After being felled by the flu and covid vaccines, and then 14 days later getting covid, as well as a fair amount of 'big events' happening at the same time I am still struggling.
I am now only 16 days post testing negative for covid but my mental health absolutely tanked while I had covid and I'm improved but still struggling.
I'm unable to stay awake later than 8:30pm but I'm waking at 4am so my sleep cycle has gone all out of whack but I've had at least 3 occasions in the last fortnight where I've fallen asleep at 6pm and not woken until 6am.
I also have a really heavy stomach, like it's been lined with lead. If I'm not concentrating on it I could wretch all day long. I've got zero appetite and when I do eat I can't manage the portions I usually do so I'm losing weight. I'm finding things that wouldn't usually bother me are now difficult to tolerate, like tea. Sob. I don't know if its the milk, the caffeine, or the heat.
Weirdly is more tolerable when I'm lying down; once I stand up I start feeling heavy again and walk hunched over.
I also know that this is a recurring thing; when I think of the times I've been stressed the stomach issues were always there.
So I'm trying to figure out which came first... am I anxious/stressed and that causes some stomach inflammation
OR
Is something causing the stomach inflammation which is making me feel anxious/stressed?
I know it’s not quite the same as you’re describing but I was off my food for weeks after Covid. And I love my food, so it was the weirdest thing ever. Everything left me feeling sick and I couldn’t eat anywhere near as much as usual. I also went right off tea!
It's awful. It's starting to get me down because I'm just 100% not hungry and eating makes me feel sick but I also know that by not eating I'm not helping myself.
Tea is the glue that holds my life together. When I can't drink it I'm all at sea! 😆
I know, I really struggled with it! I’m a little teapot normally.
The good news is that it does right itself—I can’t quite remember when it did, it was definitely a few weeks before it did.
I can only assume it’s actually linked to the loss of smell thing that many people got during the first rounds of Covid. I only lost my sense of smell for a few hours during the worst of it but it may have caused the problem I think.
It’s a nasty b*stard of a virus. So so many people have tried to compare it to a cold, made out all the drama was an over-reaction etc. But I’m the queen of colds (had so so many!) and it was no cold.
It doesn’t help right now I know but hopefully it’s a little bit reassuring that what you’re going through isn’t uncommon when it comes to Covid recovery. xx
My BIL got covid during the first lockdown and has never regained his sense of smell. Strangely it was his only symptom. His wife works for the NHS and its only due to that that they managed to get a test. Without it neither even knew they had covid.
I am in the US, my niece is a teacher who had covid. She was sick and slept constantly for the 5 days her school allowed her off. She had to go back after and just dragged herself for another two weeks. She got way behind because she was so tired after work she just went to bed but would be up around midnight grading papers. She is finally starting to feel better after 6 weeks but far from normal. She said she had never been so sick, she was sure without vaccines she would have been hospitalized. A friends son said it was 6 months before he felt normal or as close to it, he still doesn't have full energy. Hang in there.
I don't think I can put this down to the jab. Had the flu jab at the same time.
Plus the symptoms are recurring, going back decades!
yeh tea tasted vile when I had Covid, it was months before I wanted another cup. It took me over 3 weeks to get off the sofa and about 3 months to feel some semblance of normality. Any busyness or exertion would put me back. My daughter had it 18 months ago and still thinks limes smell of bin juice. Son hasn’t fully regained taste. Take it steady 💚
Bluepettals2, I’m sorry, I should perhaps have phrased things differently but I personally don’t buy into the idea that Covid jabs have done anything except prevent more serious illness. That’s my take, you have every right to have yours.
No one’s ever said Covid jabs prevent Covid. That’s not how they work. But I do believe they prevent more severe illness when you catch it and I don’t for a second think there’s any need to detox from a jab.
And the jab didn’t make me ill. Covid on the other hand did make me more poorly than I’ve been in many years.
just like jazzy, after I had Covid my taste/stomach took about 6- months to recover. Like you, I’d had flu & Covid jab, then caught Covid (at beginning of this year). I was told to drink lots of ginger tea - which made sense to me as my symptoms were really similar to the terrible morning sickness I had when pregnant with twins.
I really didn’t feel like eating at all and I’m one of those Graves’ sufferers that doesn’t hold weight so can’t really afford to loose any. However I didn’t make myself eat, but stuck to eating small amounts and only what I felt like. I also found swimming helpful as the sickness feeling wasn’t there when I swam and it helped improve my appetite.
Ultimately I went to the Kinesiologist who knows me well and he gave me homeopathic stuff to cleanse the toxins he felt came from the vaccines ... it did seem to help but I may have been on the way to recovery.
I too was really miserable as I love food and cooking. But I tried not to focus on it and focus more on ‘what do I fancy to eat now’. It helped me not focus on the future, which felt bleak.
I have completely recovered but it did take about 6-months. Hang in there, it will get better 🙏
The below is what I would do. You don't need to reply to any if it. Just some things to mull over.
Not all vaccines suit everyone. The same for medications of course. I use medications in varying ways that seem to suit me at the time.
1. Report your reactions to the yellow card. Your GP should do that.
2. Look at the work of Dr Ray Peat. His articles, his interviews and maybe the forum. You could start with the ray Peat clips on YouTube.
