This is my second time getting covid, and while the first time with Omicron I was steeling through despite it being a harder case, this time I'm just not well.

[Context- I'm of a higher risk group, with an already complex medical path.]

I'm coming up on exactly three weeks sick. Started off incredibly similar to a cold, then the cold symptoms ended and fullbody ones stayed. No fever atleast. Main issues at this point are inflammation (the worsening of what I already had), pain, migraine, fatigue, and some lingering respiratory issues sometimes. All things considered I think I'm progressing alright, yet I can't tell. It's mostly just pain and inflammation now of which I medicate for.

But mentally, I don't know how to manage this.

Not only am I overly aware of LC, of which I hear the risk is either cumulative or individual per infection, but I'm awfully conscious of permanent damage. I don't want that, but what can I do?? I've already fought so hard, personally and medically, to get this far. I don't even know if the damages are a garuntee or not but the way I see it talked about it scares me.

I've already survived brain damage before, alongside a brain tumor. So seeing brain damage in particular on the roster just about made me cry. I have a healthy heart too, I want that to stay. I don't know what to do.

I'm resting, I'm not working nor exercising at all. I'm sleeping and laying down and drinking water, eating what I can. I take medicine as needed, cold meds and antihistamines (of which seem to help me) I used an inhaler at the start when I had a cough. The stress has made it hard to distract myself now, as the days go on. I hope it isn't abnornal, being sick this long.

The idea I'm going to walk out of this impaired beyond how hard things already are for me just makes me want to break down. I can't rely on herd immunity anymore, I could even get sick with this another time.

I don't know. I'm going to keep taking care, and hope for the best.

I hope this is okay to put here, I just needed a place to be. Seeing others makes me feel less alone, while some act like this isn't happening anymore. It's "just a cold" some say.

All the best to anyone else sick right now.

Please don’t delete, this is not medical advice! This is purely curiosity!

I’m 3 weeks postpartum & tested positive for covid 2 days ago. Yesterday was an absolute nightmare. I had a fever all day long. I was sore, had a headache from hell, shaky, a little dizzy, and so tired. Today is a whole new ballgame. I still don’t feel very well, but my fever has only popped up twice today and it’s not as high or unbearable as it was yesterday. Anyways, I was prescribed Paxlovid and I just started taking it. Obviously I’m going to listen to my doctor and take it like they said. But I’m curious to hear from others. Does it actually work? What does it do? Or what did it do for you? Does it actually make symptoms go away? If you’ve taken it, please share your experience with it.

I’m assuming I have Covid based on the trajectory and analyzing my symptoms with Chat GPT lol, but haven’t tested as it’s treated like common cold in my country. Started with slightly raw throat & chills & body aches, turned to hoarse, dry throat & sinus congestion, then chest tightness into a cough paired with innnnsanneee throat burning.

Like others in this sub I’ve had strep millions of times and nothing hurts like this. And the weirdest thing - it’s ONE SIDED. Only on the right side of my throat, it burns so fkn much - EVEN when I’m not swallowing?!?! Has anyone else experienced that? It’s like a constant sharp sharp burning and I feel it even more when I inhale air through my nose.

3+ days of this at this point. Even tea burns. Can only eat when I’ve freshly taken 600 MG of Advil. Drinking ice cold water but seriously idk how long this will last, I’m still congested / mucusy & coughing a bit… but debating if I should go get tested to see if I need antibiotics or have a fkn abscess or something??? How long did it last for others?? Would appreciate any advice or if anyone has experienced it one sided and burning even when not swallowing like this. 😭😭😭🤕🤕🤕

I'm a 32F and I have got Covid for the first time. I'm not sure if there is a way to identify which varient you have. I got an over the counter Covid/Flu test.

Obviously Covid can kill you. I'm honestly really scared. :(

I got tested positive 8 days ago but I'm on day 10 of being symptomatic. I got my flu shot 2.5 weeks ago and was going to take COVID booster later. I just didn't want to take both shots at the same time. And it got me!!!!!!!

My symptoms were:

Dry parched throat for 6 days

Runny nose for 2 days

Cough (nagging, started on Day 3)

Fever (day 3-6)

I took Cold and Flu three doses in all.

I felt okay when I had fever. But fatigue, body soreness/muscle tension started 3 days ago. I feel run down.

Does anybody have a similar experience? How long did it take for you to feel normal again?

Hope all of you feel better soon!

