I’m currently going through a second! Covid19 infection.
Last year, I had one in March 2020. I was out of breath for months after that and exprienced painfull chest irriation for months. Luckily there were no visible spot on my lungs with an x-ray.
My doctor, physio and I figured out it had to be a form of Costochondritis, after a lung infection.
I couldn’t build up my conditioning untill november/december without having chestpain or being out of wind the day or days after.
So, now I have Covid19 again. Thankfully I’m not having as much a trouble breathing like last time (saturation is still mostly above 95/97%) But I’m having the same symptoms as the Costochondritis gave me, and the stuffy nose is making it hard to breath so my ribs are sore.
So, I’m expecting it will take me a while to build up my aerobic excersice again. I’m not hoping months like the last time, but who knows.
What are any good (maye with scientific backup) strategies to build up stamina and condition after pneumonia. I figure I could use a program like that to get back on my feet.
A quick search says to do Breathing Exercises before regular exercising to come back from pneumonia. Maybe try out some “Diaphragmatic Breathing” or “90/90 Position Breathing and Bracing” or “Box Breathing” for a week or two.
When you do start to rebuild cardio and conditioning you don’t want to be crushed for days afterwards. Start with multiple, short, short sessions that don’t exhaust you vs one longer session that takes days to recover from. Like two, 5 minute workouts, multiple days a week instead of 1 twenty minute per 5 days. Avoid failure! Do “easy” work and slowly and gradually build up the amount of work you can do, while still keeping it easy.
This stands out to me a bit because of a few things I’ve experienced. I’ve had covid once, and viral pneumonia from it. The pain felt to me like a spike through the chest that matched up perfectly with the area of inflammation/infection on the x-ray. I know that these things can affect everybody differently though. My cardio capacity returned relatively quickly though. Within weeks.
The part that stands out to me though is the chest pain combined with prolonged fatigue. Not to punch the panic button, but this sounds much more like the angina I’ve experienced due to heart attack and chronic heart failure, especially in this combination as you’ve presented it.
The reason I mention this is that one of the complications of covid has been clots forming in the lungs and traveling to the heart, causing further complication.
So, if I may ask, did the doctors do any imaging of the heart like CT scan or any type of echocardiogram?
The chest pain + prolonged exhaustion after a work out is a huge red flag for me, as I’ve just had my 4th angioplasty and stent placement after about 6 months of something very similar to what you are describing.
I have had an x-ray taken off my lungs last year. It showed nothing.
I still have chest sensation after a heavy workout (sled drags or high volume leg work) but it’s getting less and less frequent.
I’ve also expressed my concern to my doctor but the answer untill now is the same. It has to be Chosto or Tietze. The other answer is yeah Covid kinda new, we don’t know. Let’s wait and see what the science says.
I’m giving it a month on or three from now. If I still get chest sensations with low saturation (it’s sometimes 95 and the next morning it’s back to 98 or 99, but that’s getting less and less frequent now) I’m going back and make sure to get a referral.
Its unfortunate that your doc. is sticking to that diagnosis without considering that it might be something else. The referral sounds like a good idea.
During a period of stress I started getting angina during exertion again. Went to the ER, and the doc there was convinced it was either an aortic dissection or heart burn. Nothing in between or otherwise. And since it wasn’t aortic dissection, it must be heartburn.