What post-viral fatigue can involve
Most people recover from an infection and carry on. Some don't, and the weeks afterwards turn into something else: exhaustion that rest doesn't fix, a crash a day or two after doing too much, brain fog, aches and disturbed sleep. It's a frustrating position, because you're neither ill in a way tests capture nor well in any way that feels honest.
Recovery, when it comes, is uneven enough that it's hard to judge from the inside. A record from six weeks ago is the only reliable comparison. It also makes pacing visible, showing what tended to follow a busier day, which is the pattern people most often want to understand.
Symptoms checklist
Post-viral fatigue symptoms checklist to take to your GP
Below are some of the symptoms associated with Post-viral fatigue. You can print the Post-viral fatigue checklist and weekly diary and fill it in by hand.
See what applies to you, note how often it happens, and take it to your appointment, so the conversation starts further along. It describes your experience. It does not say what is causing anything: having many of these does not mean you have Post-viral fatigue, and having few does not mean you do not. Only a clinician can work that out with you.
- Fatigue
- Crash after activity
- Brain fog
- Muscle aches
- Sleep problems
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Something else I want to mention
Print the Post-viral fatigue checklist and weekly diary Download as PDF
The list comes from the NHS and charity sources linked further down this page, and from what people living with post-viral fatigue tell us they keep an eye on. It is a starting point, not a test.
How a day can feel
If your days sound anything like this, taluvu was made with you in mind.
- “I got better and then I didn't.”
- “I paid for one good day with three bad ones.”
- “Every test comes back normal.”
- “I keep waiting to feel like myself again.”
- “Resting doesn't seem to do what it should.”
These are the kinds of things taluvu invites you to say in your own words, never a checklist of what anyone “should” have.
