Got covid. Lungs went to shit (already shit to begin with), in the hospital, thought I was going to die, couldn't eat, lost 45lbs in 2 months, couldn't walk without feeling like I was going to pass out.
Then depression because I can't walk, can't smell, can't taste, need 2 inhalers a day just to breathe but still wheezing and coughing 3 years later.
Covid for me too except nervous system flavor so approximately zero doctors had any clue what was going on, or why suddenly speaking/hearing speech made me want to cry, why light and sound (any volume) were extremely painful and overwhelming, and why I *couldnt* sustain sleep for weeks.
It’s truly a monster virus. I’m sorry you had this experience , fellow traveler.
Nurse here: it was a looong while before we found out that COVID is not a lung disease as everyone thought at the beginning, it's vascular so it can attack pretty much ANY part of your body. COVID is, as we say in Brazil, a filha da puta disease. Took so many people. I don't desire on my worst enemy what we went through in the frontline.
I have a friend who used to work in a hospital during covid, but she wasn't medical staff. She said she'd pass through the ICU and listen to the nursing staff complain about having to wear masks while they had formerly fairly healthy people on ventilators. She got vaccinated asap and lost respect for that hospital and most nurses. I don't understand how anyone who spent their time in the trenches would be anti masking or vaccines.
Unfortunately many healthcare professionals are STILL anti mask, as they won't wear a respirator during work to prevent themselves or others from getting sick. It's truly sad
I concur. Last time I had it I was convinced I was having a heart attack. Felt like someone had a ratchet strap around my chest and was pulling it tighter and tighter.
Covid sent my body berserk back in 2022. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. They called it post covid arthritis . Most pain I have ever been in. And mind you I’ve been cut open and had a human pulled out of me and then my tubes tied and stapled back together all in 1 sitting . The pain was worse than that ! But come to find out it was autoimmune flare . Come to find out the arthritis I had as a child that “went away” was actually autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis and mixed connective tissue disease . So I guess I was in remission for almost 40 years and covid bought it back with a vengeance 🤦🏾♀️
Woah, yes! It causes rheumatoid arthritis in my body too! And unfortunately the vaccines trigger it too. I'm super supportive of vaccines, but after spending 36 hours at an unrelenting 8/9 on the pain scale (and I have a high pain tolerance) I'm just way too scared to risk it again.
Covid kicks my ass but signing up for guaranteed pain isn't the way either. It's sad but I've definitely altered my lifestyle to be more of a hermit.
The Covid vaccine didn’t bother me but now that Covid has screened me up I’m scared 😭 I want to go to nursing school and I’m afraid of doing the titer in case I need the live MMR vaccines. My doctor said that I would have to come off of my immuno suppressant four weeks prior to taking the vaccines at four weeks after I would have to stay off so that’s two months. I will probably be incapacitated. I read online that nursing schools may give you an exception, but once you do clinicals, the hospital will not.😭
I had a family member get Covid. They were in there late 70s. After getting Covid, they started hallucinating and becoming angry which I’ve never seen this person angry EVER. They were the happiest person. They thought the nurses were trying to kill them. Come to find out, Covid “activated” their autoimmune disease that never had a symptom of in their life and their immune system thought their brain was an enemy and was destroying it.
Oh my goodness that is crazy wow . I know autoimmune diseases cause us to attack ourselves but I never even thought of the brain . Did they ever bounce back from that ? New fear unlocked 😭
I’m ok but the flares suck. Skin goes crazy , joints go crazy . Never seen anything like it. I’m on immunosuppressants now so for the most part I’m doin pretty good.
I’ve been lucky to be able to rest a LOT in the months since contracting it most recently (7mo ago) but I’m not back to baseline yet. I think it was a gnarly combo platter of dysautonomia/orthostatic intolerance and vestibular / migraine issues. I spent weeks in extreme sensory deprivation and near isolation — truly the most terrifying thing I’ve ever lived through.
