Word On Long Covid

Our grateful thanks to the Long Covid Support charity for their contribution to our radio report which you can hear again via the audio player below. To connect through to the charity for more detailed information, help and support click here to reach their website.     

According to the NHS Most people with COVID-19 feel better within a few days or weeks of their first symptoms and make a full recovery within 12 weeks. For some people, symptoms can last longer for months, even years. This is called Long COVID or post COVID-19 syndrome.

Symptoms of Long COVID - Source - NHS

The most common symptoms of long COVID are:

• extreme tiredness (fatigue)
• feeling short of breath
• loss of smell
• muscle aches

However, there are lots of symptoms you can have after a COVID-19 infection, including:

• problems with your memory and concentration ("brain fog")
• chest pain or tightness
• difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
• heart palpitations
• dizziness
• pins and needles
• joint pain
• depression and anxiety
• tinnitus, earaches
• feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
• a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste
• rashes

The NHS advise you should contact a GP if you've had symptoms of COVID-19 for 4 weeks or more.

The Long Covid Support charity tells us that Long Covid can be difficult to diagnose, and some people might not realise their symptoms could be linked to prior Covid-19 infection.  In their members experience there can be more than 200 symptoms that can affect anywhere in the body. These symptoms can come and go, and new ones can appear weeks or months later.

People may not be aware they had Covid-19: some don’t have symptoms at the time of infection, and test results, they claim, can be unreliable.

The NHS provides a ‘Your COVID recovery programme’an online recovery programme to support people as they recover from the long-term effects of COVID-19.

You need to be referred to the programme by a healthcare professional. You will be given a unique code to register on your computer, tablet device or smart phone.

The ‘Your COVID Recovery' website supports the programme and includes information on:

• supporting your mind and mental health
• managing the effects of long COVID on your body
• managing long COVID with other conditions
• tips to help you eat well, sleep well and get moving again

Listen to this weeks radio report