A special physiotherapy course has been set up to treat post-Covid patients where their fatigue is so severe that they cannot take part in standard rehabilitation courses.
Respiratory Integrated Care, Senior physiotherapist, Brenda Deering says some people being referred to her, months on after having had Covid-19, are so exhausted that they have to go to bed after having a shower.
She has designed a specific pre-rehab course to help them cope and to help them to regulate their breathing.
She says that some of those that she has seen have rapid, shallow breathing.
Brenda Deering says that in some cases they have to relearn the very basics of how to breathe correctly again.
She says that when people have had a chest infection what happens normally is that their respiratory rate increases and becomes faster.
Ms Deering says that, what they want to do is stop that breathing pattern and slow it down, so that when patients are breathing in and out it is nice and easy.
She says that another problem that can happen is that people breathe through their mouth.
She says that instead people should be keeping their lips sealed: "If you look at a baby in a cot, what you'll notice is that they are breathing through their nose and their lips are always closed," she says.
"So, we've had a learnt behaviour and learned how to breathe incorrectly. So, we have to unlearn that pattern and learn how to breathe properly again," she said.
