Long covid versus vaccine injury?

What I have constantly read, heard and understood is under the term 'Long COVID' or 'LC' there are those of us who contracted it from an episode of COVID or from the vaccine or 'Vaccine Injured'. Hope that helps.

Thanks, I'm dealing with vaccine injury, and I'm not sure where to find support when it's labeled long COVID.

I am new here and wanted to share my story for maybe some help or guidance. Prior to having covid in December of 2020 I was a 1/2 marathon runner. After having covid for the first time I was diagnosed for the first time in my entire life with asthma. I now have inhalers and a nebulizer and a pulmonologist. I get winded just walking around the halls at the school where I teach or up my stairs at my home from my basement. I have never experience this before. I have always been fit and active. I was a health/wellness coach. I used to wear a an oxygen deprivation mask to deprive my lung of oxygen to help me train to get to higher elevation level for mountain trail running. None of this makes sense to me and just frustrates me. Exercise has always been my outlet for mental health and clarity and to challenge myself. Then I got the 2 vaccines, to only get covid two more times. I then got the booster and two months after receiving the booster, I got out of the shower to notice I had no arm hair, my eyebrow hair was almost all gone and I had a round spot on my head where my hair was gone. As time passed (weeks) the spot on my head got bigger and more started to show up. My PCP sent me to a coupe dermatologist to only be diagnosed with Alopecia Areata. I ended up losing over 80%-85% of my hair on my head. They had told me that I wasn't the first case they had seen this happen to after the booster. Unfortunately, there is no research or evidence to back it so they are just diagnosing people who were going through the similar situation I was with different types of Alopecia depending on the severity of hair loss. I have other things going on and I am not sure if they are covid related, but it is frustrating to have no answers and to go to specialist that just tell me I need therapy. I was almost convinced that I was losing my mind with the other health issues...like confusion, numbness, high resting heart rate, can't remember things, clumsiness are just to name a few. Thankfully, I have a PCP that listens, but when you have no other doctors that do what am I supposed to do?

Welcome to connect and I hope you will find some good information here because there are many people going through the same issues as you. I am very sorry for your struggles and I know how devastating it is to suddenly become someone you don’t know anything about, covid has definitely made a big impact on so many people, we keep going to different doctors and they run tests only to tell you that they can’t find anything or they don’t know what to say. I had covid in 2022 and since then I’ve been trying to cope with the new me, I had a cancer diagnosis in 2020 followed by two surgeries…I truly believe that I changed more from having had covid…it’s scary enough to get symptoms from a disease that we know but the different symptoms people are getting from covid is devastating, I realize that you only get so much comfort in numbers but it’s a starting point and that’s what you’re going to do now, don’t let it take you down, do whatever is necessary to get the right help you need, also I too have lost more hair since covid, I think I will buy a cool hat for cover, 🙂

@joanne1943
I think the injury is for new symptoms you experienced the days/weeks/months after receiving the shots vs. what symptoms linger or worsen months/years after receiving the shots and/or having the infection. The latter is long COVID.

In my experience, having vaccine injury and later developing long Covid, it's not easy to distinguish between the two. I had the vaccine in June of 2021, and two weeks later I started to have heart symptoms: chest pain and pressure and shortness of breath. Those were eventually diagnosed at Mayo as severe microvascular endothelial dysfunction, and I went through several different procedures and medication changes before in spring of 2023 we settled on a regimen that worked.
Then in December 2023 I got Covid again, for the fourth time. When the cold symptoms went away, I was left with worsened heart symptoms, along with classic long Covid symptoms like fatigue, PEM, tinnitus, brain fog, and autonomic dysfunction.
In talking with Long Covid doctors both in Denver and at Mayo, it seems like Covid infections and vaccines can complicate each other. I won't get another Covid vaccine because of my vaccine injury (and my doctors support that decision), but I've been told that any additional Covid infections will likely worsen and complicate my situation, just as my last infection complicated my vaccine injury.
I'm very thankful for the expertise of Mayo's doctors, both for the original vaccine injury and also for my Long Covid.

Thank you

It’s crucial that you protect yourself from getting covid again, each time you get infected along with your existing symptoms it can become worse. I had covid in 2022 and my major symptom was rapid heart rate and other side effects, two years later I felt like it was going away but it didn’t last, I couldn’t use the medication for rapid heart rate because I have asthma. I always wear a mask indoors to prevent getting sick again, I dislike masks because I can’t breathe well but it helps with preventing more infections, it’s never perfect but it makes a difference.

Thank you. This helps me focus on the distinction between long COVID and vaccine injury. My vaccine injury occurred overnight following my second vaccine shot. It has worsened and spread throughout my body, primarily my legs and head. It is similar to Vertigo symptoms, except it's 24/7. Are there any treatment centers for vaccine injury in the Southwestern side of
Florida, from Tampa to Naples?

When I began to think that what I was experiencing was Long-COVID, the DO (a neurologist who had done Long-COVID research prior to going into practice as a neurologist) I was seeing asked if I had ever been sick previously with an undiagnosed illness, potentially a virus, for a length of time. Yes, the first time was in the 3rd-grade when I missed the first 3-weeks of school. The next time was 7th-grade when I didn't start school until after Thanksgiving; that version was called virus x. Then when I was 59 I came down with an unidentified illness after a nasty sinus infection. The sinus infection went away with treatment, but I remained sick. That was called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). I was sick for 4 years and yes, I lost my job and my career, but I was eligible to retire at age 60. Nonetheless, it was a sudden jolt to find myself out of work.
The most recent iteration followed COVID, which I got in May 2023, two years ago. The next question the neurologist/former COVID researcher asked me was how long did it take me to get well the last time I had an unidentified viral illness. Four years was my answer. She said my answer may hold information for me for this time.