I’m not OP but I have all my Covid shots + boosters and I got Covid three times, the second time was the worse and the doctors straight up told me if I wasn’t vaccinated I would’ve 100000% died.
I got the vaccinex2 and got Covid twice as well. The first time little to no symptoms, the second I had Pancreatitis and couple with Covid I was in ICU for 4 days barely able to walk and oxygen level monitors going off, even though I felt okay other than that and the pain from the pancreatitis.
It really was. It was wild to see how different everyone’s symptoms were and I can’t imagine how much more catastrophic it would’ve been if the vaccines were readily available.
I had what I call 'the OG covid'... straight from China. I was sick for a few months. Lost my sense of taste and smell until I think my second vaccine... might've come back shortly after my first but it was absolutely after the vaccine. Was nice for fruit not to taste like rotten metal. I know metal can't really 'rot' but that's the best description of what my favorite fruit dishes tasted like.
Also had the OG Covid. I'm in Washington state, where the first case was reported in the country, but we got sick months before that. It was November of 2019. Went through my town like wildfire. My doc confirmed it later, said they had TONS of atypical pneumonia that wasn't influenza A or B. Anyway, we all had different symptoms- my middle school aged son had stomach issues, I had the wheezing and coughing and my husband was feverish and actually fainted twice. It took a good three months before I could climb a flight of stairs without coughing, and I am really fit. I remember laying in bed one night when it was at it's worst and feeling like I wasn't getting enough oxygen and thinking "This is how people die". None of us ever went in to the clinic, though. Didn't think they'd be able to help since it was viral. I've had it at least three times since then, and I am vaccinated. It was never as bad as that first time.
So, after you got COVID, you got a vaccine and got your sense of smell and taste back??
Which vaccine?s? did you get?
A relative of mine has lost nearly all sense of smell, but I don’t think they’ve gotten any vaccines. They might be inclined to if it might bring the scents back.
Me? Yes I’ve vaccinated and for the most part kept up with boosters. Infections shortly after vaccination were actually worse during infection (higher fever, more exhaustion) but had fewer lingering issues (not zero). Infections further from vaccination were milder but seemed to leave me with more prolonged post acute sequelae.
I think some of it is the strain, some of it is vaccination status, and some of it is just how much you have brewing in the background when it hits you.
It hasn’t changed how I view vaccines in general but it has made me a little afraid of the COVID vaccine. It’s terrifying and traumatic to have a constellation of medical issues that doctors truly do not know how to react to or manage. But I am hopeful that the vaccine will be less terrible than another infection, and I think the newly approved formula is a slightly smaller dose which may help how people tolerate it.
Did you vaccinate, did it change how you view vaccines?
Omg I got this suite of symptoms too (though not nearly so bad as you, I was never hospitalized). I have my fitbit record still from that time - the first week of infection, I managed just four hours of total sleep for the entire week. The next week, I managed 7 for the week.
It wasn't until just last year that I was able to sleep more than 3-4 hours at a stretch. It turned by brain and body to sludge.
I'm glad I ran across your comment, you're the first person I've heard of who's shared the severe insomnia symptom.
My son got post-viral cerebellar ataxia from his 2nd covid infection. It was terrible, he couldn't walk well and had some pretty serious neurological deficits. He had his limbs back under control after 6 months but the nystagmus, fatigue, and cognitive problems persisted for a couple of years.
I'm grateful we all survived (my FIL died of covid) but man we didn't come out the same.
Good god that sounds terrible — four hours in a WEEK?!? There are lots more of us with the insomnia piece — if you ever want to check the long covid subreddits, you’ll find lots of stories of similar. I wasn’t ever admitted to the hospital, just in and out of the ER to be told “everything looks fine” and offered anti-anxiety meds that did not work as intended lol.
