While most people who catch COVID-19 make a full recovery after a few weeks, some experience a recurrence of symptoms after some months. This has become known as long-haul COVID, and the search for relief is still going on. If you find yourself suffering from long-haul COVID, there are some things that you can do to improve your situation, and here are some ideas.
Understand What the Main Symptoms Are
The first step to take is to understand what the main symptoms of long-haul COVID are so that you can know how to plan your recovery. When you know the main symptoms, it may be easier for you to realize when things are getting out of hand and talk about the appropriate action. About one million Americans are currently living in one type or another senior living community, a number expected to double by the year 2030. If you are one of these individuals, you may need to take more care of your health as you may be in a more sensitive situation than others, given your age.
Allow Your Body to Rest
With COVID-19, most people have found that they are fatigued a lot of the time. This same symptom persists with long-haul COVID, and you need to rest as much as you can. This is because while sleeping, the body regenerates itself and heals a bit faster. For this reason, try to come up with a sleeping schedule that will allow you to get enough quality sleep. This could be done by winding down after a long day, dimming the lights, and making sure that the bedroom is at a comfortable temperature. These are all free and natural adjustments that you can make yourself to try and improve your sleep patterns. If they all fail, you could talk to your doctor to find out if they can offer you a gentle sleeping aid so that you can get quality sleep for as long as you need. A comprehensive analysis of studies was done by the Journal of the American Medical Association and it found that over half of COVID patients were suffering from long-haul symptoms. It’s therefore not a particularly unique condition to you, and you ought to follow the advice that has worked for others, of which getting enough rest is one.
Start With Moderate Exercise and Build Up
Both fatigue and general body weakness are particularly common symptoms of COVID-19 and long-haul COVID, so if you are feeling tired and weak, you should not strain yourself. If you try to get back to your regular routine but feel like you cannot keep up with it, don’t push yourself beyond what you are comfortable with but start slow and gather momentum. If you feel like you are straining too much at any point, you should take a step back. Once you regain your full health, you will be able to get back to your regular stamina. This could be sooner rather than later if a breakthrough in the studies is made, so stay comfortable and avoid getting in a worse condition than you are by forcing your body to do what it’s not yet ready to do.
Know When to Seek Medical Attention
Finally, it’s important for you to know when to seek medical attention because this may be a time at which your symptoms become more severe. Since you ought to visit a doctor at least once annually, it’s important to maintain your regular hospital visit schedule as well. Some of the symptoms that could necessitate you to go to the emergency room include having trouble breathing, experiencing pain or pressure in the chest, being unable to eat or drink, having trouble staying awake, and undergoing rapid weight gain or loss.
Keep these tips in mind when you find out that you have long-haul COVID so that you can improve your chances of getting back to good health.