Covid Recovery: How can I manage GI issues?

Greetings, I had a breakthrough case of covid five months ago, all gastrointestinal symptoms. The symptoms still are recurring every few days. No gastrointestinal remedies seem to help: probiotics, prebiotics, Curing Pills, prevacid, all no help. Anyone having any success with gastro symptoms? Thank you!

Greetings, I had a breakthrough case of covid five months ago, all gastrointestinal symptoms. The symptoms still are recurring every few days. No gastrointestinal remedies seem to help: probiotics, prebiotics, Curing Pills, prevacid, all no help. Anyone having any success with gastro symptoms? Thank you!

My husband is on day 7 of his 4th hospitalization for severe GI issues post Covid. He is 10 weeks out from Omicron. He was vaccinated w/ both Pfizer doses prior to contracting.

No prior history of diarrhea. 2 weeks post Covid he started having painful gas and diarrhea. It became so severe he was doubled over in pain and shaking. After the first CAT scan they said he had the worst case of diverticulitis they had ever seen, and admitted him with 3 different antibiotics and steroids.
Liquid diet, bowel rest, antibiotics, steroids.

We went home. Two days later after eating chicken soup, it all started again. He can’t leave the house w/o a diaper because the attacks are so frequent and so violent.

The colo/rectal surgeon was perplexed because when he scoped him, it wasn’t technically consistent with diverticulitis or even ulcerative colitis. The first 6” from the rectum in are in perfect shape, the next section is an angry inflamed nightmare, and the top looks fine as well.

He DOES have severe colitis and some ulcerations but that doesn’t mean us ulcerative colitis. 14 biopsies were taken. Most of the biopsies looked normal the biopsy of the small ulcers appeared to be either ischemia or infectious.
After 2 weeks of antibiotics the inflammation was unchanged so antibiotics were discontinued.

A fourth Angio CT showed no major blockages to the vessels but they can’t rule out a transient ischemic event in the colon.

When we tried to move back to soft foods yesterday a massive flare up ensued. He was basically having contractions every 60 seconds for 12-16hrs and not really producing much but shedding the mucosal lining I’m guessing. Just a brutal brutal experience. Hemoglobin is 12.7. Pinkish and some bright red blood in stool from time to time. White cells still elevated.

We are exactly where we were 4 weeks ago when we came to the ED the 1st time. It’s so discouraging. He has been on a liquid diet for 24 hours and after a stressful afternoon attacks have come back to every 20 minutes.

Still treating w/ 60mg steroids daily, back on antibiotics, and Mesalamine every 6hrs until we get him through the flare up. They are treating like ulcerative colitis until we can repeat the colonoscopy in 8 weeks.

I’m just scared there is something more we should be doing. I want to protect the integrity of his colon.

Any advice us greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
H Kountanis

My husband is on day 7 of his 4th hospitalization for severe GI issues post Covid. He is 10 weeks out from Omicron. He was vaccinated w/ both Pfizer doses prior to contracting.

No prior history of diarrhea. 2 weeks post Covid he started having painful gas and diarrhea. It became so severe he was doubled over in pain and shaking. After the first CAT scan they said he had the worst case of diverticulitis they had ever seen, and admitted him with 3 different antibiotics and steroids.
Liquid diet, bowel rest, antibiotics, steroids.

We went home. Two days later after eating chicken soup, it all started again. He can’t leave the house w/o a diaper because the attacks are so frequent and so violent.

The colo/rectal surgeon was perplexed because when he scoped him, it wasn’t technically consistent with diverticulitis or even ulcerative colitis. The first 6” from the rectum in are in perfect shape, the next section is an angry inflamed nightmare, and the top looks fine as well.

He DOES have severe colitis and some ulcerations but that doesn’t mean us ulcerative colitis. 14 biopsies were taken. Most of the biopsies looked normal the biopsy of the small ulcers appeared to be either ischemia or infectious.
After 2 weeks of antibiotics the inflammation was unchanged so antibiotics were discontinued.

A fourth Angio CT showed no major blockages to the vessels but they can’t rule out a transient ischemic event in the colon.

When we tried to move back to soft foods yesterday a massive flare up ensued. He was basically having contractions every 60 seconds for 12-16hrs and not really producing much but shedding the mucosal lining I’m guessing. Just a brutal brutal experience. Hemoglobin is 12.7. Pinkish and some bright red blood in stool from time to time. White cells still elevated.