I cannot imagine getting only 4hr of sleep all week. When I first got sick I knew it was Covid because of the insomnia — I woke up at 4a and was wide awake. The vaccine has done similar to me. My sleep slowly deteriorated over the weeks that followed, and I was waking up jolting awake with night sweats and heart racing. I was usually able to cobble together 2-4hr per night, though, even at the worst of it though it was heavily disturbed. But for me that lasted several weeks.
I’m 7mo out now and sleep is consolidating better now, but it’s taken a number of avenues to calm my nervous system (daily rest periods, eye masks, a balanced low histamine diet and eating every 4hr while awake, electrolytes and extra water, magnesium, increasing my ferritin levels, and a new glasses prescription oddly enough) to help get me here.
In retrospect I think it was a combination of simmering migraine (likely with a vestibular component) and dysautonomia/orthostatic intolerance for me.
Have you had it again since then? I am very afraid of reinfection after all this. I’m sorry to hear about your son — that had to have been very scary for both of you. Hoping for continued healing for both of you.
It was so weird, I'd never had a respiratory disease that gave me insomnia. I was fully expecting to do what I normally do when sick - be totally exhausted by the smallest effort and sleep most of the day. Instead I was totally exhausted by the smallest effort but entirely unable to sleep. My other major symptom was racing heart rate (up to 160) which continued for several months before fully resolving. I didn't go to the hospital or doctor - one son was at summer camp and the other was slated for an international trip 10 days after my symptoms began. I isolated in the guest room and did not emerge for 10 days. My son had the time of his life living off of door dash and my stash of frozen bagels, gaming to his heart's content, living large. He'd leave offerings of water and food outside the door which I wouldn't open until he was in the other part of the house. It was a strange 10 days.
My son at summer camp came home wirh covid. That case was mild, it was the next that took him out (and yes, so scary, ataxia didn't emerge until 1 month post infection and it had all the hallmarks of a brain tumor. Covid complications were a blessing in comparison).
Strangely, my other son, the jet setting gaming bagel eater, has never contracted covid which he boasts of frequently :)
That was my first infection, summer of 2021. The insomnia persisted until summer 2025 but now I am pretty good - 6-7 solid hours a night.
I know everyone is different but I hope my experience is somewhat reassuring. I have had boosters since with no exacerbation and, more importantly, 2 more covid infections. The first was very minor with mild cold like symptoms, the second was nearly entirely gastrointestinal. It didn't worsen my insomnia and there was no recurrence of tachycardia.
Sounds like you're doing really well for 7 months out and on an upward trajectory! I pray that, should you be reinfected, you have an easy as time as I did. I understand the fear, covid is a bizarre and unpredictable disease.
When i had it, i told my fiance that this thing almost feels like it was made by a scientist to seriously fuck you up, it does all of the worse things so well.
I also developed photophobia as a consequence of covid, but I was lucky it only lasted around 2-3 weeks. it was so demoralizing to hear teachers not believe me that it hurt if I didn't wear sunglasses, a hood over my head and squinted in class! I was even sent to an ophthalmologist who obviously found no physical damage in my eyes. on top of that, I was embarrased by the technicians in the corner who commented on the meds I was taking. I was taking some for my anxiety and ocd, but they can also be used for schizophrenia and that's the part they were awkwardly whispering about💔
It was COVID for me too. I got sick during the period in which refrigerator trucks were filling up at the local hospital and nobody really knew what was going on, what to expect, or if there was even anything that could help. You couldn't even get help from a doctor or a hospital. People going to the hospital were basically at death's door already. Anyway, I've never been that sick in my life. Could barely breathe, fever, vomiting, pain everywhere, horrifying dreams in the few hours I managed to sleep, dizziness, heavy limbs. It took about two weeks to feel semi functional again, and then another full year not to be in constant pain, and longer than that to be able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. It is mind blowing that people are trying to rewrite that history while people like me are still alive who remember exactly how bad it was.
I had a very similar experience. My now husband had to help me get in and get out of the shower and I remember shaking and sobbing anticipating how cold it would be to get into bed.
