How to Go Back to Work - and When? | Long Covid

[@jackmarriott7354]

Loving this latest series of videos Gez! I have just clawed my way back to full time hours, started 2 hours a day and added an hour (per day) per month quite flexibly. Very luck to have a supportive employer and a desk job that I can do from home. Some things I have to catch myself on and which really help manage my energy are: 1. Not rushing. There is always plenty of work to be done, so my default is to try and do everything quite quickly. When you are constantly rushing to complete each task I feel that you end up in a sympathetic nervous state for extended periods. So I have to catch myself and slow down. Do each task at a more relaxed pace. 2. Take breaks, even just 10 minutes and do some breathing exercises to bring stress levels back down and get out of that sympathetic nervous state. 3. Avoid multi-tasking. For me, pandemic home working means a LOT of video conference calls which brings with it the temptation to continue working on other tasks, answering emails etc in the background. This uses a lot more cognitive energy than just focusing on the call or just competing the task. So try and do one thing at a time. Skip non essential meetings!

[@RUNDMC1]

Great tips Jack - thank you for the support!

[@emilyb5557]

Congratulations on building up, really great for others to read that you have managed, but done so slowly slowly. Good solid tips esp that ten minutes break. You get more than ten minutes productive time back on return.

[@helenuk9582]

Really useful advise, thank you

[@ruthwalton3457]

This is so similar to post sepsis syndrome in so many ways .my gp doesn't even recognise it so I am out on my own . The brain fog is so bad at times and the physical issues is compjetelybfrustrating. I used to be able to do so much. I am praying hard for anyone with long term affects I hope you all get well soon 🙏

[@RUNDMC1]

Thank you Ruth!

[@SA77888]

What is sepsis syndrome............will it go away??? My fear with this long covid is that it will never go away and this is just my new life now.........which is what Im starting to think after a year and a half.

[@traceydiamonddesigns]

The hard part is when your gp isn't "believing" or recognizing that people are experiencing what they are, so are made to feel as if it is in their heads... so medical no support leads to no support with how to slowly return or modify it

[@emilyb5557]

That's a really big issue, and sadly mirrors experience of ppl with ME/CFS over the years. It can be worth taking the NICE Long covid guidelines to your GP where it states referral criteria for clinics. Push for a referral or at least a diagnosis based on criteria. Note that Access to Work grant and the mental support support Able futures & Remploy (If relevant) can be accessed without a firm diagnosis.

[@Beekind799]

@@emilyb5557 drink the miracle mineral solution it ends most post viral conditions in less than 12 hours,they are all caused by the same thing,dead viral debris in the system what their weak immune system cant expel ,mms clears all the dead viral debris out of the system inless than 12 hours ,low atp levels coming from low glutathione levels is the root cause of these conditions,its a nutritional deficiency issue, americans are in real trouble their toxic gm food chain is killing them,theres no chance of recovery if they keep eating the same food that has made them sick and weak,

[@sethsonofgod7215]

To bad I was dealing with Long Haul Syndrome since May 2020 and I had exhausted all of my vacation and sick time and my job gave me an ultimatum to come back to work or lose my job… so unfortunately because I was so sick I lost my job because I wasn’t able to go back. This whole thing is just so sad.

[@Beekind799]

i see the miracle mineral solution ends long covid in les than 12 hours the cost of the miracle 7.69 uk pounds or take ivermectin and zinc

[@MrDogonjon]

Go back to your employer and threaten them with breathing you pestilent covid breath in their face or hire you back they are wrong and know it. Stand up to them let them know the facts and they are due for their own retribution.

[@MrDogonjon]

I diagnosed my bosses long covid symptoms and gave him an exercise that caused immediate relief to his bilateral paralysis through Vagal Nerve stimulation. We do a lot of research on our selves and your boss has symptoms for sure so share what you know and let them know with regularity what you are learning, where you learn it from and keep an e-mail record of your communications with them including links to the data bases that provide the best results. By the end of this year the longest covid cases will have the upper hand on how to manage symptoms and every work place will be have a data base of disease mitigation stratigy which includes personal input from suffering employees.

[@jesseashby659]

I've been fired as well and hired an employment attorney because of this nightmare

[@sethsonofgod7215]

@@jesseashby659 it truly is a nightmare and people still don’t believe us. It’s just overwhelming.