We are exactly where we were 4 weeks ago when we came to the ED the 1st time. It’s so discouraging. He has been on a liquid diet for 24 hours and after a stressful afternoon attacks have come back to every 20 minutes.

Still treating w/ 60mg steroids daily, back on antibiotics, and Mesalamine every 6hrs until we get him through the flare up. They are treating like ulcerative colitis until we can repeat the colonoscopy in 8 weeks.

I’m just scared there is something more we should be doing. I want to protect the integrity of his colon.

Any advice us greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
H Kountanis

I have a general question for folks who are dealing with gastrointestinal symptoms that are being identified as long Covid. Have you been able to actually get a diagnosis that relates your gastrointestinal issues to Covid? I had a mild case of Covid in 2022 that was congestion, sore throat and night sweats. Otherwise I felt fine. Shortly after, I experienced intestinal pain and cramping and on x-ray was told that I had constipation even though I didn’t think I had constipation. Since then, I’ve had endoscopy, MRI, CT, numerous x-rays. Those showed that I have mild gastritis and an esophageal stricture. I am fit, eat mainly vegetarian/vegan, don’t drink or smoke. Constipation has been chronic until recently. In 2025 I had a heart attack out of the blue!

I received a stent and was placed on the standard cocktail of medication. The original statin caused my liver enzymes to soar, and that has since been adjusted. My heart is healthy and I’m very grateful for that. I do take an aspirin every day so have been put on PPI to protect my stomach. This concerns me because I already have osteoporosis. I’m not interested in adding another medication for that. The constipation seems to be managed by regular MiraLAX most days of the week.

I guess my question is how does a person know if they have long Covid and does that change the way their symptoms are treated? I’ve got two cardiologists and a gastroenterologist, a lipidologist, and recently a hematologist because of low red blood and low ferritin. Iron messes with the GI so we are discussing infusion. Before 2022 I considered myself a very healthy person. I still consider myself a relatively healthy person, but I’m taking more medication than I ever imagined I would and honestly never feel great. I walk every day which I was doing prior to the heart attack anyway, I’m now 71 years old, my weight is good and always has been.

I have a general question for folks who are dealing with gastrointestinal symptoms that are being identified as long Covid. Have you been able to actually get a diagnosis that relates your gastrointestinal issues to Covid? I had a mild case of Covid in 2022 that was congestion, sore throat and night sweats. Otherwise I felt fine. Shortly after, I experienced intestinal pain and cramping and on x-ray was told that I had constipation even though I didn’t think I had constipation. Since then, I’ve had endoscopy, MRI, CT, numerous x-rays. Those showed that I have mild gastritis and an esophageal stricture. I am fit, eat mainly vegetarian/vegan, don’t drink or smoke. Constipation has been chronic until recently. In 2025 I had a heart attack out of the blue!

I received a stent and was placed on the standard cocktail of medication. The original statin caused my liver enzymes to soar, and that has since been adjusted. My heart is healthy and I’m very grateful for that. I do take an aspirin every day so have been put on PPI to protect my stomach. This concerns me because I already have osteoporosis. I’m not interested in adding another medication for that. The constipation seems to be managed by regular MiraLAX most days of the week.

I guess my question is how does a person know if they have long Covid and does that change the way their symptoms are treated? I’ve got two cardiologists and a gastroenterologist, a lipidologist, and recently a hematologist because of low red blood and low ferritin. Iron messes with the GI so we are discussing infusion. Before 2022 I considered myself a very healthy person. I still consider myself a relatively healthy person, but I’m taking more medication than I ever imagined I would and honestly never feel great. I walk every day which I was doing prior to the heart attack anyway, I’m now 71 years old, my weight is good and always has been.

@ezjersey719 Sadly diagnosis for Long COVID is symptom based. There is no consistent set of blood testing that will confirm it...for now. There do appear to be sets of long covid patients with similar sets of symptoms...last I heard they had identified something like 5 different sets of symptoms. For me, fatigue, overall pain from hyper inflammation, skin eruptions and slow healing due to lack of oil production, extreme allergies to food resulting in bloating/diarrhea/constipation, dry eyes/skin/mouth, post exertion malaise for days, sensitivity to smell/sound/heat/cold, sporadic shortness of breath/low blood pressure/pulse/palpitations, and dehydration. With my docs advice, I am getting slightly better using low dose naltrexone and daily vitamin d/b1. Also doing electrolytes in all of my fluid has helped.