Recovering from lung and cardiovascular diseases

[PeterdeWeerd]

I'm 60 years old and the Covid virus has hit me hard. After 2 weeks of illness at home I stayed 9 days in the hospital. Didn't get to the IC but within a day I got a mask with 15 ltr. of oxygen per min. After 4 days I got a nose mask and the oxygen went down to only 6 ltr / min. A few days later I was send home with only 3 ltr / min.

The instructions I got were; to take care for myself and to keep my saturation preferable above 92%. So I only looked at the the saturation on the device they gave me. Not the heartbeat. After a 1,5 week I needed no oxygen any more. But after a few day's I got fever again. The problem was I did not listen to my body enough. When the saturation was oké I went on. I remember in one case I had a heart rate of 127 (and feeling bad).

Now I have bought a Inspire II. It monitors my heart rate around the clock and I get a notification on my pulls when my heart rate gets into the fat burning zone. I than know I have to take a rest. This way it helps me to listen better to my body.

Now I walk 3x times a day about 350 mtr, and I bike 3x on my hometrainer at 30 watt for 7 minutes. Next week fysiotherapie starts and I hope they will help me to increase my capacitiy.

Are there others with a similar experience, and maybe some advice?

[shipo]

I'm soon to be 64 and went through COVID-19 last year, so maybe I can offer some pointers.

Everything I've read and been told by medical professionals is, "Keep moving!"  I started walking about 4-weeks after my peak symptoms had abated, however, I am something of a long-hauler in that my obvious respiratory symptoms lasted for over 3-months and other side effects, painful lungs and knee swelling, persist to this day (but I have seen marked improvement in the last two months; more on that below).

Back to the "Keep moving!" thing; I did a lot of walking and hiking last year and while that helped in many ways, my lungs and knees were, if anything, getting worse, and by "worse" I mean, so bad I could barely stand up long enough to cook dinner, and the pain caused many sleepless nights.  I finally quit the hiking thing in November, took nearly a month off of all activity, and then started jogging very slowly; my thinking was, the motion of the legs and knees when walking is significantly different compared to running, and maybe that would help.  And the verdict is???  The slow jogging has helped remarkably; I am on an every other day jogging schedule and am forcing myself to keep my pace right around a 12-minute per mile pace, and every time my legs feel a little frisky, I just go longer instead of faster.  I started the jogging thing on 23-Dec with a whopping 1-mile; today my legs were feeling great, so I slowed way down and pushed the run to, would you believe it, 10-miles!

Long story short, I'm not fully recovered yet, but geez, I feel better than at any time since I got COVID.

[PeterdeWeerd]

Fine it works fore you.

I'm not there yet. I still have to watch out that I don't ask to much from my body. I must say that the tracker helps me verry well to keep it under control and I even can evaluatie the data of the past days with my therapist.

So, I can see the progress in my recovery, although it is minimal. But it is encouraging and the light at the end of the tunnel remains visible.

[Mamoru]

Be careful. Fitbit is a wonderful tool, I use it to track steps. Give me a general marker on HR, and help track distance outside. I've been using the tech sense the first generation, so this is not a dig at Fitbit.

I would keep using the O2 sensor for exercise and heart rate.

I had a Celobelom Stroke over a year ago and still have problems with wanting to pass out when I extend my heart rate for too long. I do plan on getting back to cardiac exercise soon. (8000 steps a day AVG working retail.), but I understand my limits. (Rehab was a pain for this very reason.)  I've be using the fitbit to keep track of activity and wearing the sensor to keep track of HR and O2.

Do the exercise, but be sure to use the right tool for the job.

[emili]

No advice, just well wishes for continued recovery... 

[xenaFB]

Hello, I am suffering from long covid too.
Do you have any updates? 
I hope you have improved

[OldFellrunner]

I think you have hit on a problem which if generalised to  How can Fitbit help us to recover from illness  should generate a good deal of interest. 

Recovery from surgery or illness or both is a real challenge - because you can't simply take any old training schedule off the shelf and start getting back to fitness. Often to do so would actively harm.  Physiotherapy will help you : you'll get a set of exercises to follow, practice those a bit but thats all. 

So my advice is that there isn't any. Unless you pay a specialist, or are fortunate enough to have a friend who has similar limitations: someone who knows how to and does nudge, encourage and support. Both are as rare as hen's teeth.

I had a trainer once whose general advice was ' Make yourself a little, but consistently,  uncomfortable through effort every training session ' The reasoning behind that was - very definitely not  that no pain is no gain - because very small training gains consistently made, increase the likelihood of  safe injury free progress.

And I like you have had to endure  the insult of injury. Little point in making it worse. Consistently a bit  more, and back off when you feel thats right.