Supply chain and operations consultant Guy Redhead is among one of the millions of people in the UK who has been battling long Covid. In this, an abridged version of a recent blogpost, he outlines his experience, what has helped, and how he has now come out the other side.
I caught Covid, for the first time knowingly anyway, in March 2023, which turned into long Covid – from which I’ve now thankfully turned a corner into recovery.
It’s been a challenging time, an absolute nightmare. I was practically housebound for around 12 months, completely wiped out with myriad symptoms from head to toe and everywhere in between; literally. It completely changed our family life over that time.
During this period, I was completely reliant on my wonderful wife, who had to do everything while still running her business; driving children around, shopping, cooking, laundry and dealing with everything that cropped up as well as worry about and look after me.
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Our children have had to adapt too and deal with an upsetting, challenging time and I have been so proud of the way they have not only dealt with it and supported us but for the positive ways it’s changed them.
I’ve been blown away not only by my family, but by how lucky I am to have an amazing group of loyal friends and a fantastically supportive professional network too.
Long Covid, and other chronic fatigue illnesses, are not well understood. They are incredibly isolating as the physical and mental fatigue and often excruciating other symptoms result in you getting stuck at home on your own and even having friends for coffee, watching television or reading a book is too much.
They are invisible illnesses so people can’t see anything is wrong. Most medical tests are returned as normal, so there is nothing concrete to hang the debilitating symptoms on.
While it has been such a difficult time, we’ve all learnt so much and I can honestly say that there are many positives coming out of it. As soon as my GP said: “I’m sorry Mr Redhead, this is a little awkward isn’t it, because I have nothing to offer you, and you now know far more about long Covid than I do”, I knew I had to figure it out on my own and that I was responsible for my own healthcare.
Rather than feel let down, it allowed me to finally accept the situation I was in, that over 80% of people with long Covid at three months are still suffering after a year and around 70% at 18 months. I wasn’t going to wake up one morning and be suddenly well.
My health became my project. To get myself healthy again was the most useful thing I could do and so that’s what I focused on every day.”
Acceptance, used positively, was perhaps the most crucial step to starting recovery for me. I essentially ran a consulting project on myself and still am doing; I’m in the continuous improvement phase now!
What are the problems/symptoms? What is the evidence? What are the viable options for treatment? Which treatments work for the different symptoms I have and how do I fit the pieces of the jigsaw together to enable me to get back to health (my initial target was 70% as I felt that I could start to live a relatively normal family and work life at that)?
I researched as much as my cognitive dysfunction and fatigue would allow, followed rabbit holes of studies, read books, discounted 99% of the doom-mongering, conspiracy theories, crazy treatments and slowly I found solutions that made a difference and allowed me to do a little more.
My health became my project. To get myself healthy again was the most useful thing I could do and so that’s what I focused on every day.
Through trial and error, a mixture of physical therapy (‘MyoFascial’ release); a pacing plan and support from Pamela Rose Fatigue Coaching; breathwork and meditation; supplements (no idea which, if any, helped!); medication; nutrition, other people’s great research books, social media presence and brilliantly loud voices, such as Gez Medinger, Dr Ben Sinclair, Raelan Agle, Tim Smale hypnotherapy, and the final absolute golden nugget once I was able to do it: cold water swimming.
I’ve got myself to about 80%, I think, and perhaps more now as I’m improving every day, which feels fantastic. The 20% is coming!
It has been a nightmare, but I feel incredibly energised coming out of it. I’ve been so curious for months, even while extremely unwell, to discover the version of me that comes out of the other side, as I knew positive change was coming as a result of the process I was going through and I’m now seeing those changes come to fruition as I emerge back out into the world at large.
The techniques that have helped me calm my nervous system and support my immune system have undoubtedly become things that I know will help me thrive in my life after covid.
I feel lucky that I’ve managed to get myself back to such a positive position, relatively quickly in long Covid terms, when so many others are still suffering for two, three, four years.
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