Is it just me... is anyone else wondering if the thyroid has been affected by it?
All these people describing chest pain, anxiety, terrible fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, brain fog etc etc.
Sounding very familiar. Granted, a stint in ITU will take months to get over but....
Bet no ones checked their thyroid function.
Very good point
And all the doctors replied......."what's a thyroid?.... can anybody remember what it's for......i was off that day"
😂😂
I was listening to the dr on the BBC, talking about this terrible fatigue and how people will just have to adjust their lives accordingly until they van get back to normal, take it easy, rest a lot... everyone’s path back to health will be different.
He was describing how they are aware of how incredibly difficult all these people were finding it, how long and debilitating their fatigue symptoms were.....
And I’m screaming at the tv “HELLO!!” Every person on this forum has suffered like this at some point and it’s not until Some fancy bloody virus comes along and they begin to buy into the idea that all this suffering exists.
No disrespect to anyone who’s had Covid, we’ve been lucky to miss it and I accept that but waken up health professionals - these kind of ongoing, non specific Symptoms are not unique or new!
Radio 5 live had a phone in about the 'long covid' folk the other day, and this guy Paul Garner was on;
blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/1...
blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/06/2...
"I am reading materials about pacing and CFS/ME and listening to the CFS/ME community. I am taken aback that doctors have been so dismissive of what these patients have been saying for so long"
The 27 comment's are worth a read.
Paul Garner is Professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is Director of the Centre for Evidence Synthesis in Global Health and Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group.
Also on was an ICU Doctor, Jake Sewitt(?Stewart).
Both these guy's have now got ME type problems after covid/suspected covid (turns out even ICU doctors couldn't get a timely test!)
They mentioned the following are getting involved;
Long Covid Support Group (facebook)
Chartered Society of Physiotherapists
British Lung Foundation
ME Trust
NHS England online portal -Your Covid Recovery.
Ooh, maybe, maybe a positive outcome of this will be that someone will discover that cfs doesn’t bloody exist and it’s attributable to... Something. Being. Wrong! 🙄
I can't decide whether to be optimistic that thousand's of post covid M-Etype sufferers, will bring about a change in thinking and acknowledgement, ...................................... or whether to feel really sorry for these people (especially the ones who never had test for covid and weren't sick enough to be hospitalised,- the ICU doctor above wasn't ).... as inevitably the language changes from belief to doubt, and they start being referred to as 'mysterious, unexplained, phenomenon, with vague symptoms,for whatever reason,never had a positive covid test, suffering from anxiety and depression, etc. etc.......... and they slowly find out what it's like when 14 weeks turns into 14 yrs.
I hope they do get better, if they do i expect it will take longer than they would like, but if they don't, life may be kinder for this group because it happened to them all at the same time , so at least they might 'believe in themselves' even if they end up in the 'fatigue' bin under the doctors desk.
Agreed.
Maybe I should have made that clear. I’m on now way “happy” that these people are potentially going to have long term suffering. I really hope as you say that they recover. Maybe as jim111 said, it’s low T3 syndrome and they will recover naturally given time.
But, the more people who suffer from a cfs type syndrome - especially when it can be identified or presumed to have been caused by Covid, can only help the many thousands who are already suffering with no one believing them or at least believing it can be “fixed” somehow 😉
I found his email and briefly suggested he look at his thyroid .He sent me a brief but polite reply indicating that he might be begining to "get it " .His email is easy to find via google.
Took the thoughts right out of my head. I’ve been feeling quite miffed at all this focus on a month or two of post-Covid symptoms, I mean try 10 years or more and let’s see if anyone’s still interested in you then. Incidentally my 15 year old son’s lingering Covid symptoms (he wasn’t tested but was very sick for at least a month with all symptoms in early March) cleared up when I put him on the vit D protocol (D, K2, mag) plus zinc, and he was taking vit C throughout.
Also there was an article in the Times today about “long haulers” focused around Dr Dolman. Call me cynical but is this focus stemming from the number of doctors affected? Of course they’ve put their lives on the line, and form a large cohort of Covid survivors as well as many who sadly died, and they will undoubtedly be believed more easily when it comes to ongoing symptoms versus you or I. A quote from Dr Dolman “there are millions of people in this country who live with chronic illness all the time, and it’s always good professionally to experience some of that, and I’m sure I’ll be a better doctor for this eventually. But at the moment? It’s quite hard.”
My point exactly.
Not to derive any pleasure from others suffering as already mentioned, but now that quite a number of doctors are affected, might we expect to see some action? Some belief that they aren’t just lazy, unmotivated nutters making their symptoms up instead of cracking on with life?
That would be a good outcome. And if it proves to be T3 related then even better.
Like you though I can’t help but sneer at the tv and be completely unsympathetic!
Could be low T3 syndrome, happens after many serious illnesses. Will be interesting to see if they recover and when.