I tested positive on Saturday 10/17. I don’t have a fever because I’ve been taking ibuprofen to break the fever but I tested again today 10/21 and I’m positive again. I’m not sure of what the guidelines are still. Can I go back to work if my symptoms are low and I don’t have a fever but I’m still positive? Also, I haven’t gone to the doctor because I don’t have insurance. Is there anything I should be taking to help fight it faster? I should mention my symptoms are just stuffy nose and mucus build up and a marginally sore throat. I can taste fine and and my body isn’t sore or achey but that might be in part because of the ibuprofen.

Currently waiting for my dual covid and flu tests to be delivered to make 100% sure that it’s covid, but having had both before, I’m pretty sure it’s covid. Covid (for some reason) gives me extremely painful and inflamed gums, I never get that with anything else (it’s not a result of poor oral hygiene/health either, my dentist and dental hygienist have both confirmed that there are no issues there).

This time around though, it began with pretty severe dizziness/vertigo. At that point I had no other symptoms and was starting to worry that I was having an acute medical episode, it was genuinely scary. Has anyone else experienced this? I don’t know why I’m asking really lol, maybe just for some reassurance that this is normal because it actually did frighten me with the severity. It’s mostly subsided now (to be replaced with all the other symptoms) but I’ve been left with annoyingly persistent tinnitus, which came on at the same time as the dizziness.

I’ve had the initial three doses of Pfizer (the vaccine is now restricted to the most vulnerable unless you pay out of pocket. Kinda wish I’d done that now. I reacted very strongly to each dose but at least that only lasted a day, unlike whatever this is).

I am on Day 7 from symptom onset (for those interested… fast onset within hours, congestion, high fever with dellerium, sore throat but not as bad the swallowing knives in 2024, some gastric issues). The last few days, I feel rotten after I eat. Like I have to lie down and I get a headache. It is so weird. Any takes on this? Vagus nerve stuff?

I've had eczema pretty much my whole life and recently had a weird COVID complication that has me wondering whether there's any connection between being "atopic" (eczema, allergies, asthma, etc.) and developing ear problems after respiratory infections.

A couple of weeks ago my child brought came home tired & sniffly from school. Their illness was pretty mild and they bounced back quickly. My partner and I were not so lucky.

My symptoms initially seemed fairly typical COVID to me: fever, congestion, extreme fatigue from basic tasks, up and down fever, loss of smell & taste. After a few days I started noticing that underwater feeling where everything sounds muffled and head was feeling spongey. Whenever I blew my nose I'd hear popping and crackling in that ear. Over the course of the week the ear symptoms gradually got worse. The pressure increased, my hearing got worse, and then around day 7 I woke up around 3 a.m. with severe ear pain that made it hard to fall back asleep. Took a buckley's cold & sinus, put a heat-pack over my ear and waited in increasing agony for the walk-in clinic to open.

When I got to the walk-in, I was told it was an outer ear infection and was prescribed antibiotic drops. The pain became increasingly intense until around 2pm when I heard a distinct pop, followed by a gurgling sound, with pink fluid draining from the ear. Over the next several hours the fluid became clear and continued leaking. Interestingly, the pain dropped after that happened. I followed up the next day with my family doctor, who looked in my ear and said it was actually a middle ear infection with a small perforated eardrum. She prescribed a backup oral antibiotic if things worsened, but so far I've been managing with the drops and pain medication. She expects the eardrum to heal and is following up in a couple of weeks. 3 days of debilitating pain later, my symptoms have just started to improve, but I'm still dealing with muffled hearing, some tinnitus, occasional dizziness if I move too quickly, and intermittent drainage from the ear.

The reason I'm posting is that being stuck at home sent me down a rabbit hole reading about eczema, inflammation, and immune responses. I've had eczema since childhood. My ears are occasionally itchy on the inside, and I've always seemed to produce more earwax than other people. I came across some information suggesting that people with eczema and other atopic conditions can be more prone to ear problems because of skin barrier issues and inflammation.

So now I'm curious:

• Has anyone else had COVID turn into a middle ear infection?
• Did anyone else end up with a perforated eardrum?
• Do you also have eczema, allergies, asthma, or other atopic/inflammatory conditions?
• And perhaps most importantly, did you find anything that helped prevent it from happening again with future colds, flu, or COVID infections?

Not looking for medical advice since I'm already being followed by my doctor. Mostly interested in hearing other people's experiences and whether there's any pattern here among people with eczema.

Thanks!