I also would lay there, feeling just about dead, thinking “I need to drink water” and would have fever dreams of me going to the kitchen to fill my water and drink it.
I’m pretty sure it’s the reason I developed terrible migraines and (suspected and awaiting testing) POTS.
I remember shaking and sobbing anticipating how cold it would be to get into bed.
I'm so sorry. It also utterly kicked my ass, but it would have been magnitudes worse if I hadn't bought a heated mattress pad months before. Even in the dead of winter I put that thing at about a 3/10 heat setting at most, but through the worst of covid I kept it on 7/8 and rarely turned it off.
In April 2020, I gave birth seven weeks early due to just the possibility of catching it. The thought of being in your shoes, the isolation, the constant barrage of news stations reporting on the shutdowns, variants, death tolls, supermarket brawls - uterus said, “nope” at the very thought.
I caught it (before vaccines) when I was just hitting 8 months pregnant.
TBH I wasn’t even thinking about me having it, because my husband also got it and he was so ill to the point he had to be hosipitalised. (I remember when I called for an ambulance them being so annoyed that I couldn’t drive him myself, like “GOD can’t you just help him to the car?”. I don’t think I could have safely dragged him down the two flights of stairs to our flat even normally, never mind when 8 months pregnant and ill with Covid, but they seemed to think I was just being a lazy bitch.)
Just as he was discharged from the hospital I felt the movement was less, and they decided to induce because of that and the Covid. My daughter was thankfully fine, but they said the placenta was all “grainy” and degraded. Which wasn’t necessarily because of Covid, but it didn’t happen with the next one so….
So yeah, getting full blown COVID while pregnant was scary.
The worst part for me in retrospect was actually after, because they kept me in for almost 5 days. While my husband was present (physically at least…) for the birth he couldn’t come back, and no one else could come. I wasn’t allowed out of the recovery room (since I was testing Covid positive, though by that point very much not contagious) and a couple of the duty midwives straight up refused to come in the room because it was a “Covid room”. So I was there having been through the ordeal with my husband, along with pre-natal depression and obviously giving birth, then just being stranded alone with my first newborn in a tiny room for four days. There wasn’t even a working TV or anything for background noise. I genuinely thought I was going to completely lose my mind, and honestly I came pretty close.
That sounds horrible.. when I got sick I was terrified of it being long covid as there is no treatment and a coworker ended up with it and can’t work but last I spoke with him also couldn’t get disability due to how long Covid was handled at the time, not sure if that has changed now.. turns out I have lupus.. my rheumatologist was confused why I took the diagnosis so well and when I explained that lupus has established treatment plans, once diagnosed there are biologics you can be on that help a lot but long covid has nothing.. he got where I was coming from and I was right I got on a biologic and my life is almost back to normal.. have a few limitations like working out causes flareups which sucks but that is something manageable. I am able to work, meet with friends, visit my family and live life. Sure I would love to not have lupus but in comparison to long covid I still think I got lucky it’s lupus which sounds crazy I know
Same here. I was sure I was dying. Fell asleep in the hospital and woke up several days later. So many bizarre dreams. Couldn't walk, had no idea how long it had been.
Covid for me too. I’ve had it 3 times but that first strain was lethal. Literally.
Whilst I was at home in bed unable to move, the residents in the nursing home I work in were dropping like flies. 18 residents and 1 nurse died in 2 weeks.
I got Covid 11/2020 and ended up in the ICU staring at the ventilator next to my bed and my OSAT because it was a hair above the threshold but barely holding.
Five days, $300k insurance bill (thank the maker wiped clean due to whatever COVID legislation), a month of missed work, and I nearly died. It’s been six years, and I got it again in 2023– not nearly as bad but still can’t taste or smell anything.
I axed SO many friends and acquaintances and lost 2/3 of my remaining family because “it’s basically allergies”.
The week I was fighting for my life BEFORE being hospitalized was one of the most jarring experiences for me. I remember needing to take a full sleep after trying to tie my hair back— that “allergy” was mighty… something.
