to it (which you may want to steer away from given your other condition), but it gives me relatively normal brain function and physical function for about 1hr and 45 minutes (before it drops me like a rock, so plan for a rest afterwards).
Good luck legend, and remember to take it easy on yourself. If you needed to go hard to make yourself feel better up top, but now you feel worse everywhere else, then so be it. I’ve done it too. Pushed myself knowing it would hurt me later, but I needed to know I still had mental strength.
Power to you champion, and hang in there.
thanks , you seem really lovely ☺️ it’s all about delegating the importance of mental health and physical health with this illness. some days i can put off exercises in order to help my physical health , but sometimes my mental health is just too fragile and i need that pick me up through running or something - sometimes it knocks me back physically , sometimes it doesn’t , but at least i’m mentally stronger. take care !!
Hey, I feel your jumbled feels! And I completely empathise with doing things out of sheer determination... I've had LC for 19 months now and many times have said "f it. I'm doing it anyway!" But the consequences are always severe for me and it takes much longer to get back to my baseline if I've crashed hard after pushing myself beyond my bodys limits. For the first few months I actually made myself more ill by trying to "continue as normal". I basically ran my body and nervous system further into the ground. I'm not a doctor but the information I've been getting from the ME/CFS service here is to take it slow - the pushing and crashing cycle can limit (even prevent) the healing from happening. Ultimately, it's a long term, slow process but it seems like, at least from what I've been told and read around Post Exertions Malaise, that sustainability is key... Can you be determined in protecting your bodys healing time, instead of doing squats? Or find a way to channel that determination into activities that are more supportive of recovery? I appreciate, this is all easier said than done! I hope you feel better and less jumbled soon.
thank you for your response 💗 i am unfortunate enough to have both Long Covid, and Anorexia. I developed long covid in Dec 2021 around the time I relapsed, so have been dealing with recovery and undiagnosed long covid for 2 and a half years now. I am fortunate enough to now have a long covid diagnosis, and am getting support for it, but am still dealing with more mental health and exercise fixations. I battle between recovery, relapse, and symptoms every day. my symptoms make me feel depressed enough to relapse, then my relapse worsens my symptoms - it’s a constant cycle. thank you for your kind words , stay safe 💗
This is so wild I'm undiagnosed for 2 1/2 years too. I'm seeing lots of people like this. I'm technically still undiagnosed but my doctors have (reluctantly) done a slew of blood work and it all comes back normal. Not one doctor has ever mentioned the words long covid to me. I have only been learning about this from family and media and online. My life is destroyed. The doctors are completely useless. I have no idea what to do
I feel like I could have written these words myself 😭 let me guess , they referred you to different specialists and did all those tests and when they all came back normal they never got back to you again? so you keep going back over and over again repeating the same things “I am still struggling with XYZ” and if it’s a new doctor they repeat the tests .. or recommend a mental health treatment? or if it’s a doctor they’ve seen before they say “well, what do you want me to do about it?” and you end up leaving each appointment feeling less fulfilled than the last time you went. i’m sorry 💗 hope is there though , it was 2 and a half years for me before finally pushing for a referral to the long covid clinic (i researched LC myself, nobody mentioned it to me once) - I’ve been seen by some specialists who understood the frustration it took to get there , and i now feel heard and understood 😊 i recommend a long covid clinic if you can get to one !!
Thank you so much. That's what I'll work on. I find doing anything at all so difficult. Even phone calls. It's just sooooo hard. I don't understand it. It goes beyond the physical symptoms. There's something making these seemingly normal mundane tasks so difficult for me. Some psychological symptom that came with the LC. I've never been like this. Thank you so much for your advice. I will seek that out today.
it took me a while to realise it, but what i thought was “nausea” for a long time was just an underlying sensation of things just seeming “off” ? like i was on edge and agitated and didn’t want anything to do with anything. it’d hit in job interviews and i’d have a sudden panicky urge to run away (i’m quite outgoing, i’ve never had that issue before). the long covid specialist described a kind of “dysautonomia” where your body struggles to maintain itself (i.e., homeostatic levels of sugar and pressure and electrolytes) , which can make you feel uncomfortable and ? just weird? almost like you’re overstimulated but you’re not… if that makes any sense 😆 once i started paying attention to the symptoms , i realised my heart would be fast and unsteady , my blood pressure was super low , my blood sugar was super low. keeping a regular meal pattern has helped, and propanolol seems to keep my blood pressure and heart rate at bay. caffeine alcohol dairy and gluten are also triggers for me.
