Okay guys this is going to be a long thread. I’m not a doctor, but I do have a few things that happened to me in recent years that I think maybe can help give peace of mind

So five years ago I was 27, fit, healthy. Ate clean, worked out 6x/week running/weightlifting/etc. Then all of a sudden I was exhausted. I would come home from work at 4pm and sleep until 4am and still be tired. No appetite. For weeks. My husband was really concerned.

We went to a dr who did tons of tests: ekg, clot checks, chest X-ray, tons of blood work. All came back normal. On paper I was perfect. But I still was SO tired, something was definitely wrong but the doctor just had

So I thought outside the box and went to an allergist. I knew I had allergies my whole life to an extent and wanted to see if maybe I got a grasp on it if it would help. Before that I was taking “Vegas mix” basically a serum of all the pollens in my locale.

The idea behind this is you give yourself small doses of the allergens and your body builds a tolerance and you feel better. Well that never happened so allergist it was. Turns out I was allergic to 33/64 common plants in Vegas. I also got the pinpricks on back. Sent to an ENT.

So the ENT looks down my nose and throat with some tube and enlightens me. Apparently every 5 years or so your body can change allergies. And there’s a big shift usually in your late 20s. I have a small throat and what was happening is allergies causing post nasal drip

Which was dripping down my throat, going into my stomach and irritating it causing no appetite and heart burn/acid reflux which was burning the bottom of my esophagus. Which is why I had sore throats and was losing my voice constantly even though I never had in my life before.

He put me on cetirizine (allergies), montelukast (asthma), and a heart burn medicine (that one to be used until my throat symptoms went away). Over time I wasn’t exhausted anymore. I had my energy back and my body back. But I had had NO clue how debilitating allergies could be.

So 3 years ago, after having my youngest son the year before, I could not lose weight. I was doing insanity and weightlifting and eating a bodybuilder diet (egg whites, oatmeal, wheat bread, baked chicken and green veggies). Nothing worked. Mentioned it to a personal trainer bud

He suggested getting a food sensitivity test. Turns out I was sensitive to gluten, dairy, and eggs (a hell of a lot of what I was eating). So you do an “elimination diet” where you cut out all inflammatory foods and then slowly add them back one at a time and monitor your sxs

So I did that. And when I would eat certain foods sometimes I would get a headache, sometimes nausea, sometimes low energy, sometimes abdominal pain, sometimes tingly throat/tongue, sometimes rapid HR, sometimes rashes.

And the biggest thing was when I cut them all out I could think clearly. I didn’t realize how deep brain fog was until I didn’t have it anymore. I just assumed the cloudy head and tiredness was just being a new mom bc duh that’s part of it. But it wasn’t just that.

A lot of what I went through in those two experiences reminds me a lot of what a lot of us are going through now. It’s totally frustrating to not feel right but all the tests say you’re fine. You know your body, push for answers. Make drs think outside the box to find an answer.

Also, do not underestimate how debilitating inflammation can be for your body. All that weight I thought I couldn’t lose was bloating. I looked like (and pretty much did) I lost 15lbs in a matter of weeks after cutting out foods that threw my body off. Again I’m not a doctor

And I know that a lot of people probably do have things like PVFS and what not, but some of us could be having inflammatory responses we didn’t used to have. The problem might not be something so permanent or scary. It’s something to explore with your dr at the very least.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone. I’ve had about 10 good days in a row. All that’s left is upper back pain and deep leg pains mostly. We will all get through this, no matter what the source of our lingering symptoms are. Lots of love to you today covid fam hope you’re well!