UKH

Had Covid, and became Covid free ten days ago. Then on Monday, came down with something way worse - thumping headache, retching cough, generic aches, and my eyes hurt like mad. Will recently having Covid impacted on my bodies ability to fight stuff off. This is one of the most ill I’ve ever felt, and going on holiday on Saturday !  I’m feeling a bit better, so I’m hopeful.  This is the third short but quite severe illnesses since January. 

I think the full long term effects of covid are yet to be revealed. I got long covid in 2021 and have had several unusual (for me) health events. The fatigue elements seem to be lessening with time - thankfully, my symptoms were mild in comparison to others and at my worst I was still able to walk a few miles. Another bout of covid last July took me back to square one but I seemed to recover lost ground again. This last year or so though I've had more trips to the doc than the previous twenty. They've found something going on with my heart. I've also had constipation which required laxatives - never needed those before! - and also a couple of bouts of athletes foot which have wrecked my feet and needed antibiotics. The temptation might be to blame it all on covid as up till now I've hardly ever required more than a paracetamol. Who knows, could be just age?

Since having Covid I have asthma.

Didn't have it before, but I have it now. Currently on the grey inhaler twice a day which is a massive improvement.

Every time I get ill now, I cough for weeks. Doesn't matter what I catch.

Just had the flu, indirectly diagnosed as I caught it from my kid, where half of nursery have been sick and some tested and feedback was flu.

I swear this flu tried to kill me. I was wiped out.

Need to get back into running, but my lungs are still on fire.

So I'm not sure I'm more likely to get ill, but what I think could have been minor sicknesses seem worse for me now. Especially on the lungs.

Of course wholly anecdotal.

I had COVID this time last year for the first time which I picked up at our annual company conference which involves long haul flight and lots of close contact with colleagues. It wiped me out for two days and developed into a nasty chest infection for what seemed liked months. I then had a minor heart attack last summer - probably unrelated. I then had a cold in Early October which then turned into another nasty chest infection (Ive never had this symptom before) which didnt go until a couple of weeks ago.

Annoyingly, and coincidentally, I came back back from this year's conference on Friday last week and on Monday I tested positive again for COVID and have had a couple of nasty days with today being a slightly better day but already I am starting to cough again. Im hoping this doesnt develop.

I was pretty fit and healthy until last year but now I am really weak and my healthb is very different. Im 48.

Spanish flu, that killed more than the 1st World War did, is still about. Thankfully we've had ~100 years to build up immunity. But people underestimate how bad flu can be.

Slightly at a tangent, a colleague in Poland had a Covid tester, that also had flu and RSV on it as well. One sample, 3 drops, 3 answers. I thought that was quite cool.

Sounds like you have only just got over your initial infection, so I won't go into the varied rage of symptoms associated with long covid.

In answer to your question, yes your immune system is going to have taken a battering leaving you susceptable to getting ill again. 

Look after yourself, rest and take the time you need to recover fully. I mentioned long covid above, making sure you properly recover from your initial infection and don't rush back to work/play is the best way to reduce your chances of developing it.

I certainly feel like I'm constantly dealing with the cold since covid, but maybe lockdown and constant washing of everything just de-trained my immune system, or maybe there's something else unrelated going on.

Because we've all had COVID, there will be plenty of coincidences (such as developing another immune problem round about the same time) that will make it look like COVID causes those problems, so regardless of whether it does or not there will be loads of anecdotal "evidence" flying around.

I guess we'll know eventually, but I don't think the studies have been done yet.

thanks all. Complicated stuff. My recent illness - my son has it too, but not as bad, but he’s young and fit and didn’t get Covid when I recently had it. And I suppose all these things are a wake up call to look after myself better (I’m nearly 58, and feel like I’ve aged 10 years in 5 weeks).  

Sounds like a secondary bacterial chest infection. I went to the doc for the same today. I regularly get them at this time year, and I know from bitter experience I won't shift it unaided; in early 2020, I had it for seven weeks. When I finally went to the GP (telephone consultation), he said I shouldn't have waited. So now I don't...

Amoxycillin or doxycycline should see it off pretty quickly, IME.

I appreciate the sentiment you're making, but a little clarification follows. Forgive me! The lineage of seasonal influenza descended of the original 'spanish flu' (AH1N1) went extinct following the introduction of AH2N2 and the flu pandemic of 1957. It came back from extinction in 1977 (basically from a lab, accident or deliberate we'll never know) and circulated along with AH3N1 until it was outcompeted by 'swine flu' AH1N1pdm09 in 2009/2010, in our most recent flu pandemic, and became extinct once more.

