2+-months with C19-like symptoms & recent relapse

@solterra - fwiw, I believe you. This disease is baffling and slippery, and I don't blame doctors who are fooled by it. But I believe sometimes the patient's insight into his or her own body can be more telling than tests, especially when they are administered way too late. Best of luck to you.

@solterra Welcome to connect we aren't Dr's. but try to help if we can . We are a caring bunch . I would like to ask you have you seen a pulmonologist . or just your own Dr? I would keep pursuing this Your symptoms tell me you should see a specialist in the lung area . Next would be a cardiologist . As zep said out bodies can tell us more then Dr.s may know about and this Covid -19 is so new you probably should see the specialist . Good luck and please let us know how you are doing . We will listen .

Hi @solterra, I appreciate your sharing your journey with presumed COVID-19. So little know about this virus and how it affects us. Many people report extended fatigue. It must be frustrating that you can't get antibody testing (yet) to confirm or rule out COVID-19 and that your doctors are reluctant to diagnose it as COVID.

As you prepare for your tele-health visit this, I'm bringing in fellow members @mkqq @susanbo2457 @sueinmn @mkqq @ccbelle @wishercristy @potterylady and @amart22018. They or a family member have/hs also had COVID-19 confirmed or presumed. They may have experiences or tele-health tips to share. You may also appreciate this discussion:
- Telemedicine: How to make the most of a virtual doctor visit https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/covid-19-telemedicine-its-a-brave-new-world/

Solterra, have you had Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the past? Did you doctor say why EBV is suspected over COVID?

@solterra Hello & welcome. So sorry you are struggling with this. My daughter, presumed Covid-19, has had 2 relapses. One at 14-15 days, and another at about 30 days. Her symptoms were not as severe as you report, but she still is experiencing frequent fatigue at nearly 8 weeks. Her pulmonologist attributes it to a compromised immune system (she is on immunosuppressant therapy for severe asthma.) It is frustrating for her, as she is an active athletic person who normally works full-time, volunteers, and goes to school online, and now she needs to conserve her energy carefully to get through the day. She has not been allowed back to her job as an ER nurse until it is known that the antibodies confer at least temporary immunity.
I hope you get some answers from your appointment.
Sue

@sueinmn So sorry to hear your daughter is sick from the covid-19 Should she go back to the E. R. and risk it again . Im sure she wants to but is this the wisest thing for her to do? I hope she is taking is one day at a time .

@sueinmn - Best of luck to your brave, compassionate daughter the ER nurse, and a thorough, speedy recovery.

I don't understand why your Doctor won't retest for covid 19. What state do you live in? My state is doing testing. You have to go to a drive through facility and submit to an exam. Then generally they test you for covid 19. I am very worried for you. Please be more proactive. I have been hearing about a vaccination that may help you. Ask your doctor for that and everything else you deserve to be treated better.

I have had many similar symptoms as yours. Although not the severity. Mine started with what I thought were allergic rhinitis. Until I experienced chilling cold through my whole body. And pain. That was April 24. I was feverish with temperature reaching 100. Very high for me. By 4/27, I was having significant shortness of breath and pain in my lungs. I had a TeleHealth chat with my Doctor. She told me to self quarantine for 14 days. And prescribed an antibiotic.
Backing up a little, I was working outside on 4/8 and was stabbed in the eye by a little branch. It scratched the right cornea and was painful. I was seen by urgent care. Given eye ointment antibiotic. All vitals were good. I subsequently lost my sense of smell for almost a week. At the time I thought that was weird. Now I know that is a sign of covid 19.
I have had no known contact with anyone that may have infected me.
I had a covid 19 test on 4/29. The results were Negative. I was told to continue to self quarantine. I am feeling somewhat better. Although my Doctor said I may have had a negative because the worst was past. So now I will follow up .
I hope you will come back to good health.

I'm on a similar timescale maybe 1 week or so longer. It started with a fever that lasted 3 days and then I had a wet cough with green/yellow phlegm for a few days, later followed by cough with white phlegm.

Doctor thinks it might have been Covid-19, but can't be certain as the infection was already gone.

Biggest problem is that I've having trouble sleeping for the last 8 weeks. Initially for some nights I couldn't sleep at all, and now I manage anywhere around 4-7 hours a night on average. The sleep is not very good quality and very interrupted.

I also have what I think is post viral fatigue. It doesn't take a lot for me to start feeling tired. I feel it's improving at a very slow pace but nowhere near fast enough. The lack of sleep isn't helping.

These days I noticed that upon exertion of energy I can get a slight sore throat, or a runny nose, or a sneeze or two.

I'm in a state of panic as I read that people can take up to many months or even a year to fully recover from post viral fatigue!

I can manage my daily activities and maybe even go to work around 3 days a week, but as soon as I exercise too much I feel the effect the next 2-3 days.

Have you considered a COVID antibody test. You can order one online through Quest Labs, no doctor needed. You have to be free of fever or current COVID symptoms, but in your case with the possibility you are having a flare of latent virus (?) which apparently is characteristic of EBV, but no one knows about COVID, you could still get the test so long as you do not have current fever.

@solterra. I read so much anxiety in your words. I hope your virtual visit with your physician can alleviate that for you. You have enough going on physically that you don’t need mental anxiety heaped on top of everything else. Reducing stress is so vital to achieving and maintaining good health and reducing susceptibility to illness. I had a much different path with my physician than you. I had mono (caused by EBV) many years ago in college. I am now suffering from a “suspected Covid-19” infection. Starting April 11th i had 3 afternoons of diarrhea. Weird, but I wasn’t too concerned. That cleared on the 14th to be replaced by fever and I couldn’t get a deep breath. I had awful headache and sinus pain and pressure in nasal area. I have asthma that is well controlled by an inhaled corticosteroid. I always have a rescue inhaler nearby but rarely use it. By the 17th my breathing had worsened substantially. I was completely dependent on the rescue inhaler....Anxiety rising rapidly, I called my doctor’s office, made a virtual appointment for Monday the 20th, was connected to a triage nurse who thought I had sinus infection with asthma flare, was told where I should get tested for the virus, did that at urgent care, and was sent to hospital for chest X-ray. I had the virtual visit with my doctor who said “you are clinical for Covid-19.” We talked about 15-20 minutes. She told me that Diarrhea is a very typical first presenting symptom, that days 5-9 appear to be the worst, that I was on day 9, and she all but guaranteed that my test would come back negative. They are finding out that the viral load is highest at symptom onset. I was tested on day 7. She said by then the virus would have already moved down into the lungs for me (for young patients into the GI tract). I was first tested via nasalpharygeal swab then again on the 29th at a respiratory clinic with the throat swab. Both were negative. I had to climb a flight of stairs for that appointment, and I have never been so winded. I ran 20 marathons in my 30s and 40s. They were nothing compared to that effort. The fatigue is debilitating. The fatigue with mono is very similar, that and the fever. My mono experience was very different otherwise. My neck glands were so swollen that they pressed on my ear drums and vocal cords. I had horrible ear aches and my voice was super high pitched. I also had a swollen spleen that I had to take care not to have a fall for months for fear of rupture. Prednisone was like a miracle for me with mono that Spring, but the fatigue lasted well into the summer. With Covid-19, I am in my 4th week and still have daily waves of fever and shortness of breath. The nasal/head symptoms are gradually abating consistent with the virus’s movement south. Your pericarditis and “lung burn” sound very unpleasant for you. How are they treating that? I hope to hear of some near term improvement in your symptoms and send healing thoughts to you.