[@emimage]

Personal experience: I contracted Covid back in December 2020. Moderate Covid symptoms (testing positive PCR, laid in bed for 3 weeks straight, no appetite). After 3 weeks I tested negative (PCR) but my heart rate was all over the place, had anxiety, shortness of breathe doing remedial tasks. I had a resting HR of 40ish and when standing can reach up to 140. Since then, I struggled with it but went back to medical basics (with a bunch of blood serum, imaging [ct, xray, mri, ultrasound] and echo tests). Started aerobic exercises again, changed my whole dietary consumption practices -- at the time i contracted Covid I was overweight, since then I lost 35 lbs and eating WAY better than I did pre-covid bout. I also started walking then running outside for vitamin d and resolving the physical deconditioning. I recently took the blood serum tests for inflammation since last time (period of 6 months since contracting covid) and everything is back to normal (LFTs, ggt, c-protein, ect.). I could probably run a 5K straight without losing my breathe but have since taken up boxing in my spare time. This worked for me with the help of a bunch of specialists all the while working a 40+ hr work week, not physically demanding, but mentally strenuous work. Hopefully my experience can serve as worthwhile information for others, but everyone's body is different and I'm not your GP/PCP. Stay safe and quick recoveries to all.

[@MrDjEXPOSED]

My experience is very similar to yours but I got it January 1st. Everything went away in 3-5 months. Now I'm exercising and keeping the diet strong! Good for you dude!👏🏽👏🏽😌

[@faith_over_fear8896]

What helped your racing heart.

[@emimage]

@@MrDjEXPOSED stay strong!

[@emimage]

@@faith_over_fear8896 surprisingly running and probably eating a clean, low carb diet. As a caveat, this worked for me, no guarantees. Stay safe!

[@faith_over_fear8896]

@@emimage I've been afraid to run, even climbing stairs sometimes makes it race. Did yours race at first when running

[@gaelicjane1613]

Thanks for this really helpful information. I've been unwell since March 2020. Tried to return to work twice last year, then managed working from home (just) but a year on I have been exhausted & frazzled by the end of every week. I'm now trying a phased reduced hours spell but they seem to think I'll be "normal" after 4 weeks. It's frightening to be affected like this for so long when I was healthy before covid. I wish anyone else in the same position my best wishes for a full recovery one day.

[@RUNDMC1]

Thanks Jane. Best of luck with your recovery!

[@olgasantiago-agirlfriendsguide]

Assistance in the US would Be helpful. My savings is almost gone after supplementing my income for almost a year now. I have extreme amount of pain in my lower extremities and can barely walk, making it difficult to shower or go to the restroom, much less cook for myself. My cognitive function is terrible. When I did return to work, for a while, from home, I was making lots of errors and forgetting things. Also, my brain confusion got worst-I relapsed quite a bit. I can barely get out of bed because I get so tired plus I have insomnia again. I am grateful that my heart and lungs are doing much much better! At least from what I can feel.

[@jesseashby659]

This is exactly where I am too. Single mom with very little outside help, terrified about my future as my finances are down to nothing and still not able to juggle what being a full time working single mom really takes. I was a 911 dispatcher for years and raised my daughter on my own with very little troubles but now I don't know if I'm even parenting at the level my child deserves. I'm not sure what my future looks like.

[@chrys.k.mwarriorsofpiathos1501]

I'm trying to work out a 16 hour library job of 4 days of 4 hours. My flairs are horrible but as I said I always go back to my tongue to remind my amygdala that I am not dying.

[@ruthwalton3457]

Huge hugglies. I hope your healthh improves very soon for you 🙏 it is very hard fighting your own body x

[@faith_over_fear8896]

What does that mean?

[@ruthwalton3457]

@@faith_over_fear8896 4 days with 4 hours each day TOTAL 16

[@emilyb5557]

Does it help to put an hours break in the middle of the 4hrs? Worth considering. Often our instinct is to push through and get home. At uni I found a place to sleep part way through the day. Turned out other students used it when hungover!! Aim not to incr hours but to reduce the impact/flare.

[@chrys.k.mwarriorsofpiathos1501]

@@emilyb5557 I would presume so, I like many other of us are still trying to juggle life with our new disability. If not for RUN-DMC we would all be lost with misinformation especially what "medical specialist and media say"

[@allTheRobs]

Loads of useful advice! Thank you so much. Hadn't considered alternate days, but it makes so much sense.

[@RUNDMC1]

Thanks Rob!

[@susannekoch697]

Thank you so much for all your videos! I find them so helpful and I keep forwarding them to friends, family and my employer to help them understand Long Covid. So helpful and encouraging. Thank you. I am five months into my LC journey.

[@amandamorris5449]

This was really interesting and informative. Thank you

[@RUNDMC1]

Thank you Amanda!

[@ionamarshallmusic]

Thank you so much for this. Your videos are the main source of information for me on Long Covid. I've shared them quite a bit. The topics you cover always come at the right time for me. I hope you and everyone on here are recovering and just keep going but rest too. Thanks again. Iona

[@RUNDMC1]

Thank you Iona! I’m so glad to be able to help in some way :)

[@boxerdogmum583]

Thank you for this guys. I’m feeling the love now from this video ❤️. I’m going to practise driving to work a few times for a coffee with colleagues before deciding I can start my phased return.

