Long COVID can significantly reduce your health and well-being. Unfortunately, little is known about long COVID and oftentimes, many people may even mistake their long COVID symptoms for another condition entirely. This is why understanding the wide range of symptoms is essential to seek proper long COVID diagnosis and treatment.
While long COVID symptoms vary on a patient-to-patient basis, there’s no denying that long COVID can be both physically and mentally draining on anyone, regardless of your specific set of symptoms. In this article, you’ll learn more about the 15 common side effects of long COVID so you can better understand if you’re suffering from long COVID.
What is Long COVID?
Before diving into the many side effects of long COVID, it’s important to briefly discuss what is long COVID. Long COVID, otherwise known as post-COVID, is when you continue to experience COVID symptoms for about 3 months or more after the initial onset of when you first contracted COVID-19. While it’s unknown why some people who get COVID-19 experience long COVID, while others do not, there’s no denying that long COVID can significantly reduce a person’s physical and mental health.
While some people with time see improvements in their long COVID symptoms, other people with long COVID may suffer from symptoms for several months, even years after initially getting a covid-19 infection.
Side Effects May Vary By Person
Long COVID symptoms also vary from patient to patient. While there are various common side effects of long COVID, some people may experience different and more severe symptoms relative to another person. Likewise, some patients may experience side effects that go away and come back, which is another thing to be aware of if you have or suspect you have long COVID.
Common Side Effects of Long COVID
If you have or suspect you have long COVID, here are some of the top 15 most common side effects of long COVID.
1. Fatigue
While we all get tired from time to time, many people suffering from long COVID suffer from chronic fatigue that doesn’t seem to have any explanation. Fatigue can manifest in several forms such as physically feeling tired and weak, or mentally feeling a lack of mental clarity and
sharpness that you once had. Recovering from COVID fatigue, especially long COVID, can vary and take potentially a long time to recovery from.
2. Chest & Joint Pain
Chest and joint pain are two common side effects of long COVID. While chest and joint pain can be linked to other conditions, if you currently don’t have any underlying condition that may be causing your pain, you may be suffering from joint and/ or chest pain and COVID.
3. Cough
Persistent COVID lingering cough is another side effect of long COVID. How long COVID cough symptoms last can vary by patient, with some patients experiencing cough symptoms for several months or more.
4. Shortness of Breath
Shortness of breath is another sign you may be suffering from long COVID. If you struggle to catch your breath, even with doing simple daily tasks that you used to be able to do with ease without experiencing shortness of breath before COVID-19, this may be a sign you have post COVID shortness of breath.
5. Loss of Taste and Smell
Loss of taste and/or smell is a common sign you have COVID-19, and it is also a common side effect of long COVID. If you’ve noticed a loss of taste after COVID, or a loss of smell, this may be a side effect you have long COVID.
6. Fever
Suffering from a fever is another sign that you may have long COVID. While you can certainly develop a fever from other underlying illnesses, if you previously had COVID-19 and don’t currently have any other underlying illnesses, this could be another indicator that you are suffering from long COVID.
7. Difficulty Thinking or Concentrating (“Brain Fog”)
Physical ailments aren’t the only side effects of long COVID. Various neurological side effects such as having a hard time thinking, paying attention, remembering things, or simply feeling like you are in a “brain fog” may be signs you are suffering from long COVID.
8. Muscle pain and weakness
Chronic muscle pain and overall weakness are other common side effects of long COVID. If you haven’t been suffering from any underlying condition or circumstance that could blame your muscle pain or weakness, and you had COVID-19 within the last couple of months, this is another sign you may have long COVID.
9. Digestive Problems
If you are having stomach issues that you didn’t use to have before getting COVID-19, this can be another side effect of having long COVID.
10. Sleep Problems
Experiencing sleep disturbances that you didn’t necessarily struggle with before contracting COVID-19 may be another side effect of having long COVID.
11. Dizziness
If you feel light-headed or dizzy, this may be another common side effect that you are suffering from long COVID.
12. Depression or anxiety
Suffering from long COVID can not only bring about feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, and hopelessness but can potentially worsen feelings of depression and anxiety.
13. Heart Palpitations
Experiencing a racing heartbeat or a pounding heart rate that is not triggered by strenuous exercise may be another sign you have long haul covid-19.
14. Insomnia
Although insomnia is a rather common sleep disorder, if you are struggling with insomnia and didn’t have a history of insomnia before contracting COVID-19, this may be another sign you have long COVID.
15. Headaches
Last but not least, while headaches can be caused by a variety of conditions and circumstances, if you frequently suffer from chronic headaches, and didn’t before contracting COVID-19, this may be a sign you have long COVID.
How Long Will I Have Long COVID?
Unfortunately, understanding how long COVID cough last and other long COVID symptoms is largely unknown. Some patients may experience improvements naturally with time, while other patients may struggle with long COVID for several months, if not years. Additionally, some patients may notice signs of improvements on their own, but then symptoms may return. Therefore, long COVID is rather unpredictable in terms of how fast your body will naturally improve with time.
This is why getting a proper diagnosis and seeking treatment for any long COVID symptoms you may have is essential. Although there isn’t currently a treatment specifically for long COVID,
there are a variety of treatments that are safe and effective at addressing one or a number of long COVID symptoms. If left untreated, long COVID symptoms can not only persist but worsen with time. This not only negatively affects your quality of life but in some cases can be life-threatening.
If you are struggling with long COVID, you shouldn’t have to tolerate and struggle with your symptoms alone. There are various treatment options available that can potentially help reduce your symptoms so you can get back to living a healthy, normal life.
Treatment to Reduce Your Long COVID Symptoms
While there is currently no FDA-approved long haul covid treatment protocols, several treatment options do exist to help reduce specific long COVID symptoms.
Some common long covid treatment protocols used to reduce long COVID symptoms include:
● Pulmonary rehabilitation
● Autonomic conditioning therapy
● Cognitive rehabilitation
● Smell retraining therapy
● Medications (to reduce certain symptoms)
● Stellate Ganglion Block for covid
Most of the treatments listed above help specific long COVID symptoms. From parosmia treatment after COVID, regaining taste after COVID, and more. For instance, smell retraining therapy can be an effective treatment for helping those who may have lost their sense of smell while suffering from long COVID. Meanwhile, stellate ganglion block treatment can be an effective treatment that can be used to potentially treat a wide range (if not all) of your long COVID symptoms.
Therefore, understanding and taking note of what long COVID symptoms you have will help you down the line when it comes to seeking proper long hauler treatment to reduce your symptoms. This is again because there is no specific treatment currently available to treat long COVID. If you suspect you have long COVID, talk with your doctor about the symptoms you have to get an accurate diagnosis and get a tailored treatment plan centered around resolving your unique long COVID symptoms.
Contact Pain and Spine Specialists to Relieve Your Long COVID Symptoms
Long COVID can significantly put a strain both on your physical health and mental well-being. The uncertainty around when your symptoms will get better can be extremely frustrating and anxiety-provoking. However, there are treatment options available that can help potentially reduce your symptoms so you can get back to living a normal life.
Stellate ganglion block treatment is a promising long COVID treatment available that has been reported to reduce some (if not all) long COVID symptoms. At Pain and Spine Specialists, we offer stellate ganglion block treatment to help long COVID patients try and reduce their symptoms. We also offer a broad range of other treatment options for pain management to help patients regain control of their life and live healthy, happy life.
If you are looking for long covid support, contact us to learn more about how we can help reduce your symptoms for a better life.