Experiencing Covid When You Have Fibromyalgia
By Sarah Warburton
A few weeks back, I caught Covid for the first time. It hit me hard and recovery is proving to be rather slow. I thought I’d write about my experience of having Covid along with fibromyalgia and some of the things that helped me, as it might prove useful to other readers who might find themselves in the same position.
It’s important to say that having fibromyalgia doesn’t increase the chances of you catching Covid or mean that Covid is necessarily going to be worse for you than for someone who doesn’t have fibro[1]. Also, this post is not intended to be medical advice, it’s just my own personal experience.
My Main Covid Symptoms
The symptoms that I found most troublesome were more severe versions of ones that I experience on a daily basis with fibro:
• Fatigue – The first few days after testing positive, I could barely get out of bed and virtually slept the clock round, even eating seemed too much effort (very unusual for me!).
• Headache – Again the first few days I had a throbbing headache, not dissimilar to the ones I have during migraine attacks.
• Muscle Aches – A non stop burning sensation especially in my legs and hips. Ironically, because I was supine for almost the whole time in the first days, my usual back, neck and shoulder pains were much less severe than normal.
I also experienced nausea, fever and chills early on after testing positive.
Around a week after my initial positive test, I developed a sore throat, cough and cold like symptoms that can occur with Covid. I then had costochondritis for a few days due to coughing a lot, but thankfully the pain from that has now disappeared.
Things that I found helpful when I had Covid:
• Wear cotton / breathable layers of clothes so that they can be removed / added depending on whether you’re feeling hot or cold.
• Ensure that you have all your medications to hand - including over the counter pain relief, as well as any pain relief tools such as heat pads, hot water bottles etc.
• Make use of pre-prepared meals as you may not feel well enough to cook anything. If you usually prefer to cook from scratch but ind yourself unable to, don't beat yourself up about it. Convenience foods have their place.
• If taking a bath or shower is too much and feels impossible, then use dry shampoo and wipes if needed.
• Stay hydrated – NHS advice is that hydration can help with coughs[2]. I don’t usually drink squash but developed a serious Vimto habit when I had Covid as I just didn’t want my usual tea or coffee.
• Practice pacing once Covid has passed - I got myself into a pickle when rescheduling appointments (dental, hairdresser, physiotherapy etc.) that I’d had to cancel when I had Covid as I didn’t leave adequate rest time / days in between each one and ended up trying to do too many things. The result of this was a fibro flare and me feeling very annoyed with myself for not following one of the basic rules of pain management – pacing!
• Be kind to yourself, as recovery may take some time.
So how are things now after testing negative?
5 weeks on from testing positive, I am getting back to my pre Covid levels of health, i.e. what was normal for me before. However, the fatigue is still an issue and I’m not able to do as much physical activity as I was pre-Covid. I tire more quickly, get out of breath more easily on walks that I am well used to doing regularly and I am still coughing a lot. It is hard to know if the fatigue is due to a loss of condition whilst I was home bound with Covid, or if it is a lasting effect of the Covid itself. Time will tell, but I am just hoping to get back to normal again soon.
[1]Fibromyalgia and Coronavirus: What to Know (webmd.com)
[2]Supporting you to recover after COVID-19: Managing your cough and clearing your chest | Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (kentcht.nhs.uk)