Training with a Mystery Illness

How do you train and/or stay healthy with a chronic, (possibly) mild, but undiagnosed mystery illness? This topic is probably more for myself than anyone here. More like a public journal with irregular updates. But any feedback is very much appreciated.

I’ve posted snippets on this in other topics, but rather than continue to hijack other conversations - and get better clarity and conversation - I’m going to post this here as its own topic. Both for courtesy to those whose threads I’ve sent on tangents and to provide the detail in one easy-to-find location for myself.

So for Background

For lots of reasons (my wife and son are both allergenic asthmatics and my son has immune system issues. Before Covid, almost every time he caught a simple common cold he would end up with Croup, and invariably ended up at the ER at least once or twice every winter. His immunologist even gave us a home supply of Prednisone and Epinephrine at home “just in case”… I could go on, but this is not about him) my family has had to be more isolated and protective than most since Covid came around.

So, I mask whenever I’m out and about in groups of people. I’ve had all my Covid vaccines and my yearly flu shots. I had the most recent Covid vaccine the end of August shortly after it was released.

The situation

Sunday Sept 1 was the biggest event I’ve been to. I went to the USC-LSU football game at Allegiant Stadium. It was a sell out. Largest crowd in stadium history. This is the second football game I’ve been to. I went to a Raiders home game in Nov last year (2023) where I wore my mask and used hand sanitizer and everything was fine. Well, this time it wasn’t fine. Maybe I took my mask off to eat too many times, or didn’t use hand sanitizer enough, or just got unlucky… but somehow I caught COVID, while my brother-in-law who went with me and didn’t wear mask at all did not. Go figure.

3 days later I started showing symptoms. So I quickly masked and isolated from my family for two weeks, and fortunately nobody else caught it from me. :pray: My last back ride was the morning of Sept 4 when I first noticed the tightness in my chest and a fever. I stopped all exercise and focused only on getting better.

My symptoms weren’t bad. Mostly a low fever and sinus congestion. By Sept 18 I was symptom free and testing negative. Almost exactly 2 weeks after I first showed symptoms.

I decided I needed to give myself an extra week or two or rest and sleeping in to fully recover before I started exercising again. I didn’t have anything to train for other than my planned KOS in Nov (which could be moved to any date if needed) so there was no hurry to rush into anything.

So Oct 7 I finally got back to doing some light workouts with 15 minutes of yoga and 30 minutes of recovery spinning. Did this every day for the week. My HR was elevated during my workouts at first, but seemed to be getting lower and and closer to normal by Friday. But by Thursday and Friday I noticed in the afternoons my face was feeling flush and hot and I was feeling fatigued. I started taking my temperature when that happened and noticed it was elevated but not a fever (99.2-99.8). I took Saturday off to get some rest and see if I my body just needed some rest since I had just done my first full week of exercise in over a month.

On Monday I did the same yoga and recovery spinning I had the same issues. So I stopped my exercise routing and went back to sleeping in and getting rest for the rest of that week. Called my Dr on We’d and took some rapid tests but I was negative and my dr said to just monitor how I was doing and if things got worse to come in.

The next week I felt better, but rested the whole week again just to be sure I was recovering properly.

Wed Oct 30 I decided to wake up and exercise with just 15 minutes of yoga and 15 minutes of easy spinning. That day I felt chilled all day and the 31st I was again feeling feverish, this time with an actual fever of 100.8. Even had a fever overnight on Nov 4.

I went to the ER that Thursday and they ran a number of blood tests and did a CT scan. Nothing anywhere near conclusive. Blood tests showed nothing out of the ordinary. CT scan showed a possible diverticula and a benign liver lesion (blood tumor test came back negative), but I’ve had no GI symptoms at all.

I saw my GP doc who had no answers and referred me to my GI doc. I then went to my GI doc who felt it was likely Sinusitis from my bout with Covid. He prescribed me 3 weeks of mild prednisone. He said my sinuses were likely swollen and inflamed. However they aren’t, and weren’t even tender to the touch when he pressed on them. And I have no nasal drainage even with all the saline rinses and Neti pots I’ve done.

I’ve been on prednisone for almost the whole 3 weeks now and nothing has changed other than I can breathe a tad bit better. My nose still runs clear when I do need to blow it or use saline spray.

