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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We’ve struggled to get back to normal after long COVID.

I’d love to hear what’s worked to get better.

[/quote]

Ugh, I'm sorry. I struggled for quite a while with long Covid but I'm better now.

I got Covid in October of 2022, most likely on a long flight to Africa. I got very sick while visiting the Ngorongoro Crater, and the doctor I saw a few days later when I got to Zanzibar told me I'd had HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) while staying at Ngorongoro (we stayed at very high altitude). I probably did have HAPE (very, deadly, btw), but probably was predisposed to it because I had Covid, which I didn't know. I saw that doctor, a Tanzanian doctor, via telehealth while staying at a resort and it didn't occur to her or to me that I had Covid. So I didn't get treated or even tested even though I was having pretty extreme shortness of breath (at one point I tried to walk to the restaurant at our resort and literally collapsed to the ground) and fatigue that kept me in bed even though I was on vacation. I had zero appetite and only ate to be polite to the resort chef who made me special stuff. With HAPE, that shouldn't have continued after I got down to sea level; but it did. Didn't figure out it was Covid until my DH turned up sick on the flight home (yes, I'm pretty sure we gave at least some of the people in that business class cabin Covid, and yes I feel badly about it) and we tested positive when we got home. I was coughing like crazy.

I didn't stop coughing and wheezing for almost a year and half. Had terrible fatigue and brain fog. I was seen in the Medstar Long Covid clinic at about the 8-month mark. The neurologist I saw got me a sleep study and it turned out the brain fog was sleep apnea. She said that although the reason why isn't apparent, there has been a big increase in diagnosis of sleep apnea in long covid sufferers. Once I got the sleep apnea treated with cpap not only did my brain fog get fixed, my coughing stopped as well. My appetite has never come back, but I'm overweight so that is probably a good thing.

I struggled hard, and cried a lot thinking I'd spend the rest of my life sick and exhausted. But when I heard that long covid lasts for up to 18 months in some people that gave me hope because it meant some people suffered as long as I did and then did get better. Fortunately I did too.

I hope you get better, too. The odds are that you will. [/quote]

The Ngorongoro crater is only 7,500 feet above sea level. Where were you staying that was “very high altitude”?  [/quote]

"Only 7,500 feet"? That is high. The general risk for mountain sickness, including often deadly HAPE, begins at 8,000. Our resort was a bit higher than 8,000 feet above sea level. Which is why the camp is called The Highlands. https://www.mahlatini.com/tanzania/ngorongoro-crater/the-highlands-ngorongoro?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Mahlatini-US-PMax-All-DT%20TA-SE-XX-XX&utm_content=%7Badgroup%7D&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BNP7cAfc1f_iFBCjvJj1jO0f-eMEr4Ru9E0uS_jiWKYm-vZduLtW6hoCakcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

The doctor who diagnosed me with HAPE considered 8,000 feet above sea level more than high enough to almost kill me with high altitude sickness. And some people can have life threatening mountain sickness at elevations far lower than that. So I'm not sure what you are on about, dripping with both ignorance and condescension. Such a stupid combination, ignorance and the desperate need to go typing away at people. [/quote]

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