Diminished lung capacity after having COVID? - This shit sucks

[Space_Dandy]

Disclaimer, I am not trying to add to the COVID fear mongering. I too like many of you on here believe the media exaggerates the scariness of COVID and suppresses information that would make people less worried about it. But this is just my honest experience and I'm looking for advice.

Going into this, I'm in decent shape. I'm average weight, not even overweight. Although slacking lately, I had not too long ago had a pretty good workout regimen and did cardio regularly. I'm not really on any medication, other than one minor thing to help with my blood pressure. Also I have had the vaccine, my wife has not.

Nearly four weeks ago my wife and I both caught COVID. I wasn't too worried but it actually hit us way harder than I expected.
-Perhaps the worst symptom for me was just the feeling of intense tiredness and lethargy. I remember just crashing at like 8pm and sleeping for 10+ hours a couple of times, and never quite feeling rested. Had a headache and just felt like shit.
-Also there was severe weakness. It felt like everything around me doubled in weight during that time and even going up and down the stairs a few times or carrying in groceries was exhausting.
-My lung capacity was definitely diminished. It seemed I was prone to almost getting out of breath with physical exertion. Also we developed a resting cough, just like you'd randomly cough throughout the day.

All of the above were magnified for my wife, who was practically bedridden during the worst of it with crippling headaches, soreness, and fatigue.

So here we are long after recovery, and we still don't feel right. I've taken a break from working out but the one time I did, I was winded and out of breath after only half of the cardio I was doing a few weeks prior. I mowed the lawn and felt completely exhausted. I actually took a break in the middle of mowing the lawn, which I never have done before. Laid on my couch and just felt like the room was spinning, like I was about to pass out! This was just two days ago.

Has anyone else experienced this? Weeks after recovery to still have diminished lung capacity and fatigue? I really hope this gets better.

And before anyone says it, yes I know doctors exist, please don't tell me to just go to a doctor.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

You don't happen to know your actual lung capacity before COVID, do you? That would make it much easier to determine an actual functional loss. Barring that. you can get a spirometer (a decent one isn't too expensive on Amazon) and check your Peak Flow (known as PEF) and Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV1). Those are both good indicators of how well your lungs are functioning mechanically. If those numbers are good, then your lungs are functioning in a mechanistic sense, which is often the most important. If those numbers are shit, you need to see your doctor. Also, do you have a pulse oximeter? If so, did you check your numbers during the acute phase of COVID? If so, what were they? If you didn't/you don't have one, again, you can get one cheaply on Amazon. You'll want to get a baseline, which is you sitting, resting for at least 15 minutes. Once you can get a solid baseline, check it while you are doing something that now seems exhausting. Generally, if you are absorbing and distributing oxygen correctly the numbers shouldn't change much from rest, since your body should be able to compensate for the additional exertion. If the numbers drop significantly, that could indicate a serious issue with the gas exchange in your lungs at the microscopic level, or a problem circulating the blood properly throughout the body at a pace that is able to keep your oxygen levels stable. In that case, again, you would need to see your doctor. Besides those two, there really isn't much else you can test on your own. If they both produce good results its hard to say what is going on. Medicine is still learning about post-COVID syndrome. It's going to be awhile before much is known. If one or both are crap, at least that's a place to start for getting treatment.

One thing I am suggesting to most people who don't have any serious pre-existing medical issues which may help is an enteric 81 mg Aspirin. There is some evidence that a possible derangement of microclot formation may be responsible for the disturbance in oxygen distribution throughout the body leading to this type of chronic fatigue. As such a small dose of an antiplatelet may help, and in an otherwise healthy person it is unlikely to cause any harm. You may want to take a tums or a small dose of Famotidine since Aspirin can irritate the stomach in some people, and both of those are completely benign and have really no adverse effects.

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

I've been micro dosing asbestos over the last 5 years, so now my lungs are strong and powerful.
COVID won't do shit to my lungs.

 

[Wintersun]

I've had friends and family catch the coof, mostly female. It ranged from them being lethargic for weeks afterwards to having an honest to God pitch shift in their voices in women, and severely reduced drive in males. These cases, with the exception of a couple I'd met earlier this year from my wife's work holiday outing, were all very early into the lockdowns, and they all recovered just fine after about a month; three months for the bigger of them.

As far as I know, it just leaves a ton of mucus and shit in your lungs, and it's a respiratory disease your body is fighting off, which takes a lot of energy both to kill and to recover. I think you'll be fine, experience says, but I don't know for certain.

 

[FencePost]

As far as I know, it just leaves a ton of mucus and shit in your lungs, and it's a respiratory disease your body is fighting off, which takes a lot of energy both to kill and to recover. I think you'll be fine, experience says, but I don't know for certain.