I’ve been taking my temperature when my face feels flushed or hot. And the. A couple other times every day. I usually wake up normal, but then my temp climbs into the mid or upper 99’s, sometimes to or just over 100 (100.2F). But then drops back down around 99.2-99.6 in the afternoons before dropping back to normal overnight.

I hadn’t exercised again until last week when I decided I needed to do something to keep my weight down and I could tell I was getting winded more easily.

So in the last weeks instead of exercising 6 days per week I did 4 workouts of 15-30 minutes (and one long workout last Saturday) and then just 2 days so far this week. I’ve mostly done easy low z1 rides on my bike (once in a while I’ll do a short effort, but I try to keep it easy) and/or 15 minute easy yoga sessions. My RHR is higher than it used to be. Was usually around 48. Now it’s 55-60. When pedaling at 100w my HR would usually hover around 100bpm. Now at 104w it hovers around 130bpm and I have to ride around 70-80w to keep it around 100bpm.

It’s only been 2 weeks, so maybe with time and more riding that will come down again. But I’m not looking at doing Z2 efforts any time soon. I did the 6 minute Sprinters Climb on TPV and my HR was instantly over 155, and it took 8 minutes of easy pedaling after just to get my HR back under 135.

So, I’m torn between sticking with resting and Z1 rides, or trying to slowly and tactically increasing the intensity just little bits at a time to see if that will help my fitness and lower my HR at all.

I have another dr appt with my GP this Wed, and a follow up with GI doc on Jan 2. I will be getting a referral to an ENT. Probably some anti-biotic (if they can figure out what they will be used for). But at this point I’m pretty sure my sinuses are not the problem. I know I have a pre-existing deviated septum that the ENT will look at. But this fever seems like it has to either be GI-related, or possibly some form of long-COVID. I guess more Dr visits and testing will hopefully figure it out - or at least tell me what it’s not.

Until then, I’m trying to find a balance between exercise and rest. I haven’t found that balance, yet. I’m feeling very unhealthy. And the food cravings I’m getting from being in the middle of 3 weeks of prednisone aren’t helping. But I can’t do long days and weeks of Z2 mixed with VO2 workouts.

Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for listening to my TED talk. I don’t expect anyone to have any answers. Just feel the need to vent, and with everything going on I’m often tired and/or fatigued and frustrated, and don’t get out much.

9 Likes

Sorry to hear this :confused:
to me it sounds like you’re still doing too much. I’m not a doctor, just a stupid little sports scientist, but I think that coming to a complete rest and then building up really (and mean REALLY, as in Z1 twice a week) slowly might help. after illness we’re usually tempted to go too hard too soon, because too hard still feels too easy in our mind but our body just can’t cope and keeps trying to tell us to cut it down and we won’t listen because in our mind it feels easy and… (keep repeating until we finally get it or break down completely). I’m not sure about your health system, but at least here in Munich you’d probably be sent to a specialized (preferably post / long Covid) unit at your university hospital for some thorough testing that your practicing physician just won’t have the resources for.
sorry, just my two cents worth of advice

7 Likes

Sir Evan - also not a doctor, but have you thought of seeing an endo? 1) a “known” symptom of long COVID to date is that it badly messes with your endocrine system. 2) I know you’re not yet me old, but you could be seeing a testosterone drop? Did any of your recent testing look for and rule out hypothyroidism?

I just know from personal experience that GP’s aren’t necessarily looking at endo issues - though they should, for those of us athletes “of a certain age”, and generalized testing, like CBC and lipid panels don’t catch endocrine issues.

Just a thought.

:thinking:

3 Likes

Have you tried Kitchen Sink?

Edit: sorry. Seriously. That sucks. I have no advice. Just SUF jokes.

4 Likes

That is essentially what I’ve tried to do.

My first 2 weeks of riding after Covid I took it easy as I thought I should, but probably was a little too much such as it was. I did two weeks of Z1 between October 7 and 14 where I did 5 rides in erg where I averaged 104w on the first ride and was at 120w on the 5th. All were 30 minutes except for one 40 minutes.

After that I stopped any exercise altogether other than the occasional walk for two months. And I was getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night. I did a single 15-minute ride at 105w on Oct 30, but that was it until Dec 3. But nothing changed health wise over those 2 months.

When I started doing rides again on Dec 3 I stopped using erg mode altogether. Just pedaling in level mode as easy as I could. Averaging around 70w.