I hate when people say that or that it's 'a little worse than the common cold'. No. No, it's not. I've talked to many people who have had it and it's far worse. I've never had it, had all the vax and boosters, and I never want to get it after talking to people still living with the after effects.
Yes, as did the remaining residents + new admissions. We’ve had 3 more outbreaks of covid since that first one. 3 total covid deaths after the vaccine. Much better than 18.
Random question but have you heard of patients developing asthma after getting COVID but only when they’re sick? Every time I get a cold now post getting Covid I cough to the point I gasp for air, even just a common cold and had no respiratory issues prior or even when not sick.
Covid definitely wreaked havoc on a lot of people even if they did all the right things, including vaccination and boosters.
I personally have lifelong exercise-induced asthma, and it seems I barely have to do 3 sets lifting now before I gotta hit the inhaler. I tested positive for covid Summer 2021. My sister is STILL dealing with long-haul covid years later. Both of us were vaccinated when the Pfizer vax was made for public use.
I DON'T recall a single vaccinated patient death in my hospital, but plenty still had/have complications from the virus.
Oh, and thank you for the kind words. It really does mean a lot to us in the medical field. Shit was horribly traumatizing.
I got covid 4 times in one year somehow (i dont know how thats possible either) and developed adult onset asthma. Never had asthma as a kid, suddenly had it as an adult. You should see a pulmonologist, most insurance plans in the US will cover an asthma test if a doctor orders one.
Wow four times in a year is rough! I’ve never thought about it but now am curious. I have a follow up with my ENT in a month and will look into it then. Thank you!
I'm pretty sure I got it multiple times as well, I just didn't get retested because it's fairly common to test positive long after you've become asymptomatic. The most likely reason you had reoccuring covid is because strains rapidly changed much like flu.
Not just when sick but I developed something similar with long covid. It’s called Samter’s triad. Completely new diagnosis of asthma, chronic sinusitis (which for me isn’t any sort of infection, it’s just chronic inflammation in my nasal passages) and an allergy to NSAIDS! (Ibuprofen etc.)
Okay that’s interesting… I have chronic inflammation in my throat and was told it’s “silent reflux” and have never struggled with reflux even when I’ve been pregnant but am now wondering if those are connected, similar to yours. I just only get the asthma like symptoms when I’m sick so I kind of forget about it when I’m healthy again.
I caught a baaad bout of COVID in early 2020, and didn’t even “recover” until early September. Even then I had a mean case of long COVID. I saw a pulmonologist and was diagnosed with asthma (never had it before) and exactly like you described, every subsequent cold is like having mini COVID. I don’t have any asthma exacerbations otherwise.
I’m an RN too and have definitely seen worse respiratory symptoms in a post-COVID world!
Covid for me too. Summer 2020. Had to temporarily move back in my parents because I was too afraid to shower without someone right my outside my door while doing so. Eventually got put on an IV after about 2-3 months, and that weirdly did the trick. Got flare ups again a few times later, but nothing will beat that horrible summer.
Funny but good thing from it: I matched with my now husband on Bumble at the time out of sheer boredom in bed. He thought I was avoiding meeting up with him after two weeks of delaying a meetup. Finally had to admit “nah, just maybe dying of covid.”
Similar situation, still can’t smell or taste. Had an upper respiratory chest infection that I mistook for Covid cough. 32 days straight with a fever. Finally went to see my Dr and she sent me straight to the ER.
You didn't hear it from me but if you don't have any psychosis risk, research presently suggests acid might help fix those neural pathways right up. I tried some before the findings came out on a whim and sure enough, I could taste again.
RSV. So sick, couldn’t sleep as constant coughing. Couldn’t swallow as it felt like swallowing glass. Eyes infected. Went to emergency for pain shot. Three rounds of antibiotics and prednisone. When the RSV vaccine came out I got it.