[@RUNDMC1]

Very good idea!

[@emilyb5557]

Great idea! Slowly does it. It also gets those initial conversations and questions dealt with before your phased return.

[@lesliec8069]

Jenny, I did not realize you were on here. Good job! Great information shared by all! Thank you.

[@swifthorsewalking634]

I read many comments from those who have to return to work...can't imagine working at all with this. I really feel for you! Here in the U.S. all the extra help (such as it was) is ending soon (eviction moratorium ends today) and Congress has gone on vacation. The private health insurance companies and other corporations have this country by the throat and are strangling us. One party is doing all it can to block any help the few true politicians for the people are trying to provide to the non-wealthy (Single payer healthcare, for instance...). And people vote for the Stranglers.... Lemmings running over a cliff. Can't think about it...stress is bad for us.

[@headfullofmusic422]

the hardest thing is when you work/boss strongly believes you are suffering from a burnout7depression and want you go back to work asap, long covid isnt even on their radar, instead they blame the fatigue on your psyche which only adds more stress and pressure on you...:(

[@RUNDMC1]

Have a look at my most recent film - so sorry to hear you’re struggling with support from your employer.

[@MrDogonjon]

Look them straight in the eyes and ask them. "are my eyes pink?" they say yes... do this every week...

[@MrDogonjon]

I smoke weed. it relieves most symptoms (nausia, pain, fatigue) to the point I can work. It is also a good excuse for my chronic pink eye which when I stop smoking gets so bad I can't see and the capillaries in my eyeballs rupture...compared to other symptoms it doesn't hurt that bad but it looks terrifying to customers.

[@carolenmarch7445]

Good solid, advice for those stricken by LC, Especially pertinent as several are in recovery themselves. The most difficult bit will be mapping out hour own recovery pathway and sticking to it. Great advice on workplace adjustments and advice /help on applying for PIP. All the very best to you you all! PS looking much better Gez.

[@RUNDMC1]

Thank you Carol!

[@ezzyb728]

Thanks for this ❤

[@RUNDMC1]

You're so welcome!

[@kiwipics]

When to go back ... I went back to work 7 weeks after coming out of ICU. There isn't an option not to return working in the NHS.

[@Anamaria-ew8lh]

It should be stated that long covid really exists, as a disease, because many doctors and employers are saying this is just in our heads (this was my case, too). In my country, there are very few discutions about long covid - an unknow illness for the health "specialists". Thank you for sharing your experiences! I followed the protocol from FLCCC for recovery and I feel better now, but working after Covid was very hard for me. Employers think that you do it on pourpose, that you are lazy, or negligent, as the medical response is uncertain.

[@RUNDMC1]

Our next film is on this very subject - of psychologisation of illness!

[@amandamorgan7049]

Greetings from New Zealand!This was very interesting and there were some ideas which I can apply to my situation. However it was very much focused on those returning to an existing job. Is it possible to have some advice for people who lost their employment due to long Covid and are looking for/negotiating a new job with an employer who hasnt known them as they were pre-Covid? Also addressing the self-doubt that comes with being unemployed for a long time? Thank you Gez for all your efforts and commitment to making these videos - outstanding! How many videos have you made up till now?

[@RUNDMC1]

It’s over 100!

[@angelaquesnel7546]

Really great tips. This will be helpful to so many people.

[@RUNDMC1]

Thanks Angela!

[@ThirdEyeAwake]

I keep trying to go back to work but I keep catching illness!!! Don’t ignore the possibility that you could be immunocompromised and vulnerable to infection.

[@MrDogonjon]

Or that there is no immunity and we are all being infected over and over again. The specialist like to call it what ever their specialty is. For immunologist it is autoimmune disease... for nutritionists its vitimin D and Niacin deficiency, for neurologists its leaky capillaries in your head and for psychologists its just in your head. I think they are all mostly wrong about almost every thing. I think it is persistent viral infection as the flavor and duration of symptoms fits with incubation, shedding and infection cycles. Immunity lasts for about a week them the next infection sets up it's evil shop and the torture continues again.

[@MrDogonjon]

Much depends on the type of work how much you need your brain to do it, the location, stress, emotions and durability of other coworkers, guests and general public. one of my jobs is working out doors with people in all sorts of weather and they have a range of responses from pure joy to full on panic meltdown. It takes a keen wit and split second ability to crack the right joke on time while guiding through hazardous terrain and conditions narrowly avoiding death. Physically assisting rescues, belays and repels into steep chutes is out of the question. cracking a bad joke at the wrong time is just as deadly. It's much easier to cashier, being able to sit, cracking jokes that need no time stamp, making change, small talk and credit transactions. I can do that even on my bad days when my stiff neck creeped up into my brain giving me a stiff brain. I could not think clearly and the pain... pain was mind numbing but I could still show up for work. Except for the days when I was so deeply embedded into my matress and into the earth I couldn't even call in sick through the painful delirium. tell your boss what your condition is how it affects your work what the periodic relapses do over time. schedules are useless during extended bouts. day by day assessment is required to determine which days are workable. During the bad months no work is possible so don't even try and don't feel guilty or blame your self. trying to soldier on and be a good wage slave puts you at risk of deeper immersion into time dilations and that much gravitational gradient crushes you very flat which hurts time shuffles forwards then backwards you think you are late for work but it is still the day before... then it's tomorrow... and back to today... very confusing and disturbing easy to panic about....