At this point that makes the most sense. When I first went to the ER they did a lot more testing than my GP would have done and a bunch of tests for a “fever of unknown origin”, but my white blood cell count and other tests all came back normal. My GP definitely hasn’t done much yet. They didn’t even have my ER results when I went in for my follow-up the week after. The GI doc actually looked everything over, but he zeroed in immediately on sinusitis. I’m hoping that now I can move on to someone more specialized. I’ll have to be very insistent at my appt next week.

Who is Sir Jeff? :slight_smile:

I’m 48 now, almost 49. I have had my T tested a couple times in the past few years and it’s been normal. But I don’t remember when the last test was exactly, and I don’t know if that was in the ER testing panel which was extensive. I’ll have to check. Since i am going back on Wed I can ask about endocrine questions and a referral too. I have a lot of questions for them now that I’ve seen a few docs. And hopefully they actually have all my ER and GI doc results to look over this time. If not then I need to find a new GP.

That’s on the list there somewhere, I think. :slight_smile: But maybe I need to try The Cure, first? :wink:

Seriously, all this is crazy new to me because other than being a bit of a sickly young child (I had pneumonia 7 times as a kid and childhood asthma that i grew out of after I turned 7), I’ve actually been very active and healthy and have had a strong immune system - probably from biting my nails as a kid and contracting anything and everything when I was young. If anyone in my family gets sick I’m always the last to get it and the first to get over it and the one who has the mildest symptoms.

Thank you for the feedback so far. Even if you can’t figure it out for me it definitely helps to get some good ideas of what to ask about and test for.

3 Likes

Ha, so much for short rides. But at least I kept it very easy.

Today I did 95 minutes (and my undercarriage doesn’t appreciate it). But averaged just 55w for the first 42 minutes and 45w for the rest.

That kept my HR under 100bpm the entire time (except for a couple blips). 92bpm for the first 42 minutes and 86bpm for the rest.

That’s probably what I need to do for my future Z1 rides. Very low watts to keep my HR in Z1 too. Build more slowly. If 100w has me at 130bpm then 50-70w is probably where I need to be for a long while.

5 Likes

Sorry Evan. Lack of coffee pre-knight ride. :grimacing:

3 Likes

Well it was good to see…for awhile!

2 Likes

ahem…etiquette, Cap’n Sir, always, etiquette. :innocent:

3 Likes

Oh $&@% it (Sir) Glen!

:wink:

image

5 Likes

#twaaw

5 Likes

@emacdoug Do you have ticks near you or have you been somewhere that has ticks?

4 Likes

You thinking Lyme? Went through that a number of years ago. Sir Evan is in Vegas, I think?

2 Likes

@CPT_A Really anything tick related - Lyme, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Anaplasmosis, …. Lots of options unfortunately.

2 Likes

I live in Las Vegas. Have mosquitos. But not seen ticks. It’s not a common tick-county.

I was in Indiana the beginning of August, but was mostly inside and my mom has her yard sprayed with tick spray. Didn’t get any noticeable tick bites. And always checked for ticks when we came inside.

Haven’t had any symptoms other than the elevated temperature which is rarely at the level of a fever. No rash or aches and pains. So, possible, but not likely to be tick caused.

3 Likes

If you need to do that, good luck. In some parts of the country it is extremely difficult to find GP/internists/PCP. There is a shortage of internal medicine doctors.

There are PCPs who have 2500 or more patients in their panel.

3 Likes

Yep. Definitely a problem here in Nevada. Medical care here is notoriously bad. Our first pcp was impossible to see because they had too many patients so I switched docs. My new pcp was great for years, but retired 3 years ago. New pcp left the office after 2 years. I’m seeing a new fill-in doc in the same office right now. Office is having problems keeping docs on staff.

I might have to travel to California to UCLA if I really want a good specialist, but hoping it doesn’t come to that.

3 Likes

If you could afford it, have you considered finding a concierge doctor?

I bet a bunch of them are becoming concierge docs.

2 Likes

Probably not with my HMO insurance, unfortunately.

1 Like

I am not sure what you mean by HMO insurance, but many concierge docs do take insurance. The problem is that there is yearly fee, usually in the thousands of dollars.

What you get in return, is a doctor with maybe 300 patients, visits that can last an hour and a half, you deal only with doctors (no PAs or NPs), and they usually have good relationships with specialists that you might need, and are good at dealing with insurance companies.

1 Like