I wouldn’t like to be in their shoes....
It was clear 
don't worry, i don't think you're a sadist!
Actually i mean 'indulging in shardenfroider' but as you can see i cant spell in German, and 'sadist ' is the closest i can think of today.....foggy brain and all that
To be helpful (not critical): schadenfreude
For anyone who didn't know, this means pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
Thanku.... Yes, that's the one i was aiming at. I managed some correct letters in the right order, and made the rest up.
I understood! So it can't have been all bad.
The thing is . TFT's arn't reliable in acute illness, because of NTI (Non Thyroidal Illness) or Euthyroid Sick syndrome.... so they won't be looking at results in hospital. But it would be interesting to see what happens to Ft3 during recovery......... Shame they are actively discouraged from doing an FT3 test.
TFTs??
sorry ... Thyroid Function Tests ie TSH/FT4/FT3
Of course! Duh 🙄
As a suspected covid long hauler myself (almost 4 months in), i might be able to shed some light. The range of symptoms people are experiencing and the relapsing nature that sometimes feels more periodic than exertion induced makes me think there is something still much more closely linked to the virus going on. There might still be some active virus or the body may be only slowly recovering, potentially dysfunctionally, from the original viral assault and inflammation. Many are experiencing CFS type symptoms in addition, which is not surprising given the energy drain on the body of fighting for so long. In time it might be that people are just left with the CFS symptoms. I think we have a fantastic opportunity at the moment to encourage research in post viral / CFS type conditions and to raise awareness of the poor support for chronic illness. I still fear that attempts will be made to brush it under the carpet yet again.
I agree, it's very likely covid will still be having effects for a long time in some folk, given how many systems it's attacking/inflaming.
However......"The range of symptoms people are experiencing and the relapsing nature that sometimes feels more periodic than exertion induced "
I don't want to worry you more than you already are, but this is true of Me/cfs too.
I also worry about the 'brush it under the carpet again' problem, at least in relation to those who don't get a positive test for covid.
The welfare/ benefit system simply can't afford to pay out for a chronic condition that 'anyone can say they have', because of the fear that there's no way to sort those who are unable to work from those who are unwilling, and so unless there's a test for it they can't allow it to happen.
But i am hopeful that some research and recognition may now be done on Long Covid sufferers, if they don't get better in a few more months.
Sending you all good hopes for a full recovery, be kind to yourself while you're getting there, and i know it's impossible sometimes..... but don't push too hard...... you just get knocked on your ass again. Stop before you want too, especially when you feel good. rest a bit , then carry on. Progress overall is quicker this way.
Thanks tattybogle. I guess my point is not that this is different to what gets labelled as PVFS, which is after all just a name, but that many people are still experiencing either the same symptoms as early on sometimes at the same intensity or other organ related issues that have been directly attributed to covid infection like kidney pain etc. It feels for many like the virus is still there. It may or may not be as the symptoms are driven by the immune response rather than the virus directly. Have you heard any plausible explanation for what might cause periodic, rather than exertion related relapses? A lot of people are relapsing at the 16 week point. Even some who have been well for several weeks. Everyone in my family remain symptomatic, including my primary age kids. We all tend to relapse following the same pattern, which cannot be tied to what we have been doing.
Yes , i see. I haven't read of the 16 week pattern, but i did hear a lot of the 'mild symptoms in first few days, think you've got over the worst of it, 7 days later suddenly in real trouble' pattern. I reckon it's a tricky little beastie, it seems to be forcing intensive care medic's to re-assess lot's of thing's they thought they knew.
Hopefully if you are all getting the same phases of relapsing, you will also get the same phases of recovering. Try and stay focused on enjoying the the 'Two steps forward', and don't worry about the 'one step back'.
Best Wishes
As well as wondering if thyroid problems occur in people who have had long-term covid-19 I have also wondered about whether the virus strips some people of nutrients - but I doubt whether many people have been tested. And even if they have I'm sure anyone whose results are in range will be considered to be "fine".
And all the Doctor's said......"what's a nutrient ?"
😂
Research suggesting vitamin D, magnesium and B12 all help improve Covid outcomes
thesun.co.uk/news/11836283/...
But what are the chances of the medics actually advising this.... 🤔
None ...because they aren’t expensive pharmaceutical medications
Yes I have been feeling all the above and seems to be worse than ever !
I’ve been saying this to anyone who’ll listen. I would imagine it’s temporary (but how long is a piece of string?) but that if it was recognised and Vit/mineral supplements were supported then maybe they’d recover their thyroid function quicker and I really hope that it does recover. I don’t understand why the link isn’t made. Not just with Covid but all illnesses.
Fatigue but normal weight
Fatigue
Hypothyroid, adrenal fatigue and Candida
Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome specialist private or NHS in the midlands
Chronic fatigue syndrome 