I still have no v taste or smell either on top of that I have no feeling in my feet or hands for the rest of my life due to the spinal cord injury, nerve damage and 13 screws 2 cadaver bones & titanium plate in my neck
Covid for me too. 5 weeks in bed in March-April 2020. My dad passed in 2013 from pneumonia and all I kept thinking the whole time was that that was how he must have felt before he went to ICU. Complete nightmare fuel. So very sorry you're still dealing with the aftermath
Covid for me as well, but not to your extent. I remember going from extreme hot to chills within hours. I had to take a break walking up to the stairs in my house cause I was so out of breath from doing it, and I can run miles no issue. I had insane headaches and just overall extreme tiredness. And I couldn't taste or smell anything for like a month. It was bizarre. I wasn't sick like a flu sick, I was just exhausted and in pain being alive. It was so weird
The headaches were so unreal. I was in school at the time & knew I had to get all of my schoolwork done by about 1 o'clock, bc that's when my headache would start
Im so sorry. Have you ever thought of doing pulmonary rehab? I did it bc of asthma and it was really helpful for me. There were people of all ages/ all levels of severity doing it at the same time.
Yep! I did it in 2024 and it did really help. My issue is that the airsacs in my lungs popped when I was about 12, so there's scar tissue. Before covid, I already had diminished lung capacity because of that. I had rehab then as a teen as well.
I got covid in 2023 for the first time, took almost 2 years to feel somewhat normal again, then got it again in 2025. And this second time is what did me in.
I've been wearing a kf94 since 2020, but I don't live alone and that's how I got it (and she got it from people who refuse to test or mask).
Like, I'm ready to live in a bubble, at this point lol.
When they popped when I was 12 it wasn't a medical issue. Our apartment was broken into by a couple of men and I was being attacked. This guy tackled me and I landed face down on the ground. He was either sitting or kneeling on my back with his weight and his hand over my mouth and nose. With the pressure from his weight and me trying to scream and cry and gasp for air, it popped the air sacs in my lungs. I know there's a medical term for that event, but I don't remember it.
After that I developed severe asthma and diminished lung capacity. Like, I did the rehab and had inhalers and breathing treatments, but I could never blow that stupid little thing very far, lol.
I am in Home care, I would never, never ever not mask for a patient that requested it. Or a patient that I feel is compromised in any way. We don’t have the requirement anymore that we have to do this, but it is up to us as clinicians to make the best choices for our patients, or to not make patients feel uncomfortable when they request a mask. I know of clinicians that outright refuse.
I think COVID was also the worse for me
Got it Nov 2020.
My whole body hurt. Had trouble breathing. I felt so weak.
My lungs haven't fully recovered. However slowly getting better. I'm just on one daily inhaler and my rescue inhaler is taken pre exercise which is down from two different daily inhalers and using my rescue inhaler many times a day.
I'm so sorry. Covid was terrible to me, too. Got it in 2022 and spent two weeks in bed feeling worse than I ever had in my life. I've never felt the same after getting it. To this day I still get winded easily and I've developed high blood pressure.
Covid for me too. 3 years of hell! I have the neuro/immune flavor…over 50 symptoms. Spent the first year vomitting and 💩 and bloating to an extreme. GI isn’t as bad anymore, but the neuropathic pain has gotten worse. 🙃
I caught it in late 2023 thanks to an idiot at a family function my kid was at with his Dad, lied about being vaxxed to get out of wearing a mask and kid unknowingly brought it home to us.
All of us vaxxed, and I'm super thankful for it, I cannot imagine going through that without it, because goddamn it was rough
Same. I caught it in early 2020 before they even knew what it was. I remember my throat feeling like it was on fire and the back of my head feeling like it was going to explode. I had to sit with a pillow behind my head just to get a tiny bit of relief. I went to the er because I couldn’t breathe and they sent me home because it wasn’t the flu or pneumonia. 🤷🏻♀️ I guess those are the only things that get you any relief.