I agree that people underestimate flu, but they can also overestimate symptoms -- you can be infected with influenza and be asymptomatic, or had a bad cold, or be hospitalised, or die. Just because you are not hallucinating in a pool of your own sweat doesn't mean you haven't got influenza. All the winter respiratory viruses have such varied and inconsistent symptoms, you really can't tell what you have from symptoms alone. What you need is a multiplex pcr or one of these ...

I'd love to see these cheap enough to be commonly used.

Any serious infection leaves you down on white blood cells.  Interestingly I had a full blood count done last week following the "supercold" (for other reasons) and mine were so low they considered it borderline and worth retesting, following the retest they seem to have gone back up a bit but not fully.

So yes this can happen.

You're not wrong there about flu. I'm still amazed that folk will say they've got a bit of flu whilst continuing to carry on everyday life. Anytime I've had flu I've been sparko in bed or delicious with a temperature.

You've just got to love autospell/correct 😁

I've probably got manflu.😂

I failed to be clear, as this is the opposite of the point I was trying to make. It's quite possible to have influenza and carry on. It's also possible to have influenza and feel like death warmed up. You can't tell from severity of symptoms alone which virus you have. 

The heart attack may be related:

https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article-abstract/119/8/1718/6987834?...

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o378

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-sars-cov-2-contrib....

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/coron...

There appears to be an increased risk of cardiovascular disease after being infected by Covid.

The evidence is out there if you look for it:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2

My interventional cardiologist (professor and eminent academic to boot) said that whilst he couldnt rule COVID out, my age and sex were probably the main factors - white, male, 45+, history of liking a pint/glass or two. I have 50th pc in arterial narrowing in two main arteries and a totally occluded small branch where he suspects the issue was focused. 

There is still much to understand.

Interesting, I would say I have never had flu. So what you are saying is that maybe when I have thought I had a cold it could have been flu? That's worrying, as I could have spread it to vulnerable people unknowingly. 

I realise that the answer really is to stay away from people when you have any illness, but in reality if it's a mild cold then there is a limit to how much you can stay away from life. I do mask when working with vulnerable elderly people even if I just have a sniffle. 

Just done a quick Google: in the USA an estimated 5 to 20% of the population get flu each year. Assuming we are similar rates, then even at the lower end it would be  nigh on impossible to not catch flu if your middle aged. I’ve gone through most of my line thinking similar to you, partly because I thought I should be a be ‘tougher’ and not be accused of the ‘he’s got Man Flu’ (a phrase that should be obliterated, us men can be rubbish at going for health help).  

Absolutely.  One of the factors that became clear from Covid was how much difference the initial dose of virus made, and where it happened to land.  Upper respiratory tract, lower respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract... 

Then there is the immunological history of previous exposure to similar coronaviruses, and the background immunological status in terms of inflammatory responses (and pre-existing chronic inflammation) and cell-mediated vs antibody responses - all of which is influenced by the underlying genetics of the individual in terms of immune repertoire and HLA-mediated skewing of antigen processing and presentation to T and B cells.

And that's without considering how reactive our innate immune system - the bit that isn't T cells or antibodies - happens to be (genetics again, plus nutritional status); macrophages, NK cells and, especially, neutrophils.

We are all the result of countless generations of selection on the basis of different immunological advantages.  We have ancestors who were really good at dealing with parasites, or bacterial infections, or respiratory viruses - or being successful at down-regulating their acute responses so that they dealt with their infections without damaging themselves too much in the process.  Literally, no two of us will react identically to an infection - not even identical twins.

Update: Doc reckons most likely flu. Top Tip: don’t catch flu straight after you’ve had Covid - not good. Symptoms easing, which is good coz I’ve got a weeks annual leave starting this weekend. 

Legally if you are signed off work on a sick note you are entitled to carry any booked annual leave forward to use later in the year - but obviously that may mean only getting SSP rather than your usual earnings.

Cheers. I’m lucky in that my very small charity goes along with best practice etc. 

Slightly niche, but having covid makes you more susceptible to Guillain-Barré syndrome too, studies suggest 6 times more likely infact. My brother had/has it along with Miller fisher syndrome. He had covid a few weeks prior to manifesting the symptoms of the disease, so the hospital believes that was the likely cause. 

You hear some stories of long covid too, sounds dreadful.  

You'll have had influenza multiple times unless you've been living in a cave all you life (the bats would probably have given you worse!). We estimated average of every 5 years over course of life for AH3N2. 

It's tricky. Asymptomatic transmission is likely way more common for all of the respiratory viruses than previously appreciated, pre-covid. The sooner those covid/flu/rsv lateral flow tests come out at an affordable price for intending visits to highly vulnerable individuals, the better.