Covid aftermath, nearly a year out
Jeff in TX
Senior MemberPosts: 2,470 Senior Member
It's been nearly a year
since I left the hospital after 40 days with Covid. My progress has been very
much up and down. My lingering effects of this terrible disease is fatigue,
getting out of breath quickly and memory loss. Now the good news. I was accepted
into UT Southwesters Long Haulers Covid study. I had a four-hour appointment
last week with a lot of testing. The doc said my lungs & heart look great
especially since I was on a vent for 6 days. After reviewing all of my previous CT scans, x-rays
and all the test I’ve done over the last year including that days test results. His simple explanation was that the heart,
lungs and brain just aren't working together properly. Part of this is my
arteries, blood vessels and capillaries have narrowed a bit over the past year restricting
blood and oxygen flow. There was a ton
of physiology behind his findings. He did
his best to simplify it a dumb it down for my wife and myself so we could
understand it. He said my body is working like an old battery that has a memory
problem. When it's fully charged it's only around 20 to 25% or so. Thus, my
shortness of breath and getting fatigued so quickly, my battery drains quickly.
The goal is reset my body back to 90 to 100% full charge.
I'm now on a prescribed workout plan to keep my
heart rate around 125/130 for 30 min to an hour a day which means walking or
riding my bike and lifting weights. The week of Nov 1st I start five weeks of
EEC Flow Therapy. EEC Flow therapy begins by lying down on a padded therapy table,
where EECP compression cuffs (similar to blood pressure cuffs) are wrapped
around my calves, thighs, lower hips and arms. Then, using an EKG machine, a
computer regulates the inflation and deflation of cuffs in rhythm with your
heart. It imitates the benefits of passive exercise without straining the
heart, leading to improved circulation, increased cardiac capacity, reductions
in joint pain, reduced shortness of breath, and increased stamina. The before
and after sonogram pictures of the body's arteries and blood vessel changes
over three weeks are incredible. The program has now been extended to 5 weeks.
They'll take sonogram pics of my heart and arteries at the beginning and after the first two weeks
and then bi-weekly to measure progress. During this time, I'll still do my normal
walking, biking and lifting.
Once done with the 5 weeks (25 sessions) he's
going to do few pure oxygen treatments in a hyperbaric chamber at two
atmospheres. As most here know I’m a huge scuba diver and want nothing better to be able to dive
again. At the end of these sessions,
he'll have a pretty good idea if I can re-enter the water and dive again, or
what else I'll need to do to get there. However, he seemed very positive and optimistic
with my prognosis going forward!
Workouts are going well and I’m looking forward to
the Flow therapy, I'll give updates after a few weeks of Flow therapy and when I finish!
The disease sucks!
John 3: 1-21
Replies
Since you had COVID and been hospitalized for it you may want to start a journal on your journey back to "normal" life.
Even if you are not a writer or want to write in a real book, start up a write document and just document your journey.
add how you "feel" now if you want and or put in any specific info such as "walk 1 block or up the stairs" without being winded, or maybe do 5 pushups without passing out...ect Just make it for your consumption later down the road if you want.
Ive started one years ago when i got some upper respiratory bug at work. My 1st time fencing with a bug like that and so every so offen now, i get to have it again. I just got back from S.America and was dehydrated on the long plane ride back and developed it - it again. My dentist and doctor thought it was COVID and i was tested for it before i left S.America to get back into the USA. My dentist thought it was COVID and i was tasted there at the office before they would even look at me. It came back negative. A few days later i had to see my Dr about some other issues, and they wanted to test me - again - for COVID since the test my dentist did wasnt a "good test"... again, negative.
but i have had "upper respiratory issues" every so often, and i had made notes about my symptoms and how i feel and so forth. It takes a while to get better, but i make note of it and when/where and so forth. And over time i pickup a bug here or there so i just make note of it with date/time and symptoms and what if anything was done to make it go away.
But you may want to document your journey if you want and so you can have something to review and see if you are progressing. you can put your own thoughts - good or bad - in there too.
good luck
- Don Burt