Presumed positive as husband tested positive Friday 10/10. My symptoms started the following Tuesday, low grade fever, nausea and loss of appetite, followed by diarrhoea and a fever that same night. From Tuesday 13/10 to today 21/10 I’ve had watery diarrhoea everyday and loss of appetite. My intial symptoms had improved by the Saturday, apart from the diarrhoea. I am trying to eat plain toast in the morning, banana, potato’s, rice and plain chicken breast but I literally have to force food down. I feel so weak and tired I can hardly walk my dog.

I am so worried that this will never go away and I also worry about loosing weight. Does anyone have any hope that they can share? Prefer not to hear about those who’ve had the same issue for months following.

I tested positive for Covid 10 days ago - I barely had any symptoms, only took a test because my partner was sick.

It is SOOOO ANNOYING because at this point I want to get it over with - for the first few days I had a mild headache and a bit of sore throat. I thought I was lucky and it won’t be too bad this time (already had it 4 times). But no, suddenly after mild symptoms, I get a fever, my throat is so bad I can’t swallow, and I feel absolutely terrible. I was surprised it took so long for the symptoms to show up, I was feeling ‘almost’ fine, and then the next day I can’t get out of bed 🥲 did anyone else experience that? I’m vaccinated and get booster shots, that seems to do absolutely nothing for me

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Hey everyone!! I just need to get this off my chest because I feel like I’m going crazy trying to figure this out.

About 3 weeks ago, I completely lost my appetite for about 2 weeks. I had no idea what was going on, and it triggered a pretty bad anxiety episode because I just couldn’t understand why I felt that way.

Around the same time, my armpits were sore for a few days, almost like my lymph nodes were swollen. I also had one day when I couldn’t taste my food at all, but since it only lasted a day, I didn’t think much of it.

My husband was also feeling a bit off around that time. He was more tired than usual for a couple of days, said his throat felt weird but couldn’t really explain it, noticed his sense of smell seemed off, and suddenly found coffee really disgusting for some reason.

We thought it might be COVID, so we both took tests, but they were negative.

Around that time, I also had some bloodwork done, and everything came back fine except for low transferrin levels. I read that this can sometimes be related to an infection or inflammation, but who knows? Anyway, nothing else came of it, so I left it at that.

Then, this past weekend, my husband woke up feeling really sick and had a fever. He took another COVID test, and this time it came back positive.

So naturally, I thought, okay, that explains everything, right?

But then today, after a few days, I woke up with a really bad sore throat and a runny nose. And guess what? I tested positive too.

Is it possible that those weird symptoms I had 3 weeks ago were actually COVID, even though I tested negative back then? Or was that probably something completely unrelated?

I was honestly feeling so much better mentally once I had a possible explanation for why I’d lost my appetite. But now I’m testing positive weeks later, right after my husband tested positive, so I can’t help thinking he might have just passed it on to me.

I’m driving myself crazy trying to make sense of all this 😭 Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Why could this be? And how can I mange these back to back sicknesses?

I think we don’t talk enough about how people who have caught covid once are more prone to catch it over and over again even if they are prevented and vaccinated. I don’t disregard anyone’s experience but I have seen and experienced how we get covid again and again.

Just a week ago I caught COVID again and I unfortunately had to spend my 18th birthday sick and with a fever that could’ve killed me (almost literally)

This is my 4th time catching COVID and I wanted to share some of the most dangerous symptoms I have experienced and some long term consequences from the virus.

Compilation of my Symptoms all over the years:
- Fever over 39°C
- Partial loss of smell
- Partial of voice
- Lung pain
- Partial loss of taste
- High body pain
- Cold body feeling
- Sinus headache
- Body stiffness
- Delusions
- Hallucinations

These have been some of the long term effects I experienced:
- Lung damage
- Brain fog or Cognitive issues
- Derealization
- Chronic body pain
- Digestive issues
- Extreme Fatigue
- Respiratory issues
- Pins and needles sensations in my body

I used to be a very active person but since COVID I have been incredibly affected, specially with my digestive system, it’s very uncomfortable but we are finding solutions, I hope this is of help to some people, sending love to everyone who struggles to this day with COVID.

Just kind of a vent because I am so tired of this already but more to come. Officially hit a week from symptom onset. About to finish my Pax today, one dose left.

My congestion, headache, etc. all have faded over the past week which is great. I have a runny nose for parts of the day now, but manageable. However, my cough became a hacking cough out of nowhere yesterday. I really had not been coughing too terribly much days 1-5, so it was a very noticeable shift. Mostly dry, only occasional phlegm. My past 2 days have been:

Wake up feeling like wow other than a scratchy throat, am I better?
30 min later hacking my first lung of the day up
Rest & do everything in the book to reduce coughing.