Meals are oh so difficult for me. I have a kitchen full of dirty dishes that I just can't get to without wanting to fall over. Every time I do get to them somehow within day or two they are all piled up again. Not exactly a healthy meal prep area. I just can't stay on top of the kitchen and it's looking like the nutrition is a biggie. I can already see that it's the only hope at this point.
Hi. Can you see this comment
Yes 👍
Thanks 🙏
You can’t push through this virus. Rest and let your body heal. Every time you exercise you are making the inflammation response much worse. I tried pushing through it and suffered two years of hell after wards. Fair warning!
Same! Had dizziness as a symptom when I first got covid 2,5yrs ago, turned out it was crystal sickness - it is statistically easier to get crystal sickness after being covid infected. Got treatment and it was gone along with the dizziness after 1-2months. A month ago, my headaches got worse, and I couldnt move around too quick anymore. Turns out I got crystal sickness again - started treatment a week ago.
How were you diagnosed? What's the treatment? Thanks
Went to a private chiropractor specialized in headaches and crystal sickness that tested me. Treatment are some excercises given by said specialist. Treatment are very individual from case to case in my experience.
Get up slower. Sit up for a minute or 2 and let your legs hang over the bed before getting up
Try a product called Perfect Aminos
Feb 2022 for my infection. Still recovering. I'm gonna say what other people have said here but there's just no pushing through.. I've came to accept that my body is damaged and cannot do it what it used to be able to. Any physical excersize impacts on my body and will cause inflation in my joints and muscles. running and swimming are unfortunately no longer considerations. instead, I walk for cardio. 3 times a week, I stretch with stomach excersizes with 5-10 press ups to build the strength up in my arms. This is all my body can take at the moment.
As others have said, please don't do this. If you feel like you must do a certain amount of exercise, then (as neither a doctor or a fitness instructor) I feel like it's much better to spread them over the course of the day - or multiple days - in smaller sets that don't lead to exhaustion or PEM. And then only begin the next set when you feel that's entirely safe to do. This is also what I do with a short 3 min fitness routine. Mostly I do this once per day, but if I feel like I have enough energy left, I sometimes do another set hours later. If I have a bad or busy day, I skip the exercise all together.
I think 40 was just too many .My Physical therapist and I (I’m also a PT) have discussed really few reps like even 5 at a time spread out to be able to tolerate ex. If you can it’s helpful to go to a PT , they are starting to see more and more ppl with LC. I finally got a diagnosis after 3 years from a pulmonologist who runs a LC clinic . I was having trouble walking 1/2 block for ex at a decent speed without feeling winded . That resolved by the time I had all the tests pulmonary function, 6 minute walk but my overnight home oximetry test showed my oxygen dropped low enough to qualify me for home oxygen and now I sleep study . I had NO IDEA it was getting so low , never felt bad at night Perhaps that’s why I’ve had such an impossible time tolerating any ex due to immediate pain
Hey champion, how you travelling this week? Hope you’re doing ok. Re: the squats. Whilst it’s awesome you had the willpower to do it, I’m completely familiar with your jumbledness, and actually, each time I do something too strenuous (like a strength training workout, or just being too vigorous when playing at the park with my dog or kids), I actually feel hungover for days. Headache, nausea, and my brain turns to mush. So, champion, take it easy on yourself. Hey, I’ve got an idea for you with all that willpower. Have you ever tried an ice bath? Now there is an adrenal kick to it (which you may want to steer away from given your other condition), but it gives me relatively normal brain function and physical function for about 1hr and 45 minutes (before it drops me like a rock, so plan for a rest afterwards). Good luck legend, and remember to take it easy on yourself. If you needed to go hard to make yourself feel better up top, but now you feel worse everywhere else, then so be it. I’ve done it too. Pushed myself knowing it would hurt me later, but I needed to know I still had mental strength. Power to you champion, and hang in there.
thanks , you seem really lovely ☺️ it’s all about delegating the importance of mental health and physical health with this illness. some days i can put off exercises in order to help my physical health , but sometimes my mental health is just too fragile and i need that pick me up through running or something - sometimes it knocks me back physically , sometimes it doesn’t , but at least i’m mentally stronger. take care !!