[@kellyschroeder7437]

Like the video and input. It needs updating. Just wish those in USA were doing similar videos. 💞💙💙

[@smoupnhoize]

I'm curious how job protection works in the UK. Do those people who have been unable to RTW since early in the pandemic still have their job? Have they been fired?

[@ruthwalton3457]

Not sure . I was ill before with post sepsis syndrom and got no help from anywhere including gp. My guesscuscufvyou arecwuth a good company then you will be lucky but after 12 months i think they have no obligation but might have changed

[@mjenks85]

I feel like everyone hear since march 2020. I never got tested but coukdnt breath was extremely sick. Now i got an autoimmune disease nobody beleives me. I feel like fainting at work still. I just want my life back but since i never got a pos test i get treated like its in my head. Im so frustrated. I remember haveing purple lips, panic attacks, doing breathing exercises to breath like yesterday. Nobobdy will help our listen. This is hell. Gratefull to be alive. Wish i would have tested but i was to sick to wait in line. It was early march so testing really wasnt a thing. Anyone in the same boat as me? My boss says i never had it well i know i certainly did.

[@Evajkpg]

Even if this was very much info for an english audience it still gives some suggestions on where you actually (or maybe for us in Sweden) can find help. English authorities seems to much more a head on this than here in Sweden. Thank you again.

[@RUNDMC1]

It’s a pleasure Eva!

[@megsarna7429]

Thank you for all your efforts, initiative, time to bring awareness & possible road to recovery. for cv long haulers.

[@RUNDMC1]

Thank you Meg!

[@galanthusnivalis788]

UK Erlangen treated 3 patients from Long Covid. 2 are back to normal within days and 1 severe case showed increasing improvement within weeks. All with Autoantibody-neutralizing drug in development.

[@RUNDMC1]

BC007?

[@galanthusnivalis788]

Yes BC007, Berlin Cures, against 7 Autoantibodies

[@marieparker3822]

Helpful. Thanks.

[@richardmock3198]

Thanks everyone 😁👍

[@RUNDMC1]

Thanks Richard!

[@mayankbitsful]

What the difference between cfs and major depression?

[@TheBushRanger.]

About 50 symptoms

[@mayankbitsful]

@@TheBushRanger. I agree

[@Leadoff_hitter]

Finally I’m not alone

[@neverseenblue11]

I start a new job next week and I'm terrified. I'm afraid of heart palpitations, but I'm going to try to make it through!

[@RUNDMC1]

Try and use one or two of the tips from this video!

[@neverseenblue11]

I'm going to. Thanks!

[@patriciabryant8892]

@@neverseenblue11 Best of luck Samantha - have you started your treatment protocol yet?

[@emilyb5557]

Hope you have support & plans on how to adjust or respond to challenges. Maybe think of the palpitations as your hearts way of saying knock knock reminder from your body to slow down, breath, take a break if you can?

[@Beekind799]

drink the miracle mineral solution it ends most post viral conditions in less than 12 hours the cost of the miracle 7.69 uk pounds or take ivermectin and zinc ,yeah yeah i am still spamming ,

[@harryboby7563]

How are you getting on these days Gez??

[@RUNDMC1]

Not having a good one today but then the weekend was WAY too busy with no breaks. I’m not out of the woods yet 🙈

[@J.T.Poconos]

Great video

[@RUNDMC1]

Legend

[@ruthwalton3457]

Pip is a nightmare . You have to appeal their refusals

[@emilyb5557]

It really is a nightmare. Knowing how to fill in the forms, which is not at all promoted by the design of the forms can help. Benefits & work website has great resources on this and Fight back for Justice can help with appeals. Thankfully Access to work is a much more supportive process despite also being DWP run.

[@karenmcdonnell4337]

[@simonwanclips]

Is it me or is that dude getting more sexier

[@RUNDMC1]

More sexier. 112%

[@asadik76]

@@RUNDMC1 who are we talking about here?

[@carolenmarch7445]

Hour =your

[@susannekoch697]

Thank you so much for all your videos! I find them so helpful and I keep forwarding them to friends, family and my employer to help them understand Long Covid. So helpful and encouraging. Thank you. I am five months into my LC journey.

[@RUNDMC1]

Best of luck to you in your recovery Susanne!