Long Covid symptoms

[dogshome]

I'm posting this on here because I believe the people who read it are probably a similar age to me, are calm, thoughtful and not over-reactive  8-)

My wife and I both had the disease back in February/early March. I had glass in the throat feeling, temperature, back pain and typical flu symptoms. Put me in bed for a couple of days. My wife just thought she had a cold and could not smell anything. Even plastics on a bonfire which really stank. She has had antibody tests twice and is giving blood to the hospital to help others.

Some weeks after felling better, I got a rattly cough that would not go away. It took about 8 weeks or more. Then sinus trouble and pretty bad headaches. Then large and painful cold sores up in the nose. These symptoms took maybe another 4 weeks to go.

So a couple of weeks ago my wife suddenly felt dizzy and was diagnosed with inner ear infection 'virus'. It took about 7 days or more before she was completely right.

Last Tuesday I woke up about 1am and my eyes were continuously moving right, then flicking back. This lasted about 2 hours and was accompanied by severe loss of balance which lasted about 8 hours. My speech was also difficult, not slurred but took complete concentration to get words out. I sounded like Captain Kirks worst impressionist. Next day, felt much better at first, but a bit wobbly towards the end of the day.

Today I'm almost normal, but watching the dog hurtling around whilst bent over had me clinging to the fence for a bit!

The paramedics and young doctor at the hospital ignored me when I told them it was an inner ear problem (vestibular) and one of our dogs had had it. No I wasn't having a stroke or heart attack, I am completely calm because I know what it is and it will go in a few days. Of course, they don't believe you and when the young doc felt my (hereditary) irregular heart beat I got full ECG and brain scan.... Grrr.....

Anyhow, doc next day recognised it, shook my head from side to side and noticed my eyes were not catching up properly.

So.... :-/

I feel strongly that these strange things are all hang-ons from Covid. Like malaria or glandular fever, it stays about for a bit. I've never had inner ear trouble or sinus swelling like that or rattly, lingering cough.

Hopefully that is it, there can't be many more places in my body for it to have a go at?

Any thoughts or comments?

[Justin B.]

Dog - I sincerely hope that you get over these lingering issues quickly.  What I have read indicates this nasty bug affects people differently and some effects linger for quite a while.  We will keep you and your wifein our prayers.

[dogshome]

Thanks Justin and thank you for keeping the site fresh. I know how much is involved in something seemingly simple.

[dogshome]

Some weeks later, I'm back to normal. Vertigo now seems to be a recognised symptom (which is what we had). It's nice to get back on the bike, which I now notice uses a lot less 'balancing' brain cells than walking. I don't think we realise how our brains are continuously processing these 'simple' tasks until they stop working normally. Having to focus on staying upright didn't leave a lot left for speaking or much else. CPU maxed out on one thread.

My greyhounds can be maxed out after an hour at a dog show. Clyde needs all 10 braincells to process everything he is seeing, smelling, feeling etc and needs a good nap afterwards (more than the usual 400 winks). He's more tired after that than several hours walking out on the fields.