Covid Recovery: How can I manage GI issues?

Sounds like me. I had Covid 3rd week of January lasting into beginning of Feb. About a week later I started having GI problems. Bloating, acid reflux, mild to moderate GI pain and no desire to eat. I was diagnosed with GERD a number of years ago and have been treated for it since then with no real issues. I take Align daily and am very careful with food choices.

I have had significant anxiety along with my GI issues. I have been really focusing on the anxiety and acceptance as well. I feel like my symptoms are starting to reduce a bit

Any improvements?

Hi everyone! New to this forum. Had COVID back in June 2022 with some respiratory but mainly GI symptoms. During the summer I had lots of post COVID symptoms: dizziness exhaustion headaches... but the most annoying and debilitating were severe stomach and abdominal ache, with dizziness and severe headaches. The colics started to be less frequent over time, now I havent had any major issue for aprox. 2 months. However, my Dr. insists I do a colonoscopy and endoscopy. I have developed medical procedures phobia over a couple of really bad experiences and I really want to avoid any unnecesary invasive testing. Has anyone found any helpful answers after a colonoscopy/ endoscopy?

my stomach is not the same either, really gassy, achy at times and always feel bloated. i gained weight that has been really hard to get off, bowels have changed and i still have a lot of phlegm after eating or drinking anything..i did have a colonoscopy and it came back fine, they where puzzled by that because of my symptoms...i don't understand how any kind of tests done with everyones symptoms can come back normal...how is that even possible?? i know my body and know it is not normal right now...i have never in my life experienced anything like this..i'm really working hard on this..hang in there!!

Hello, 16 months of GI long covid here. I declined both tests after friends with long covid had severe reactions to them. All other gut tests were negative, including all the fecal tests, which is something you will commonly see in this group. I am using reco's from a functional medicine doctor: a high quality probiotic everyday, prebiotic as needed, added avocados and chick peas to support certain good gut bugs, substantially reduced meat intake, avoid anything that causes inflammation! Be alert for food triggers!!!!!!!! All the best, Greg

Thanks so much! I think I will postpone then, it seems no point in undergoing all those invasive tests when they will most likely come back normal. My symptoms are not even than severe anymore, so hopefully they will continue to slowly improve. I am taking pre/probiotics (Kijimea PRO have helped) and pantoprazole, which also helps a bit with the stomach aches. I had a food intolerance test (which have no scientific backing but some friends said it helped so I gave it a go) and am excluding milk and egg and limiting gluten from diet. Not eating gluten espcially helps me a lot, I feel less bloated and less constipated when I totally exclude it from the diet. I hope this will slowly pass... I am not very hopeful about Drs as they really have no clue, this is so new for them too. I hope you find some relief too, this is hard!

I did both done for my post-.COVID GI issues. And my new post COVID anemia 🤷‍♀️ basically they were done hoping for a simple answer, I believe. They were a beneficial tool which ruled out ulcers and anything else that could cause anemia

My problem before Covid was IBS-Diarrhea, which has been my pattern for most of my life. Since Covid (August 2020), I have been constipated, bloated and have frequent, unexpected pebble stools. I've tried everything, including prescriptions. Recently, I started taking Magnesium 500 mg morning and night. It seems to be helping a little bit.

Has anyone tried Peptiva? I saw an ad for it on TV. Sounds too good to be true.
Lucy

I am the same as you! Occasional diarrhea before Covid but was never constipated. Post Covid, constipated every single day for 8 months now. Colonoscopy was normal. I have also found that a magnesium pill morning and night is the only thing that fixes it, but if I skip even one day it’s back. Doctors won’t believe me that it’s COVID related. I know nothing about Peptiva though, and since the magnesium, is working for me I’m sticking with that. I’ve had a lot of other long COVID symptoms too (severe widespread pain and inflammation, heart palpitations, and chest jumping at night), but the constipation is the only one that’s not improving at all.