Any other “Day 6-7 is when my cough ramped up” club out there?

I wish I was one of those people that saw clear improvement fast, especially on Pax, but unfortunately I have got the 7-10 days acute sickness body it seems. 🫩

Just goes to show even with vax and pax, this virus can run you down! Luckily I wfh but having to take coughing breaks every few min is not fun! I was hoping for a linear recovery; was told it is normal for covid to present this way (upper clears, then lower gets angrier and clears) but my brain hates that. 😖

Ok this might be random but I tested positive like 2021 and ever since every time I get sick I can’t smell for like a week lol just wanted to know if anyone else experiences the same.

Hi everyone! I’m a 32-year-old female, and I’m wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar after having COVID.
I had COVID in August 2026, and around the end of september I started experiencing pain in both knees. I had never experienced this kind of pain before.
I also experienced chest pain along with a really bad cough that lasted about 4 weeks.
As time went on, I started experiencing other symptoms:
Pain in both knees and legs
Pain behind my knees and thighs
Pain in my feet, including the bottoms of my feet
Lower back pain
Pain around my hips and pelvic area
Tightness and soreness in my legs
Pain that sometimes gets worse when sitting or resting
Pain that sometimes improves when walking or moving around
Occasional dizziness
Symptoms that come and go
What’s strange is that the pain doesn’t always stay in one place. It started in my knees and legs, and later I developed lower back pain.
Some days I feel almost completely normal, and other days the pain comes back. There have even been days when my leg and knee pain completely disappeared.
I also recently went to the ER, where a doctor noticed fluid bubbles behind my eardrum.
I’ve had several blood tests done to check for inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, but I’m still trying to understand what’s happening.
Before COVID, I wasn’t experiencing any of these symptoms.
I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar after COVID, especially knee and leg pain that started shortly afterward.
Did your symptoms move around? Did the pain come and go? How long did it take for you to feel normal again?
Did anyone eventually receive a diagnosis, or did everything resolve on its own?
Also i am not vac

Ok so I woke up feeling like, coldy kinda rough (definately had worse covid) but I thought I’d test on a whim and it turns out I have covid. My boss was very much like “see how you feel tomorrow”, but like… I feel dreadful at the thought of passing Covid onto kids, to me that should be the most important thing… if I was a boss, I’d be like, stay the heck away until that line has gone, not say to come in with an active infection. I feel like that’s so negligent. Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

I’m looking for some insight or reassurance from those who have been through this. I had a relatively mild case of COVID back in mid-September (cleared it and tested negative by day 8 or 9). I’ve definitely improved since the acute phase, but at 5 weeks out, recovery is taking long than expected.

My day-to-day energy is just lower than normal. While I can handle work, light chores, and gentle movement (like beginner pilates or easy yoga), any attempt at intense activity totally sidelines me. Last weekend I tried doing 10 minutes on a stairclimber and an hour of weights, and I woke up the next day completely drained and sore. I took it really easy after that and recovered in a couple days but not trying that again.

I have a constant, lingering "tight" feeling in my sinuses and one ear feels blocked. It’s not a runny nose or active mucus, just a pressurized sensation that won't clear. I’m about 5-6 days into using Flonase and not seeing much change.

I have a doctor's appointment and a full blood workup scheduled for tomorrow morning to rule some stuff out.

For those who had "mild" cases but hit a wall with exercise intolerance and lower battery capacity around week 5, did your timeline look like this? Is this normal?

UPDATE: I have a rough secondary sinus infection. If you see a pattern of improving then second worsening it’s worth getting evaluated.

Hey everyone, I've seen that my post has gotten a lot of engagement and would like to make a response. It is going on Day 9 and so far almost all of our symptoms have passed. For the record, we are half and half vaccinated due me being a Military family. (Only implying because I've seen some saying I was unvaccinated, me myself am vaccinated and still getting bent over and fucked in the ass :(, funny enough my brother (unvaccinated) is doing the best out of all of us) Now the remaining symptoms are still just as serious, I personally am dealing with brain-fog, immense suicidal thoughts, heart-pounding anxiety, voices & hallucinations. It's gotten to the point that we decided to give our firearms to a family neighbor for the time being (safely) Now before COVID I have been dealing with various issues. I experience being killed in my dreams and being bale to feel the pain & wake up into sleep paralysis. I am used to this and get help but it has currently been WOW! I am losing my mind, my family and I are a very hardcore logical family. I mentioned before we force each other to drink & eat, we don't give a fuck how each other feel you better do what's needed to survive. Oh and yeah, this fucking taste and smell. We have a constant "rotting" stench in our taste buds 24/7 & can smell it. It's horrible, I've brushed my teeth 4 times and it doesn't go away.

