Fainted while watching TV on the couch.
Had a blood pressure of 80/40.
Have been to the ER twice.
Had long-running (over two years) chest pain, heart pounding, weight loss, vision differences, dizziness, shortness of breath.
Was so sick with those issues I was bed bound for months.
After I started feeling a little better, overdid it and put myself back to bed for a week. Twice. With easy shit like rearranging the canned goods cabinet.
Lost a tooth. (White lie, actually. I'm scheduled to have it extracted early February.)
Still have lingering heart pounding and dizziness on a not-infrequent basis.

All from covid.

I'm fortunate to be mostly recovered. It sucks that there are so many who haven't recovered to speak of.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's fucked, buddy. One can only wonder at the uncalculated costs of everyone who had it that bad.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If we knew the costs, we could charge the republican senators a share directly.

[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

If only

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[–] Sharpiemarker@startrek.website 78 points 8 months ago (11 children)

People look at me strangely, but I don't go in anywhere without a mask, still. I don't eat in restaurants, I don't go to indoor family gatherings without a mask.

It's a big sacrifice but I'm not willing to live with long COVID and brain fog.

[–] schrodingers_dinger@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

As someone with long covid, it is fucking hell. The extreme fatigue, muscle soreness, lengthened healing times of wounds or new sicknesses or physical exertion have made life hardly bearable. I just straight up don't have the energy or mental capacity to do anything I used to love and enjoy.

It's endlessly depressing, even though I know I am keeping myself out of clinical depression after learning how to deal with depressive issues more proactively now.

I wish I just wore an n95 whenever I was around people now, but I know I never would have done so unless I knew how truly awful long covid is.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I'm there with you. If you haven't already, look into the treatments for mast cell activation disorder, it has a lot of overlap. In fact, I'm convinced they're largely the same thing. I'm popping pills like candy nowadays but I'm finally on the upswing.

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[–] thrawn@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

It’s not even that big of a sacrifice honestly. Wearing a mask is pretty trivial. Restaurants have outdoor tables. The indoor-only ones that don’t but are still worth going to tend to seat less than 15 people so I occasionally deem it worth the risk.

Long Covid seems way, way worse than a mask. When we have a cure for that I’ll drop it, but until then it’s not even that inconvenient.

Plus, you don’t even have to get the worst symptoms for it to affect you. A couple people I know lost their taste and smell in 2020/2021 and have yet to regain it. That, I think, ruins restaurants more than sitting outside.

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[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 51 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If you haven't done so, check out PhysicsGirl on YouTube. Good science channel, then she got covid right after her wedding.

EDIT: Link to video.

[–] Lord_ToRA@lemmy.world 46 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What's up with this site's domain? Ok Doomer? Who is that?

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[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 44 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Long Covid is so scary, but one thing that worries me is, if you get Covid and you don't get Long Covid, is that it, you're never going to get it ever, OR is it just a matter of time before most of us or we're all eventually suffering from Long Covid over the course of multiple waves? Why is it affecting some people differently than others? I've had Covid two or three times now and each time I was only out of it a week or two, otherwise no apparent long-term damage that I'm aware of, but will that always be the case?

[–] nix@merv.news 53 points 8 months ago

The risk of long covid is cumulative so every infection increases your chance. But also just having covid increases your risk of heart attacks and strokes for up to a year https://nyulangone.org/news/study-helps-explain-how-covid-19-heightens-risk-heart-attack-stroke

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

Covid messes up your immune system so even if you don't get long covid, you get other opportunistic infections, plus nice stuff like heart attacks. Of course if you die of such a heart attack, it's not counted as a covid death. So the damage of covid is way underestimated.

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[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 34 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I have lasting issues from a mild 2020 infection. My heart scares me the most these days.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Long COVID is a bitch. I wake up every night coughing my lungs out for about 15 minutes. And I'm one of the lucky ones when it comes to Long COVID.

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[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I know someone who has an advanced degree and had a pretty impressive career. I don't think he will ever be able to work a normal job again. He got it in the early days and the hospital told him not to come. Yes, brain damage.

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[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago

I caught it earlier this year at the peak effectiveness of my booster, so it was extremely mild. I still had a nasty cough for nearly 2 months after I recovered, and my memory is noticably worse.

[–] droog_the_droog@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

Anecdotally this statistic is just not right, or the hardships of long covid hits people very differently. Most people I know (hundreds) have had covid several times at this point. I know one person who believes to have long covid in a debilitating way.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I've had long COVID symptons (reduced sense of smell, instantly tired, heart going on a gallop for no or not much reason) for 6 to 7 months after my COVID infection, after which point those symptons suddenly cleared up. At the start I did hospital visits to have my heart checked out and everything, but nothing wrong could be found. I have no trouble believing that some people will never recover.

[–] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I’m going on 2+ years at this point. Was in the best shape of my life when I was infected. I haven’t been able to properly exercise ever since (without severe repercussions that last several days). My bloodwork, which was previously fantastic, is all over the place now. Outrageously high cholesterol, iron levels, inflammation markers. It’s hard having hope for the future when I don’t see an end in sight.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I hope that you'll be as fortunate as I was.

I knew something had changed when I was sitting in the living room one Sunday and realized that I could smell the food that I was making in the kitchen oven. I had not had that good a sense of smell since before I had had COVID.

The weekend after that, I did light work in the garden and I could work for hours without issue, while 2 weeks prior I had to stop after half an hour.

I did avoid any strenuous activities as long as I had long COVID, maybe this helped my recovery. I wasn't going to go on a hiking trip or fight with bushes, if I couldn't even do a half hour of light work without fainting. I could still do local walks, thanks to my country being as flat as a pancake.

One very big frustration I had, was the feeling of being perceived as an imposter. I was ill, but tests were unable to show anything wrong, as if it was all in my head. But now there's definite scientific proof that long COVID really is a thing, even when traditional tests show nothing wrong with the patient.

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[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

10% does seem crazy high. But it's also possible that some long covid effects go noticed. Also totally anecdotally, but I heard multiple people say they just don't feel as fit now doing cardio, myself included. Is it we're just older or did we get slight lung damage? Or worse, heart damage. Our bodies are really surprisingly sturdy and able to keep up with damage for a long time.

I know 2 people with severe complications from long covid. And I don't know that many people. So how many around me are living with mild long covid complications and don't realize it?

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[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 12 points 8 months ago (3 children)

This is why anecdotes are not informative when trying to understand statistics. You almost certainly don't have a close relationship with hundreds of people that would involve informing you of lingering COVID symptoms nor do you have a random sampling of acquaintances (age, ethnicity, and vaccination status affect how common it is).

https://www.webmd.com/covid/news/20230526/one-in-ten-people-omicron-long-covid

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[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (4 children)

The people who have experienced long-term effects are extremely vocal online but it's hard to imagine that it is as common as 1 in 10 given how many people have had covid.

I am extremely curious to see if they find a genotype or something which is an indicator for people being vulnerable to long-covid. It's possible that it will end up being a similar situation for ME/CFS where we have no specific biological markers which differentiate people who suffer from it (aside from the symptoms).

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[–] umulu@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (4 children)

At the school I work at, not 1 teacher uses masks in classes / meetings. Only if they suspect they have covid or the flu.

Many times, I see them sniffling (or with other signs of flu / cold) and they are in closed spaces without any mask.

Makes my blood fucking boil.

Mostly because I keep hearing them criticizing students, for how uneducated and stupid they are, but then they are the ones setting these examples.

Smh

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