Long covid symptoms

This is the story of Budi, your average guy living his normal happy life. Budi has a nice home and a good job, and he really likes to party on the weekend.

However, on one unfortunate weekend, he fell ill after his usual visit to a particularly crowded pub. His fever soon become worrying and he went to a clinic to get himself checked. Soon he finds out that he caught COVID-19 and needs to be hospitalized.

Luckily for Budi, he would soon recover from the disease after two weeks. But then Budi noticed something different after recovering from COVID-19.

For some reason, he has trouble sleeping, his muscles feel sore, and he has problems smelling or tasting anything. It was probably the after effect of recovering from COVID-19 as the doctor informed him, he thought. It should go away in a few days, a friend reassured him.

However, a few days soon turn into a few weeks and a few weeks soon turned into several months. Eventually, Budi realized that something was definitely wrong because he could still feel symptoms of COVID-19 even after 4 months of his recovery.

And Budi would be correct to assume so because he would soon learn that he was suffering from what we could call Long COVID symptoms.

What is Long COVID?

Typically speaking, the incubation period of people infected by COVID-19 is about 6 days after contact before showing any symptoms. Although, these incubation periods may differ for each person depending on their conditions and which COVID-19 variants they contracted. In general, people would already feel sick within two weeks after their caught the disease.

A similar thing could be said about the recovery period of people who got infected by COVID-19. Though people usually recover from COVID-19 in a few days or weeks after they fell ill, most people make full recovery in approximately 3 months.

However – like Budi’s story – this could not be said the same for everyone.

In September 2020, The British Medical Journal hosted a webinar where an expert panel discussed a mysterious phenomenon shared by patients recovering from COVID-19. That phenomenon is the persistent COVID-19 symptoms that simply do not go away even after 3 months have passed since they caught COVID-19. This is why this phenomenon is called, “Long COVID.”

It is not really known why this happens and who is most at risk because there is not really any connection between Long COVID and the severity of the disease when a person first contracted COVID-19.

Moreover, while it’s already rare enough that people might suffer from COVID symptoms long after they are supposed to recover, there are even rarer cases of people who show similar long-term COVID-like symptoms after they take vaccinations. However, even experts were not sure if it was really of vaccines, because they still retail much confidence that vaccines will still provide more protection against COVID-19 than not.

You may be keen to read Should I Take Booster Vaccine against COVID-19? Yes, And Here Is Why

Thus, this begs one question: how would you know if you have long COVID?

Getting to Know Long COVID Symptoms

Before we get to know the symptoms of Long COVID, one thing must be underlined. Long COVID is a rare case that usually happens to people who had contracted COVID-19 – and even rarer for those who got it from vaccinations – but it is a curable condition.

However, we must not be complacent because Long COVID can still cause long-term debilitating conditions.

According to UK National Health Service (NHS) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many symptoms might appear in someone who suffers from Long COVID. These symptoms may include:

  • General symptoms shared in these cases are extreme fatigue and fevers.
  • Heart and breathing-related symptoms might also show, such as pounding heart, chest pains, coughs, and shortness of breath.
  • Digestive problems like stomach pains or diarrhea.
  • Various neurological symptoms like ‘brain fog’, insomnia, dizziness, changes in the capacity to smell or taste, depression or anxiety, and headaches.
  • Other symptoms such as joint or muscle soreness, rashes, and even changes in menstrual cycles.

While many of these symptoms are not that different from typical COVID-19 symptoms, Long COVID is a very precarious condition because it could interfere with a person’s health and daily life in the long term.

So, how should you deal with this condition if you ever have it?

Long covid symptoms

Long covid symptoms. Image Source: Unsplash/Brian McGowan

Conclusion: Consider Medical Consultation Whenever Possible

In summary, we know that Long COVID is simply a protracted condition after recovering from COVID-19. While rare, we also know that the condition is, in fact, curable. Thus, if someone does get long-term COVID-like symptoms, even way after they have recovered from it, there isn’t really any need for them to take any special medications.

Instead, experts suggest that dealing with Long COVID should be considered a healthy journey of gradual improvements and recovery. This means that one of the best ways to manage Long COVID is through building self-awareness by learning about your body’s patterns and limits in how it responds to your daily activities after recovering from COVID-19. Avoid any activities that do trigger these symptoms, before gradually doing them again to the point where it does not trigger them anymore.

However, if you are unsure of how to do this and would like to get help in checking or managing your Long COVID condition, then you should consider taking medical consultation. Checking and discussing your conditions with a professional physician is the best way to get an expert opinion for the best treatment personalized for you.

Puri Medical Clinic is one of the best medical services that provide such consultation services. Our physicians are always ready to serve you with reliable and quality health solutions at affordable prices.

You can even get our health care from the comfort of your home with Puri Medical Clinic’s Doctor On Call services. Just give us a call at +(62)85 100 103 103 or email us at [email protected] and enjoy the best quality personal healthcare with our home-visit physician service.

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