COVID primarily works by infecting and mutating lung tissue. You lose lung capacity because you've lost lung tissue. I'm no physician so I don't know if cardio helps or hurts recovery but I'd wait until you try mowing the lawn again to see if you get dizzy again. That's the part that's out of place to me.

 

[R00T]

i was impacted heavily by covid for about a week in april (i had the first shot and booster, not a third). the first two days i had terrible head aches and the first night i passed out on my floor for about 10 hours. for me i had a rough time kicking the cough for the next two weeks, and for a few weeks after i felt like i was out of breath a lot when i shouldn't be. i'm a saxophonist so i have a higher lung capacity than most so i definitely noticed it. i took it easy for a few weeks and just did some exercises that were less strenuous or focused solely on breathing. i picked up the sax the other day after not playing for a while and was able to play fine and never felt like i over did it. i'm also in shape and give platelets a lot.

if you like exercise and want to slowly work back into it i strongly suggest yoga because it allows for you to do more controlled breathing while still being physically active and will allow you to start a little slow until you feel more comfortable to push it further again.

I hope you and your wife feel better!

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

COVID primarily works by infecting and mutating lung tissue into more COVID cells. You lose lung capacity because you've lost lung tissue. I'm no physician so I don't know if cardio helps or hurts recovery but I'd wait until you try mowing the lawn again to see if you get dizzy again. That's the part that's out of place to me.

Err... There is no such thing as "COVID Cells". COVID is a virus. It infects cells, hijacks their internal synthesis machinery, and then forces the cell to make more virus particles until they either 1) Lyse (which basically means break apart) or 2) Get told to kill themselves by the immune system either through programmed cell death (apoptosis) or outright murder (chemoattack by NK cells). So, it does turn pulmonary parenchyma (functional lung cells) into microscopic virus factories, but "COVID cell" is bad nomenclature.

As far as the loss of lung capacity, it's not quite as simple as loss of pulmonary parenchyma, a few things can happen which reduce vital lung capacity. One mechanism is indeed loss of pulmonary parenchyma, but that is actually the smallest contributor. Pulmonary parenchymal cells can regenerate when they are damaged or destroyed, so the loss is not permanent. One of the more significant contributors is the formation of scar tissue in place of pulmonary parenchyma. When this happen functional lung tissue is replaced with non-functional structural material produced by fibroblasts, and since the space where the lung tissue used to occupy is no longer available, that functional area is permanently lost. Another reason can be emphysematous changes in the alveolar structures of the lungs. When this happens the alveolar units in the lungs become damaged and distended and are no longer able to efficiently exchange gases properly. Another is plural fibrosis. This is where the supporting structures that surround the functional lung tissue become stiff and don't allow the lungs to expand properly. Both plural fibrosis and emphysematous changes can occur as a result of severe lung infection or being on a ventilator. These are just some of the things that can happen as a result of a COVID infection. Some people develop COPD, some develop chronic bronchitis, etc... The list of things that COVID can do to the lungs is extensive.

The one major thing I am waiting for large RCT studies on is respiratory therapy post COVID. It's a type of therapy that is used in certain types of respiratory conditions to maintain and/or restore pulmonary function. If that works then at least that will give everyone a simple, although somewhat arduous, path to recovery.

For anyone that wants to try and get back to exercising and still feels like shit, consider looking into exercise regimens that are listed as either "Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise" or "Graded Exercise Therapy". They are designed for people who have been seriously ill to slowly get people back up to normal speed. If you follow them closely it's just about impossible to overdo it, and it is very likely you will see gradual improvement with time.

I've been micro dosing asbestos over the last 5 years, so now my lungs are strong and powerful.
COVID won't do shit to my lungs.

Ah, the old 'fight fire with fire" theory. Interesting.

 

[Mr. Popo chan]

I have not noticed this. I got it back when they were only vaxing old and compromised. Lost my sense of taste and smell and got tired walking from bed to bathroom for about a week or two. back to normal as far as i can tell now.

 

[Elaine Miller]

Omicron lore.
I’ve genuinely never been so sick in my life. On Day 1 of it I was admitted to hospital with a severe fever, low blood pressure, headache and extreme aches. Those symptoms lasted around 2-3 days, and were replaced with a cough, dizziness and vertigo for 5 days, since then it’s been a cough, no taste or smell, block sinuses and headaches. I’m just grateful the dizziness/vertigo went away because holy shit that was awful.

Never had to stay overnight in hospital for so long. Wondering if the virus hit me worse because I’m skinny due to a thyroid problem, alongside being unvaxxed, but it certainly isn’t just the small time flu everyone had me convinced it would be.