How Bad Is a Second (or Third or Fourth) Case of Covid?

This articles style of writing is so infuriaring. Mask wearing is the best thing everyone can do to protect themselves and those around them. It is proven that it works and works best when a) everyone is doing it b) everyone is doing it all the time, not just when there is a surge. It is not fearful to do the best things you can to protect yourself. It requires courage to go against the conformism and the peer pressure to reinfect yourself over and over again. There is nothing fearful about seeing the science about covid and long covid and doing the logical thing. It is being rational.

I have gotten it once, a year ago. Had a relatively mild acute phase of the infection. Still have not recovered. And I will keep doing my best in order to not get it again. I am not afraid. I am angry that the world has decided to abandon those that are disabled, immunocompromised, and those with long covid.

I have had COVID at least 3 times (I'm an advocate masks, but I live where masks are not a pop6choice,) and I swear my brain function has plummeted since my first infection. I feel so dumb at times because my memory has went to shit, I can't think of simple words, comprehend simple questions or solve simple problems. It's like having writers block but it affects all my thinking abilities.

My dad is anti-mask and his mental function has suffered greatly. During his first infection, he would ask the same question multiple times in a single conversation, and although he's better now, he's not the same as he was.

My symptoms during consequent infections after the first were not bad, in fact I wouldn't have guessed I was sick at all the 2nd or 3rd time, so I have no idea if I've had it more...
- I wonder if we'd see a mass dumbing effect evident in IQ or IQ equivalent testing such as SAT.

As someone currently in the throes of their second bout of covid, I can confirm it definitely still sucks and sucks hard. Throat is better today, cough is worse, sinus problems are back but no fever. I got lucky last time so let's see how the dice fall this time.

Just as a reminder to people if you are feeling ill, don't fucking come into work, please.

Just as a reminder to people if you are feeling ill, don’t fucking come into work, please.

Fucking boomers that legitimately love in person. Had one coworker that had covid and was back in office 1 week after saying they had it. I immediately turned around and went home, telling my team I felt ill out of nowhere. So fucking selfish.
- To be fair CDC recommends 7 days after onset of symptoms.
  
  At least 7 days have passed since symptoms first appeared if a negative viral test* is obtained within 48 hours prior to returning to work (or 10 days if testing is not performed or if a positive test at day 5-7)
  
  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-risk-assesment-hcp.html#:~:text=At least 7 days have,of fever-reducing medications%2C and
  
  It does seem a bit rushed to me
My second time was worse than my first. I was bed-ridden and barely ate for 3 days. Definitely hoping I don't get it again this year.

I've had four cases that I know of, and three vaccines. Struggling with serious brain fog, though not sure covid is the cause

Long Covid Symptoms

Check the long list of just the mental Long Covid (aka Post-Acute Squelae of COVID or PASC) symptoms:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8959835/

The ER Connection

Recent findings involve research with the endoplasmic reticulum that appears to go off the rails when over-stressed breaking the mitochondria within a cell robbing it of ATP production and increasing lactate (related to metabolic acidosis) in the body:

https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2023/08/16/nih-mitochondria-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10140510/

My current reasoning is somehow to recover you've got to pace yourself just enough to encourage new mitochondria to form, but not so much that you experience PEM/crashing. The ME/CFS people have been discussing pacing for years. So:

Fail With

staying in bed for weeks doing as little as possible (a very slow success?-- mitochondria aren't encouraged to form)

trying to train it away with exercise/exertion (a quick fail-- the stressed ER will break mitochondria and flood body with lactate and set you back with a slew of acidosis-caused symptoms that will take time for the body to resolve. e.g. kidneys excreting the acid, COVID diabetes from gluconeogensis of lactate into glucose in order to raise the body's pH away from acidosis)

Possibly Succeed With

small exertions (signal need for more mitochondiria) before PEM followed by "intense" resting, cold exposure (ice baths or cold showers) and kidney-friendly diets (see: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/chronic-kidney-disease-ckd/eating-nutrition ) to help the body process the acidity of lactate out to reduce ER stress.

This was a purposefully supplement-free/drug-free plan.
- I am prescribed high dose creatine and CoQ10 to support ATP production in mitochondria by my physician who studies ME/CFS. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than I was before. And it's a very safe regimen to recommend.

Permanently Deleted

I'm having it for the first time. Fully vaccinated, on day 5 of miserable. Worst store throat of my life that transitioned into sinus congestion. I can't imagine what it would have been like if it chose to go down to my lungs instead.

Because I'm 51 with a history of asthma I was able to start antivirals. Paxlovid mouth is brutal, but since I've also lost taste and smell, I'm getting used to it. While I understand why some people give up on the meds because of the taste, I'd rather suffer through that than risk worsening illness. I've found holding small pieces of taffy on my tongue to slowly suck on has been the best relief.

I work in healthcare and have always been conscious of protecting myself, but had a normal human moment last week and went to a concert unmasked. Be careful out there.
I haven't either. I feel living in a low population density area and getting re-vaccinated every year is contributing to that, though.
No COVID for me. I work from home and don’t socialise much. Also have not had a cold or flu since 2019. Fully vaccinated.
I tested positive in 2020 about two weeks before I got my first dose of vaccine. I was asymptomatic the entire time, only got tested because I had a medical procedure coming up. If it weren't for that, I probably would think I'd never had it either
- Story time: My daughter got it near the end of finals week at university, and my wife and I drove her home - 5 hours is a closed up car - on what was probably her first symptomatic day. None of us were masked because none of us knew. She coughed once or twice, but mostly slept on the way home (as she usually does after a week of exams). I almost joked with her after one cough that she'd caught the 'vid. Next morning she woke up with a fever and tested, not actually expecting...positive. She quarantined in her room for 5 days, and all three of us pretty much didn't go out for 10 days and we delayed holiday celebrations with the grandparents for two weeks. Neither my wife nor I were ever symptomatic. We used the two remaining tests we had on day 3 after the car ride and both tested negative, but decided the full quarantine was still safest.
  
  Thinking back to the early New York outbreak, I remember reading an article in (April? May?) that semi-random population testing (I say semi because it was voluntary) for serum antibodies that covered multiple counties showed that around half of the people who tested positive for past Covid exposure had indicated that they had not suffered any symptoms of illness in the prior 3 months. The supposition was that up to 50% of the population had experienced an infection asymptomatically. While odd, it possibly explained why the spread was so rapid - people who were asymptomatic may have simply been vectors to infect many others as they didn't quarantine (or, likely, mask since masks were in very short supply at the time). Regardless, I'm getting an XBB.1.5 vaccine when it's released. Whether I got it or it magically missed me the first time, I have no desire to join the symptomatic club.
- “Heh. It's trying to hurt me. That's cute.” —this guy's immune system, when infected with COVID
Me neither, but I'm honestly not sure. I got sick a month or two ago, mostly just felt like aches and fatigue, pretty much no respiratory element at all. Except I lost 80%-ish of my sense of smell and taste until earlier this week (if it's even fully recovered, I'm honestly not sure).

Was that COVID? I didn't test positive for it, but maybe I waited too long to think to do it. I wish I knew for sure.
- I have heard that the newer strains don't show up on the tests, depending on the test. I got it recently, tested negative but it was my second time so I could recognize it and be fairly certain.
- What kind of test did you use? The rapid tests are not always very accurate. A negative result might not mean that you do not have it. And yes, the time of taking the test / day of infection does make a difference. The loss of smell and taste does sound like it might have been covid.