Trying to recover from 'long tail' Corona virus, but its not easy! (Part 2)

My Corona Virus Story Part 2

If you have read part 1 and want to know what happened next (especially if you love Jigsaws) then read on. But be warned you will need to strap in for another Corona virus roller coaster ride and part 2 doesn't end well.

It was now 17 days since I was first ill and I once again found myself lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself with my traditional Covid symptoms of dizzy head, weak chest and nauseous stomach. It was clear I wasn't on a fast pass recovery so decided to heed the advice of the numerous people who had been telling me I needed just to rest.

My new 'rest' plan was two fold. Step 1 was to do jigsaws as I believe they are the go to activity for convalescing. I love a jigsaw but as they are utterly pointless I never normally allocate time to them. Everyone has a couple hidden away, normally from when they have received them as last minute Christmas gifts and haven't yet had a chance to re wrap and pass on the following year.

At the bottom of a cupboard I found two; one of the history of golf from 1993 and a deconstructed diagram of a 998cc mini engine. Who doesn't love a schematic so there was only one choice, at least I had entertainment sorted out.

My first Jigsaw coming to an end, and what a corker

Step 2 was to build up my exercise much more slowly starting from gentle walks, through gentle bike rides to running. The on-line advice for this approach was to take it very slowly over weeks or months. Which I obviously didn't follow but now understand the need, letting me learn my second Covid recovery lesson.

To prove my resting capabilities I spent the next day focused on edge piece action and lying down. But one day of this resting was enough for anyone so the following morning I decided it was time for my first walk of plan B. I was accompanied by Mrs Crusader as she had already gone down the slow walk route for her more successful recovery strategy. Over the next 5 days we walked over 20 miles and, although I still had a sore throat, tight chest and dizzy head the walks always seemed to make me feel better.

Five days walking plus a finished jigsaw implied to me that plan B was going well and it was time to step things up, so I then tried a short cycle ride which, although I still felt ill on, just felt great being back on the bike. 

After 10 days I was feeling fine with the only Covid sensation left being a sensation like I was about to get over a cold. Both jigsaws were now in the bag (and updated on my new 'completed jigsaw spreadsheet') so I upped my exercise regime with some jogging and longer bike rides.

5 weeks after I first got Corona virus I had a proper run, but this was a big mistake

It had been nearly three weeks since my crash so I went on a proper paced 30 mile bike ride. A friend contacted me on Strava to say he assumed my activity meant I was on the mend. I foolishly replied that I was indeed better and planned to start proper running training the next day. Well that never happened (and still no prospect of it some 7 weeks later!)

I woke up in the night and knew it was back. I felt hot (but had no temperature), had a weak feeling across my chest and sick feeling in my stomach. Although it was the middle of the night I was so frustrated I had to have a rant and started thumping my pillow. For the rest of the night I lay awake and convinced myself that I was never going to shake it off and will probably never run or cycle again (to be fair in the 7 weeks since this has almost been true) but I'm now convinced that these negative thoughts just made my condition worse. The next lesson I learnt was to avoid getting anxious over the length of the recovery but it wasn't for several more weeks, and with much support from family and friends, that I hopefully started to accept this.

Plan B was now in the bin and I needed to develop a new one which I imaginatively called plan C. Step 1 was again going to be jigsaw based so it was straight on to the Amazon website to get hold of some more. Shockingly it appeared I wasn't the only person to turn to the power of the jigsaw during lock down and they had pretty much sold out. However I discovered that museum gift shops still had plenty good ones. I got a schematic of Thunderbird 2 and a  fantastic planets jigsaw (more of that mistake later) from the 'history of flight' museum. 

Completed Thunderbird 2 jigsaw, another cracker

I promised myself I really would take things more slowly this time as I started the recovery climb again. I also started a Covid recovery spread sheet where I made notes on how I felt each day and rated how I was doing from 0 (Dead) to 10 (feeling perfectly normal). This has been very useful as it does demonstrate that things are gradually improving, another top recovery tip.

Like the first crash then after a couple of days feeling ill on the sofa I started to feel better. I also spoke to the Doctor for the first time but as there has been very little virus in these parts they could only offer standard post viral advice and had no data on how long recovery takes as no one knows yet.

So it was back to the Covid playground of swings and roundabouts. With some days of sore throat, nausea, chest pains and dizzy head and others when I felt fine. To add to the fun I developed tinnitus for periods of each day.

But after another 18 days of resting and walking I felt ready to up things again. It was also the week of my birthday although I won't tell you how old I was. (Whoopsie).

It wouldn't be a Cake Crusader post without at least one cake photo

Covid isn't completely heartless and on my birthday I felt the best I had since my 30 mile bike ride a month earlier. To celebrate Mrs Crusader challenged me to 9 holes of golf now that we were allowed to play again. Well Covid might not be heartless but what sort of person beats you with the last putt on the last hole when its your birthday and you are trying to recover from a long illness. Well I think we know the answer to that.

The first of a short lived return to golf

With no aftereffects then the next three days consisted of a short cycle, 18 holes of golf (when I got revenge) and my first 5k jog for many weeks.

After the run I felt fine, for about an hour, but as the day went on I started to feel worse and worse until that night. Bang, it was back but this time there was no next day bounce back like the previous occasions and I got very worried. 

I shall let you know what happened next and bring you up to date in the final post sometime next week.