Post Covid / IBS

[Loulabelle1709]

I’m entering week 6 after having covid for the first time (so pleased to have avoided it for so long) and it seems to be really be playing havoc with my ibs & gi system 😭

It looks as though I have long covid (awaiting chest xray following blood tests) and I am finding my stomach has not returned to my “normal” since my first symptoms. Instead oh my usual level of nausea and gas etc everything seems to have been heightened / kicked up several gears. I am usually IBS-D however it now fluctuates between IBS-C & D along with more constant pain in my higher stomach / chest area. I’m finding myself taking my migraine anti nausea meds to help keep that away as much as possible and to get some sleep.

I am not sure if I was really after anything with this post other than a place to share and wonder if anyone else if having / had the same issues.

[Maureen1958]

Hi, I don't know if this will be of use but thought I would let you know of my experience. I wondered if I had Covid way back when it all kicked off without knowing it. My husband thinks he might have had it because he had met with friends who had been abroad and then went down with it. He woke up in the middle of night feeling like he was having trouble breathing. He didn't wake me because he didn't want to worry me. Next morning he was fine but did find he was getting out of breath when going out for his bikes rides immediately after this. It took about 2/3 months before he got back to normal! So it makes me wonder if I might have had it with no symptoms and that is what is causing the worsening of my IBS! I have had IBS for over 35 years and have always just about kept my head above water, but at present, I feel like I am drowning. I have generally had pain, or feeling sick or just the urgency to go to the loo. One of these wound have been the more predominant one for that particular day and I would try to do the right thing for that particular day. But now I am finding that I get all three symptoms together but they all seem so much stronger and basically I don't know which way to turn! It's like someone has turned up the volume and I just can't win anymore. The pain is so much worse than it was!

[Linley]

Hi! As we are all different, I will tell you my story. Dec 2019 I had one hell of a virus which hubby and I are now sure was Covid it knocked me out for a month and that's not like me. Saw my GP as I was still coughing a month later but surprise my chest was clear. During this time my IBS- d eased and more or less I forgot about it. Once I was better the dormant IBS came back😞 and I was back to where I started listening to my gut and deciding if it would be ok to go out for the day or not. Good luck with the x rays and let us know how you get on

[Hidden in reply to Linley]

I think our family had covid back in October 2019 but thought we all had bad colds!

[Fergie53 in reply to Linley]

I’ve had something similar as had Covid virus which has lasted for around 6 weeks but strangely my IBS improved, I think because it’s an autoimmune illness..

[Sparrow58]

Hi I think the virus attacks any weak spots in your body which in IBS is our guts. There has been a few posts on here saying IBS worse after covid. My son and his girlfriend are also suffering with long covid and are awaiting test results. They are in their late twenties and had covid back in Dec. They are so fed up feeling tired and having a feeling like their chest is being crushed. Take care x

[Hidden]

Hi I had covid in August last year and my stomach was affected almost straight away with diarrhoea and throughout the 10days I was ill for. Once the covid had gone my stomach wasn’t right for weeks after until it all suddenly settled and I went back to my normal IBS-C. It’s a nasty virus the coughing was awful didn’t think it would ever go. Hope you are feeling better soon

[Luisa22]

I had Covid in early April 2020, so that must have been the Wuhan one.

It didn't start my IBS, because I'd had couple of days spaced out by weeks with what in hindsight must have been IBS starting back in late 2017. And in 2018 one week of it. I didn't know it was ibs then.

But it had gone away for 2 years. But about 3 weeks before I came down with Covid, ibs came back, in an on-off pattern (6 days flares, 3 days normal, 9 days flares, then normal again etc).

When I did get Covid my gut seemed okay, though I had other symptoms of course, the worst being my breathing and heart related symptoms.

Anyway my gut was fine for the following 6 weeks while recovering.

Then just as my energy started to return, the ibs came back and has been on-off ever since. It has never gone away for very long since then.

I wonder if I also had some kind of long Covid because I got heart palpitations and skipped heartbeats and they haven't gone away. I had that even today =six missed beats in one minute when I took my pulse. It happens when I get tired.

I get times of utter fatigue as well which comes and goes. That happened since Covid.

I wonder (though don't know for sure) if Covid also affected my IBS and that's why it's been fairly constant since I recovered.

Many people do get gut related symptoms with Covid and not enough is said about that! It wasn't even prominent on the list of symptoms to watch out for.