I was sick for 3 months. I had to use an inhaler for about a year. I still have trouble breathing when walking sometimes.
Covid for me too the first time. Basically sucked my will to live... I just lay there for three weeks no desire to do anything, not even read a book or watch TV. Just felt like death. Those three weeks were a complete blur, and thank goodness I was in about the best shape of my life at the time or I think I could have ended up needing to be intubated.
That really sucks. Covid got me too. I have really bad sinus issues and my lungs weren’t the greatest before. Got Covid, was sick for a month and thought I was good. A few weeks later I got bronchitis and ended up coughing for umm like three years. Hacking coughs. Still need an inhaler occasionally. Now the air bothers me so much if we have wildfire smoke or ozone which unfortunately is really common where I live.
Covid for me also. I began hallucinating from my fever and then sort of blocked out and woke up with scratches all over my chest from my own doing. I’ve been sick many times and have never experienced anything like that before or since.
Covid for me as well. I got it the January before it was even a thing, I’m sure of it. I woke up covered in hives from head to toe. My whole face was swollen, my eyes almost shut. Went to dr and they said to take Benedryl, that sometimes bodies react like that when it’s a new virus they’re exposed to. I was then horrifically ill with 103 fevers for a week, to which I was basically asleep and unable to function. Then so sick for over a month after that coughing and stuff. It was the absolute worst. There was a few nights I thought I was going to die when my fever was so high.
Lost my 48 year old healthy mom to Covid. My life has never been the same.
We all had it, it was horrible..The delta one.
I remember feeling paralyzed in the bed for days. I physically couldn’t move. I didn’t eat for a week, lost so much weight from not eating and the diarrhea.
Everyone got over it in about 3 weeks except mom. She went on the ventilator and never came off.
Dude let me tell you, i never realized just how important tasting and smelling things was until getting covid and going nearly 2 months, everything tasted like cardboard.
I was so fucking depressed i couldn't taste anything, awful experience.
I hit depression so fucking hard when I couldn't taste food anymore. I went crazy trying to taste something and trying everything I could remember that tasted good to me and there was nothing -- cardboard. Then that morphed into a weird bitter, coppery taste, so it became almost repulsive to eat. And that's when I stopped eating completely and lost a lot of weight from starvation. I could force down water and protein shakes and smoothies because I knew I had to, but I couldn't eat.
I never recovered smell or taste, but the bitter taste is gone. I still have days when everything tastes extremely salty, just randomly.
Now, it's the lack of smell that bothers me the most. It's constant anxiety because I don't know what I smell like. We just had a heat wave for like a month and I was sweaty day and night because it was like 80 degrees with 88% humidity. Just pure panic and anxiety because I didn't know if I smelled ok, if others could smell me, if I smelled like sweat and people were just too nice to mention it, if my breath smells, etc.
I am constantly popping mints, I obsessively floss and brush my teeth several times a day, I shower 3 times a day, laundry twice a week, sheets, towels, sanitize my shoes and work bag, etc.
Just random waves of sadness, too. Like, if my mom is cooking something she used to make when I was little -- just kind of hits me like, "Oh my god, I'm never going to smell/taste this dish again."
Covid for me as well, though nothing like yours I'm sorry, I have siblings with lung problems and they are no joke :(
My experience with Covid was back late 2019 I believe I caught it early (has never been confirmed, could have been a really bad Flu) and it made me deaf in one ear permanently. Later when I got it again down the line in 2024, I spent a night shivering cold but with a 40C degree fever, frozen peas on my head, chugging water in front of a fan on full blast and a blanket over me lol. Then when I had a dual Covid/Flu booster shot just last year, had some hallucinations while burning up and in and out of consciousness that my body was an ancient chinese battleground, and the different factions were fighting to take control of my body.... i dunno what that was about but I honesty felt like I was fighting for my life that night. Spent hours everytime I woke up trying to kick off the pants I fell asleep in to cool myself off, because I was too heavy and weak to move much and would pass out again before getting them off. That illness is wild everytime I've unfortunately dealt with it.
