My Experience as a COVID Long-Hauler: Slow & Rocky Recovery

In this video I talk about the slow and grueling recovery associated with being a COVID long-hauler. The recovery was characterized by unpredictable symptoms occurring from day-to-day, sometimes even hour-to-hour, leaving me effectively disabled on-and-off for about 3 months, followed by many more months with limited ability to function.
Numerous new symptoms appeared during the long recovery and subsequent relapses, including loss of smell, many different types of chest pain, and mucus production that occasionally got bad enough to develop into a productive cough.
This video picks up where my first video leaves off; if you want to watch it, it talks about the acute phase of the illness:
• My Experience With COV...

[@radicr]

Thanks for sharing. I am 2 months with covid, currently having short breath issues, burning sensation and pain in the chest. I know what you went through and I am glad you are getting over it. Hopefully I will get better as well, but I feel it’s long way ahead of me.

[@AlexZorach]

Thank you! I think you will get there too; I'm in a couple support groups and have talked to a ton of other people whose recoveries were slow, but we all do get better over time. I was in pretty rough shape earlier in the recvery, but now (past 10 months) I have some days I feel symptom-free for half the day or more. However, it is a much slower healing process than with a lot of other illnesses. Hang in there!

[@darrenfoy6079]

Thanks for sharing hope your still on way to recovery, I am having exactly the same issues, to the letter, thank you for giving me the reason to fight on God bless you bro x

[@dtla5052]

Thank you for sharing ❤ We are suffering daily with you. God bless you, wish you good health 🙏 You are litteraly describing my experience. I had these "relapses" twice so far. I went to get tested but they came back negative. Over 2 months later and the symptoms are still random from day to day. But the fatigue, stomach and chest pains are pretty much daily. Lately my left eye has been so irritated.Taking it one day at a time. Sometimes one breath at a time.

[@joanfrellburg4901]

I gotta say you're a genius the way you describe the symptoms and how it affects you. I think we're all going to hell in a handbasket, but I'm going to pretend it isn't happening.

[@davids.1933]

Thanks for sharing brother. I've had covid for 11 days now, and I too thought that either a person dies or gets better in two weeks. Then, I've been seeing all these articles about "long haulers," and I can't help but to think I could be one. All the same symptoms...and that weird dry, but sometimes productive, cough is irritating. I found a Doctor to give me Ivermectin for 5 days and its extremely helpful! But that's just my own personal experience and not telling anyone to get it.

[@AlexZorach]

If you're only on day 11 there is a possible chance that you will recover much more easily / quickly. I've known several people whose cases dragged out 14 days, maybe 2 weeks or even 3, but then they fully recovered after that. Still though I'd be cautious about easing back into activity very gradually because, at least for me, overexertion seemed like it may have triggered my earlier relapse. Hang in there, I hope you get better soon and that your recovery is easier than mine!

[@JuniorKymusic]

Hi Alex, How are you getting on these days? I hope you made a full recovery. Very insightful video!

[@AlexZorach]

Thanks. I'm feeling great! After about a year and a half. I wouldn't say I'm symptom free but I'd say I'm feeling symptom free maybe 2/3rds of the time and the rest of the time there is really only a very faint sensation of irritation with my breathing. All the other symptoms are gone. I'm sure I'll feel 100% soon...it's SOOO close.

[@dtla5052]

@@AlexZorach Wonderful! You give hope to us

[@girlinahat3407]

Dispite the survival rate this sounds like a really debilitating disease.

[@AlexZorach]

Yeah. It is rough, at least for a certain portion of people. There are a lot of people in the 30-50 age group that get hit with cases like mine or worse, and some people in younger and older age groups who do too. It's also important to understand that the degree of severity of cases is wildly variable, both in the acute phase and in the recovery. Some people have worse cases than mine but recover faster. Some people have milder cases but recover slower. I think one of the dangers here is that people see mild cases and people making speedy recoveries, and they don't get the full picture of how debilitating it can be for some people.