Here's a tip for anyone recovering from #COVID19

I bought a decent SATS (oxygen) monitor on Amazon following the advice from a top respiratory doc.

He said that a lot of symptomatic people will instinctively want to 'get back' to being fit asap.

This is the wrong approach...

What can actually happen is that as you recover from the virus, your body continues to desaturate (eg the oxygen level in your blood falls)

There can also be a big V/Q mismatch which means that the flow of air (V) into the alveoli is fine - no shortness of breath BUT...

perfusion (Q) (eg the flow of blood to alveolar capillaries) is the issue.

So someone can feel fine but still be desaturating.

The recommendation is to ensure that your SpO2 (oxygen saturation level) stays above 90% at all times.

If it dips below that then you should stop...

Ideally you should only be exerting yourself 20-30% above resting heart rate for max 5 mins - 2/3 times per day.

I've got two small kids and definitely wasn't sticking to this last week, trying to be jack the lad dad. I relapsed a bit as a result...

I notice now my oxygen levels can drop by a few % during the day when I do try to push things.

I may not be short of breath but my body is obviously still feeling the effects.

I wanted to start walking/jogging again. Now I know to just to behave myself and stay the course...

So the short answer is there's no shortcut.

The only route to recover is REST REST REST.

The risk isn't getting fit again, that will happen anyway.

It's actually that you end up with a long term condition because you don't give your body time to heal.

To recap...

If you're recovering from CV:

1) get a SATS monitor
2) check your SPo2 stays above 90%
3) try to keep exertion to a minimum so your body and lungs can heal
4) don't rush to get fit again

Hope that helps!

Huge thanks to my sis @WatsonLyndsey for the support