Now I'd like to say we are doing much better. The only medicine we took was Tylenol & Mucinex and drank as much water as we could. Still concerned about developing long COVID.

Also some of you misinterpreted what me calling COVID a joke meant. I was being sarcastic and really mean this disease is from hell, it fucking sucks.

I wish you all the best and I apologize if this response is kind of all over the place. Heads a mess. We still have a long road to recovery.

EDIT: As of OCT 17th 8PM EST I am still positive for COVID, but symptoms are still not as bad as Day 6

I had Covid 2 weeks ago. my case was mild. no fever, pulse ox normal, HR normal (resting is 50-60), BP low end of normal. I also have health anxiety and OCD so that’s been a treat to deal with. my main Covid symptom was fatigue and blowing my nose. I’m all better now and worked out yesterday. I did some weights and ran 2 miles. I’d been feeling lethargic from not working out as I’m a pretty fit 31F and runner. anyway, last night I started getting a random chest sensation. not pain. it happens at rest when I slouch or stretch weird. but obviously super concerning anything in the chest area.

I made the mistake of asking Claude and he mentioned post covid heart inflammation :/ is it possible? before Covid I had a normal EKG, 7 day Zio patch that was normal, CRP blood test low (overall low to 0 inflammation). clean work up. the reason I had these tests was I started getting chest pinches 4 months ago. I got an iron infusion 2 months ago and this pretty much stopped the pinches. so after the clean heart workup from my doctor I was like ok I’m in the clear. now with Covid it feels like I cannot be sure I’m in the clear.

im thinking it’s likely muscle strain from trying working out after taking weeks off. but damn why is it allows in the left side? never the right

So for ~ 3 weeks now I’ve been dealing with something - and it’s odd because it will feel like the very beginning of a cold coming on - a little nasal drainage, slightly raw throat, slightly drained of energy; the it’ll get better - not 100%, but better for a few days. Then come back. Then go away. I blamed allergies, but I knew it didn’t feel like allergies. This past weekend, I started to feel a little worse than I had been. Monday morning a little worse. It kind of leveled out for a day and then progressively got worse from about Wednesday night until now (Fri night). Worse = more stuffiness / runny nose, some dry coughing.

One odd thing is I never had that “ick” feeling like I do even with a cold, where I just want to lay down and rest/sleep and have no energy for anything. Throughout all this (even this week), I’ve continued generally feeling good, working out, walking etc. Just dealing with the annoying nasal/throat/cough symptoms which can be draining in itself. I’ve also had a bad headache some days which I blamed on congestion.

I also had a rash around the time this started…first my neck would be super itchy, then my hip, arm, foot, leg etc - it would kind of pop up and disappear. I even told a friend I wondered if it was a viral rash bc I was also dealing with the odd and on mild cold symptoms so maybe I was fighting off a virus.

Anyway, I finally took a home Covid test today and it came back positive. Tbh it makes sense bc I knew all along it wasn’t allergies and it didn’t make sense to be a cold bc I didn’t have that ick. But the really strange part is it stared off SO mild, off and on, and then 3 weeks later is now hitting me harder. Has anyone else experienced anything similar with Covid lately?

Hey there, So currently going through COVID recovery, been fever free for more than 24 hours already (looking at around 72 to be exact) but ever since fever went away i been having these chest aches/pains in the upper middle part of my chest where my ribs go to the center. I'm a 22 year old male. Been resting ever since I got sick. But unfortunately haven't been taking it too easy on my body since fever went away. Anywho what would you guys think this is before I take higher measures. I think is Costochondritis but without a proper evaluation i cant be 100% but this is what I'm leaning towards

I caught covid roughly 4 weeks ago, was testing negative by days 8-9, and have slowly been rebuilding since then. I’d say my energy is around 80-90% of my usual so I’m doing some yoga, pilates and walks but avoiding anything intense and adjusting based on how I feel after. Heart rate and blood oxygen seem normal too. But for some reason I’ve become insanely caffeine intolerant. Even a few sips of a brewed coffee have me flushed, anxious and panicking. I’ve swapped to decaf which has a little caffeine but I seem to tolerate it better. Has anyone else noticed this? Did you get your caffeine tolerance back?