3. You will improve but I think you're going to have to put some work in.
4. I got bronchiectasis from a virus in 2011 at a very stressed time in my life. Stress never improves health.
5. Yes your gut is hugely significant.
6. Rest as much as you can. Put yourself first. Don't overdo things. You now have a job to recover.
7. Keep your GP engaged with your situation.
8. Try to swap to easily digested foods. Ripe,sweet juicy fruits , cooked fruits. Eat seafood, a little liver, milk, cheese, homemade broth - put in soups. Fruit with a little cream is nice. If you like ice cream try Hagen Daaz vanilla. How about a milk shake home made. Don't be fearful to add sugar. You need energy at this point. You need things to taste delicious to improve the appetite.
Breads, pastries will hang around too long in the gut. But if you fancy a bit eat it!
Make a carrot salad - grate long ways, rinse under the tap until the water runs clear, drain, add salt, a little olive oil and vinegar to taste. Eat an hour away from food. In the mid afternoon is best. You can do a bulk grating a put it in the fridge and cover with fresh water.
9. Switch to smaller meals. If you can, eat fat, carbs and protein (however small) at each eating. Carbs being fruit not flour based products.
10. If you wake at night and can't get to sleep try to make the decision to accept it. You could get up and have a camomile tea with honey. Enjoy lying in the bed. This approach has made a huge difference to my stress levels.
11. God bless you and encouraging you on to see your recovery.
Interesting suggestions. What's the reason for the carrot salad and eating an hour away from food? Carrots are food, so I assume there's a reason to keep them away from other foods?
Acting as fibre. A clearing out......will clear out stress hormones too somewhat I believe. Generally aiding a better digestive system. Bowel movements once or more a day is desirable for good health. This will help that. Alternative would be cooked Bamboo shoots. Dr Ray Peat mentions things that are pro inflammatory so worth a listen for that reason.
This thread is making me wonder. I had the flu vac at the beginning of October about a week later I started with a dry tickly cough that eventually turned into a mucusy chesty cough that made me feel unwell. Still able to eat at this stage and smell and taste not impaired. Cough didn’t go away and then it all seemed to move into my nose and sinuses. Three weeks ago I lost my sense of smell and taste. Had a runny nose with loads of mucus all clear stuff. Felt awful sick and dizzy. Gradually got better and mucus slowly began to drain through my system. But still have haven’t regained my sense of smell and taste fully. Tummy feels heavy and sick a lot of the time and don’t fancy anything only eating small amounts. Tested several times over period of feeling unwell always a negative result. Cancelled my Covid booster as I felt so unwell didn’t want to add to my misery. Think I caught something shortly after flu jab and think maybe jab exacerbated it. At first it it felt like a cold in the throat and I thought maybe being hypothyroid made it worse who knows 🤷🏻♀️. Have still got a slight cough and supposed to be having my Covid booster tomorrow. Friend thinks I should delay again until I’m fully recovered. Does this sound something like you’ve had Witchinghour? I thought I was the only one to be suffering this as no one else I know has had it so bad.
When I had the dreaded Covid in 2020 and ended up in hospital for 10 days, my appetite went totally. I made myself eat ice cream and yoghurts in hospital and apart from water and the odd cup of coffee that is all I survived on. When I got home I had lost 10 kg in weight and still had no appetite so I asked my husband to get thick yoghurts and chocolate drops from the local shop. A bit of a strange mixture! That was what I started on, was I could eat 1 or 2 chocdrops every hour so as not to over tax my digestion. It took weeks for my digestion to get back to normal. Perhaps you could ask your GP for a prescription for Build ups? High nutrient drinks. Good luck, I'm sure you will be fine in a while.
I am so sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. My stomach is one of the first things to go off too with ANY virus and it sort of locks up as well which doesn't help matters at all. And always makes me very blue. So I pile in with the probiotics as soon as I get one. And have you already thought about relaxation breathing for the stress? If you can do it? Breathe in gently through nose for count of seven and then out gently through mouth for count of eleven. Every time you feel overwhelmed and for five minutes morning and night. Helps reduce the adrenalin/cortisol levels in the blood which, in turn, makes it easier to think straight and recognise/head off negative thought patterns. It's not much but it's free and it helps me when I'm stressed and catastrophising. It's so very hard to stay upright both mentally and physically with thyroid problems isn't it? So isolating. Thank goodness for Thyroid UK and this forum - at least we don't have to travel this trying path all alone any more.
Whenever I get really poorly, I end up with gastritis and the only thing that helps me when it gets to that stage is a gluten free diet and within a a couple of weeks I feel much better. I can slowly reintroduce gluten after that. It hasn't happened nearly so often since I started to take daily probiotics. Having said that, my digestive system hasn't been great for a while now and looking at blood results my absorption seems to have dropped so I think I need to consider a constant gluten free diet. I'm not coeliac but I've sent off blood for a food intolerance test so will see what that says. Hope you feel better quickly. 🙏
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Poor stress tolerance
Long Covid gut symptoms 
Leaky Gut and L Glutamine
Stress and hypothyroidism