Yikes. I think covid was the worst I ever felt but I was in bed for only a week. Felt like my world was a hazy grayscale under a weighted blanket. That's about the worst of it. I lost my sense of smell but not 100%. I could still taste a bit. I still get a "burning smoke" feeling in my nostrils when I get sick.
covid knocked me on my ass too. i worked from home despite having plenty of sick leave (im an idiot). my immune system used to be insanely good, now its weaker, and I get a nasty cough if the air is remotely below room temperature. pretty sure theres other residual damage from it but its hard to tell with other stuff from before it stacked on (depression, grief, etc)
Not as bad as what happened to you, but similar. I got covid in September 2020, and ever since I've had heart issues... I have insane tachycardia and breathlessness, especially after eating, to the point where my lips go blue :( I've had tests and they can't establish a cause, I've just been told it could be "long covid" or chronic fatigue. I've had two heart monitors, just to be told oh yeah your heart rate is high, and tachy, but we don't know why. Then that's it.
Plus I swear I've never smelled anything the same again; luckily mine came back after a month, but since it's definitely not right. I smell things that aren't there and hate the taste of things I used to love.
wow same. 2021 got covid pretty early on. got my first dose of vaccine and then got covid before the second one. the cough was so bad, felt like needles on my throat to the point that swallowing my own saliva hurt. within 2 days of finding out my breathing suddenly got so hard i forced myself to stay awake at night bc i was scared id just stop breathing and die and no one would know. basically couldnt eat, couldnt breathe properly. eventually went hospital and the meds they gave fucked my liver after and i had to start taking meds for my liver. my cough basically stayed. for the next 3-4 years everytime i had a slight cough, it would turn into a dying diseased person cough that persisted for at least a month and i feel like everyone around would just avoid me bc of that. horrid.
Same. Mine was nov 23, and all of 2024 was brutal. It took me SO long to recover. I cried every day because it felt so hopeless. Doctors just shrugging and saying it takes time.
My sense of smell is still off and I still have this deep weakness in my thighs and upper arms. If I try to build muscle, I get so tired I’ll sleep for 2 days. I constantly feel like I have a cold, but it’s still better than it was in 2023/2024, so I guess I should just be grateful that I’m semi-normal.
Honestly I am so fucking grateful that I only got Covid AFTER the second booster or otherwise it would probably have been so much worse. Had the worst and highest fever of my life, which is nothing compared to what happened to other people.
I was very young when I got covid (18), before the vaccine came out, and even I have severe damage to my sense of smell to this day, as well as moderately severe aphasia. I’m quite sure I got significantly less intelligent too. It’s absolutely fucking awful and no one believes me when I tell them I have such severe lasting nerve/brain damage all these years later…
I had Covid twice, the second time was… I can’t even properly describe it. My head hurt so badly that I couldn’t sleep unless I was tilted back with an ice pack over my eyes. My throat felt like glass. And my fever was so high that I was delirious and imagining music—classical music, it played in my ears for days. I have pre-existing asthma and I’ve never been the same since. It’s like it totally wiped my immune system. Can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been had I not been vaccinated.
Also for me when I got COVID. I was so weak I had to crawl everywhere. I couldn't smell anything. I had a massive fever, chills. It was extremely horrible. Everyone who says COVID is "just a flu" doesn't know what they're talking about and is putting people in danger.
Was this the first strain? After omicron it lost all those symptoms I think?
I don't really know, I haven't yet caught it. That kind of worries me because I don't know what to expect, nor have I had the vaccine for a couple years, seems the government doesn't care about it anymore and to be honest, I don't want to travel miles and pay £100 for it.
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u/Sufficient-Berry-827 11h ago
Then depression because I can't walk, can't smell, can't taste, need 2 inhalers a day just to breathe but still wheezing and coughing 3 years later.