UKH

I had covid over New Year, presumably the Omicron strain. I felt very rough for three or four days, then rapidly improved and was testing negative and feeling completely fine after 10 days. Since then I've had no additional complications an I've been reasonably active.

At the start of June, I tried out surfing for the first time and managed to strain a muscle in my ribs in the process. For about a week this was agonising, to the point where I was worried that I'd cracked a rib and went along to A&E. They weren't able to scan it but the pain has since subsided (but not fully gone) so I'm assuming it was just a strain.

However, since I've been picking up climbing and exercising again, I've noticed that my fitness seems to have gone to pot. I first noticed this a few weeks ago climbing at Haytor when I got very out of breath on the short walk in from the car. On attempting a severe, my strength failed immediately during the first moves, I had to back off and I felt faint for half a minute. I've not had such an extreme episode since, but I get short of breath quickly during exercise and it lasts for a while afterwards as well. It doesn't feel as though my breathing is shallow or obstructed, the feeling is more as though I'm at high altitude and there's simply less oxygen in the air.

At first I put this down to the muscle strain, but as it's lingered I'm starting to wonder if it's not long covid. It just seems coincidental that it's waited until an injury to crop up, and the breathlessness is my only symptom.

I'm going to see my physiotherapist this week, and I'll try and get a GP appointment, but I was wondering if anybody who's suffered either ailment recognises the feeling. It's particularly troubling for me since I'm supposed to be heading to the Alps in August, and after losing two summers to serious injuries I am desperate to get back out there and have a successful trip.

Thanks

Bit of a left field suggestion but some of your description would tie in with Atrial Fibrillation. Is your pulse returning to normal after it's been elevated by some exertion?

If it's staying high (like >100) when you would expect it to have gone down then AF would be a suspect.

UKC not the place for official medical advice, but: 

If you feel breathless on exertion, with chest discomfort that was initially provoked by exercise you should get an X-RAY. Unlikely, but  need to rule out pneumothorax, particularly if you are planning to climb at altitude!

Otherwise your experience sounds similar to my own experience following 2nd episode COVID in February - initial symptoms, apparently recovered, then really struggling with exercise over the following months. Seems to be a little better now fortunately.

Coincidentally I had a recent rib injury while climbing! I don’t think directly related to post-COVID symptoms in my case.

I was on good climbing form last May. At the beginning of June 21 I got my second dose of AZ vaccine. Form crashed 6 grades. I was breathless walking up stairs. Not feeling quite so bad now but due to being forced to scale back training and putting on a bit of weight I'm still climbing like a donkey.

Generally don't get may strained muscles from climbing, but half an our of surfing can crank and cramp fingers, elbows, shoulders, ribs and calves! So it might by that surfing requires another level of athleticism?

Long covid, without anything dramatic happening, has left me slow and weak as well. Finding the best solution is to just take my time...

Another possibility might be you had symptom-free Omicron BA.4/5 - seems there's a lot of it about as it can evade the immunity we've built up from vaccines and previous strains.

I've had the unexplained tiredness over the last couple of weeks and am also away in Switzerland in August. I'm committed to going anyway, but it will be a right pita if I test positive beforehand.

What did your exercise regime look like between new year and June? Presumably you must have been exercising and not getting breathless before June as you don’t mention it.

You're very lucky. I climb like a very mediocre goldfish, I dream of the day when I can climb like a donkey

"regime" would be deluding myself, but yes. Daily cycle commuting, daily-ish physio strength exercises and stretching for my knee injuries, weekly climbing, occasional mountain days of hiking/scrambling. No fitness concerns at all before June.

You must hate climbing a route then forgetting you’ve done it 10 seconds later.

Some people do report fully recovering before relapsing with long covid symptoms. Long covid had also been reported after asymptomatic infections.

Really hope for you that it's not.

Go to A&E.  You may have pulmonary embolism, which may or may not be caused by COVID.  It's easily treatable with blood thinners but can kill you if it isn't.  Don't wait for your GP as they will just tell you to go to A&E anyway.

It could also be long COVID (which may cause microclots, so sort of related), but it is very important to rule PE out.

The chest pain also rings alarm bells - that may not have been a strained rib.

Your symptoms are basically exactly what I had and it was PE.

That further backs up the possibility of PE.  They form quite suddenly (usually from an asymptomatic DVT in a calf vein) and so you have a marked and sudden loss of fitness.  So obvious that the trainer I do bootcamps with noticed it too.

It is *possible* that COVID caused the DVT and then it's taken months to move to the lung.

You don't have any swelling or redness on one lower leg, do you?  That would back it up further (but the absence of that doesn't mean it isn't).

Definitely A&E.  They can do a blood test called a D-dimer and quickly rule it in or out, and will start treatment immediately if the test is positive.

I was getting really breathless when indoor bouldering not long ago, I'd be gasping for air shortly after dropping off 1 problem.

Went to the docs and had bloods and chest listened to etc and nothing came back. I wondered if there was something about the chalky air irritating a mildly post covid-y chest?

Seems to have settled down a bit now though, months later, and am pretty much back to where I was (generally still weak!)

Hope you feel better soon and get to the bottom of it.

Thanks for the warning. That does sound like quite an extreme diagnosis, especially given the circumstances. I'm 90% certain that the chest pain is a muscle strain resulting from the surfing, since it developed in the couple of days after surfing from what I initially thought was really bad muscle ache. The pain seems localised in my ribs and initially any movement was firing it off. I now only really feel it significantly when I'm straining or stretching through my core/chest. So I'd be surprised to learn that the pain had some completely different origin.

Even if the pain is indeed a muscle strain that doesn't rule out PE.  It can present without any pain.

Seriously, go to A&E and get the test done, it's a quick blood test.  If you go reporting those symptoms they will take it seriously.

Chalk dust kicks off my (otherwise mild) asthma something rotten.  But that presents as chest tightness, you can easily distinguish it from the sort of shortness of breath caused by PE and the likes.

I don't have asthma, and have never experienced that breathlessness before having covid. It was just the way the op described his symptoms, it was exactly the same as mine a few months ago. In retrospect I also had another bout of pretty bad breathlessness prior to the bouldering episodes, that first time was while walking a coastal path in Cornwall, so not likely chalk related!

I didn't have any wheeze as such, just felt like I couldn't get enough air in my lungs for a short period, and kept having to consciously take deeper breaths than normal. Very unpleasant and anxiety inducing. 

Could well be ... I fully recovered from covid and relapsed a couple of weeks later.
Now im on month 16 of long covid. Improvements but Im only at about 50% i'd say. 

Memorable moments include forgetting friends names that i've known for years whilst talking to them and walking around tesco like im 97, using the trolley to prop me up and moving at about 2mph. Weird year haha. 

I've always done that.  Hate to think what Long COVID would do.

That sounds awful. I'm sorry to hear you've been through that.