Title:
Edited Highlights from
Fatigue in the Time of COVID-19
Professor Trudie Chalder
NHS Health Education England
Original Webinar: 18 November 2020 (1 hour)
Text on screen:
Fatigue in the COVID Follow-up Clinic
A case:
38 year old
Lives with husband and two children (aged 12 and 16)
Previously worked in finance, now a stay at home mum
Unremarkable illness in April 2020--typical COVID symptoms of fever, cought and breathlessness lasting 3 weeks. Presented to A&E due to palpitations during illness but was not admitted to hospital.
Dr. Hamish McAuley: She'd done her pulmonary rehab assessment, which involved a bleep test; I think it was an incremental shuttle walk test. And she'd done that, and she worked as hard as she could, and she said she couldn't get out of bed for 2 weeks afterwards. Absolutely laid flat. The worst symptoms of fatigue she'd felt at any point was for the fortnight after her pulmonary rehab for rehab assessment.
Woman: Thanks Hamish and I think those of use doing Post COVID Clinic, that's not an uncommon scenario with this post exertional fatigue. Trudie, I think we'd really welcome your advice.
Trudie Chalder: First of all, you know, what was going on in her life around the onset of the pandemic? A little bit about if she's ever had anything like this before? Whether she's ever had a history of fatigue or somatic symptoms, on indeed anxiety? Because she sounds a little, quite health anxious. And what expectations did she have of herself? Because, from what you said (I can't remember which bit but), there was something that you said that made me think she's a lady who has high expecations of herself. Had she tried to go back to running in the way that she had previously? So she had a kind of, even though she'd been quite sick, had she gone for gold, then suddenly?
McAuley: So, in that hiatus before, when she sort of started recovering, but before she started getting the joint pains and aches, she mentioned that she'd gone to the Peak District for a walk with her husband, and kids. And they went for a few miles. And again, she mentioned that as one of the key moments when she realized she couldn't do what she'd previously done. So she'd tried and felt that she couldn't.
Chalder: Yeah, so the Peak District's quite hilly, isn't it? I think, people underestimate how hard hill walking is. And I think if you're doing some distance, it can be quite demanding. So I suppose the first thing I might do is to say, acknowledge her difficulties, you know, it's understandable, she's feeling, she felt fatigue because she probably did have quite a nasty illness. But that probably she did try and get back to her normal self rather quickly.
And of cource, she's probably got quite a lot on at home with the children. And I suppose the other, in terms of where she's at now I think, is addressing her fears, you could say, the research suggests that people do get better from this in other nasty infections. And that the important thing is doing something very, very small, and often in the first instance, even if it's just a little, you know, I don't know what she's able to do now. But given that she went for the walking test and then spent two weeks in bed, she's clearly--I mean--that's quite an extreme behavioral response to that, isn't it? So, it sounds like she's very, very health anxious.
Woman: So Trudie, I also had a similar case. A similar aged lady actually, a nurse that was fit and well, a runner, a cycler and she'd also had that expectation, well, I'll be a bit ill for two or three weeks. And then she said, "I'm back to work" and she actually went back to work and cycled to work and then was absolutely wiped out in a similar way. So can you give us some sort of tips?
Chalder: I would say to her, "you've got to be mindful of the amount that you feel you can do at the moment, but whatever it is, do it regularly. If it was walking, you might was even if you can't do more than a ten minute walk, a ten minute walk is fantastic, if that's what you can do, every day. If you can't do a ten minute walk every day, do a five minute walk every day. But after you've done the five minute walk every day, you can increase it to ten minutes, and then you can increase it the following week to fifteen minutes.
Woman: I've just put in the chat about obviously, there's quite a bit of anxiety from the chronic fatigue syndrome and ME community, particularly on Twitter and things about doing Graded Exercise Therapy and rehab.
Chalder: I would say that exercise clearly is not damaging to people and I always say that the harm done to one's health or the lack of benefit of health, that's far worse than any, you know. The advantages of exercise far outweigh the disadvantages.
Woman: I just feel slightly guilty about that patient Hamish mentioned that I clearly pushed too hard on the walking test.
Chalder: I don't think you should blame yourself for that. Because I think it's not just what, it's not what you did that resulted in the person being in bed for two weeks, you have to remember that the way in which any of use respond to symptoms that we're experiencing. is all, that behavioral responce is going to be influenced by our thoughts and feelings too. And that people worry, you know, that when people have a huge worry about the symptoms they're experiencing, it is going ot affect them behaviorally, you know, the may actually behaviorally respond in a way that isn't necessarily helpful.