So scared of this virus
Posted , 3 users are following.
hey,
About 8 weeks ago I think the virus activated in me. Its my first infection. I ended up being hospitalised because I was so fatigued I literally couldn't get out of bed, headaches, photophobia, brain fog, palpitations.
My bloods showed no active EBV infection but they found EBV on 2 tests. All other bloods and scans were fine. Doctors suspected something viral but couldn't say for sure. Think they thought I was exaggerating how ill I felt.
Came out of hospital and quickly developed swollen glands and a raw red throat for a few days. That's when it copped with me that this is most likely EBV.
Over past 2 weeks I have kind of improved. My brain fog was so bad I couldn't even watch T.V but now I can watch T.V. Have had to be off work since I became unwell.
This forum has saved me because I was spiralling into a depressive hole mixed with dread and anxiety.
I am having such intrusive thoughts that my EBV will be permanent and develop into CFS.
Palpitations are still here. I am more on my feet but get so fatigued if I'm in busy places etc for long. If I do anything mildly exertional, I have to rest. I shouldn't be complaining because up until 2 weeks ago, I barely had a brain to focus on t.v. or music.
My improvements are so so so slow and I'm so scared.
Is this normal to be so fatigued for 8weeks? for context, I'm 27F who was in the gym 4 times a week and hiking once a week before I got unwell. Now I have to rest after mild exertion. I'm absolutely terrified, when I was unwell with the C-virus in 2021 it wasn't near as bad as this, I'm in shock honestly.
thanks for reading ❤️
0 likes, 5 replies
amin05697 lucy73863
Edited
Hi. Sorry to hear that. I understand what you are experiencing, especially the brain fog, and not feeling like myself, which is really debilitating.
I am 43, male, and am 20 months into my mono illness, plus perhaps several Covid infection, each of which set me back and made me bedbounded for weeks.
It's quite normal. Indeed, for this virus, it can easily take anything from months to years, to recover completely. Being informed about the slow progress is very important for recovery, because you might assume that you have healed once you feel energetic, and overdo, and then that would exacerbate your illness and delayed recovery.
For this illness, it is so important not to exhaust. forget about exercise for a while. THis illness is very tricky: one day you feel very bad, and the next morning you feel energetic (due to rest in previous days) and you might assume that you are completely recovered, but don't get fooled by your body.
So, be careful not to catch Covid, not to exercise (especially high intensity exercises) and don't assume that by pushing your body through exercise you can fast forward your recovery journey. This is among the few illnesses that gets worse by exercise (and perhaps this is why athletes catch it more often and recover longer).
lob12506 amin05697
Posted
Hey, yes pushing through just makes it longer. Ive been dealing with it for 7 years now. If I knew what it was from the beginning and rested properly I would probably have recovered long time ago. Even now, when I exercise I feel it immediately on the next day, but if I dont do anything i feel like my fitness is wasting away too.
amin05697 lob12506
Edited
You are right. Now that I review my activity/symptoms journals of my past months, I can see that whenever I practice pacing (monitoring and moderating my activities based on my symptoms) I had constant progress, but every time I pushed my body through(especially in occasion I pushed my body two or more days in a row) I experienced a crash and set back.
So, if I would have avoided the cycle of boost and boom, and wasn't infected with Covid, I am sure that I was recovered in less than 6 months.
I have just realized how to deal with this illness, which I have learned from me/cfs community. As you mentioned, movement has a paradoxical role here: if you do nothing, you most likely don't progress. and if you overdo, you crash and go to the first place. You have to find a delicate balance. First you have to find your baseline (the amount of activity that you can do sustainably), monitor your symptoms and know which are benign and which are warning alarm of a upcoming crash. Then, very slowly, disciplined, and with conservatism, you should add to your activities (like5%-10% ) and see if your body can tolerate that. If, e.g. your sleep gets disturbed, or you feel shivering, chills, sore throat... it is a sign that your body is not ready yet. And even if you feel good, you have to wait at least 2 weeks to make sure. because the fatigue has delay and is accumulatory.
You have to start journaling your activities on a daily basis along with your symptoms. Even the number of hours you sit should be accounted (because even sitting is exhausting for us).
Don't forget to introduce deep rest periods within your daily activities (at least two times a day) which for me the best form of deep rest is lying with my legs elevated. the deep rest periods should be continues and uninterrupted, cause just like sleep, it have successive stages, and our body goes through these stages one after another. So, when you rest and you feel heavy and dizzy, it is indeed a good sign that your body is restoring energy.
You also may find other clues in your smptoms to know when your body needs more rest. For me, the status of my jaw pain and the frequency of its click sounds is a good sign to know I am in a restoring state.
lob12506 amin05697
Posted
yes but it is impossible to walk the line of perfect balance unless you can afford to not do anything. if you have to work and take care of yourself, you will crash time to time. I accepted that I will never be truly healthy again.
amin05697 lob12506
Edited
It need not be a perfect balance, just prioritize your rest first. If your daily activities and other commitments is higher than your baseline, then it becomes difficult to balance. However, you still might find creative ways for incorporate more rest in your routine. For example, if you are sitting at a desk, try to put some pillows on your back or below your hands, and elevate your legs to consume as less energy as possible, or try to lie on the ground inbetween your work hours.
But I have realized that intentional movements and exercise is more effective in recovery, than random daily activities. I lift weights. I take certain measures to avoid crash, because in our case, our body is highly sensitive to the intensity of the exercise.So I monitor my heart rate and adjusting my rest and breathing accordingly, lie on the ground between sets, practice single-limb moves to mitigate the overall load on my energy system and still benefit from stimulating my muscles, and am vigilant of alarming symptoms during my exercise.