One of my favorite lines in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is "I'm not dead, yet". I feel that, I'm definitely not dead, yet. In fact, I don't even have Long Covid anymore.
I know some people get Covid, they get Long Covid, they get better with out any help. But some other people get Long Covid, and it seems to stick around. That would be me. I got Covid in March of 2020. Finally I got over it (there's a post or two in this Blog from that era), but then I had Long Covid by July of 2020. Fast forward to January of 2024, and this was my status: I still have post exertional malaise. If I do any workout, my muscles don't get stronger, they just ache for days and days. I need to not think about stressful things or I get exhausted. I need to take deep breaths periodically because I feel under-oxygenated. I don't sleep that well. If you see me at a party, I may look fine, but I'm going to go home and crash. I feel 20 years older than I did before I had Covid. But I still work 30+ hours/week from my home office. I can go out one or two nights a week, maybe go shopping on Sundays.
In other words, I had what is described as Mild Long Covid. Or I did, until a couple of weeks ago.
In January, 2024, I was feeling particularly low. I had gotten Covid again in November 2023, and I felt like I was not getting back to where I had been summer of 2023 in terms of health. Just very low energy. Someone on Twitter mentioned getting heparin as a treatment for Long Covid. That seemed extreme, but I started a low-dose aspirin, and looked for papers describing why heparin would help some people and blood thinning and the theory that the blood itself is full of toxins in people with Long Covid. I heard about a study where they performed "therapeutic apheresis" and it really helped people with Long Covid. Clinical improvement of Long-COVID is associated with reduction in autoantibodies, lipids, and inflammation following therapeutic apheresis | Molecular Psychiatry (nature.com)
What is "therapeutic apheresis"? Very simple, they hook you up to a machine, drain your blood, filter it for toxins, pump it back in with a continuous loop. It's a very mild, safe procedure. This "therapeutic apheresis" also called Inuspheresis, is only available in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, so I picked a place that does it and sent an inquiring email.
That led to me filling out pages and pages of questionnaires and having an initial appointment (by Zoom). The center I chose, Revisulut in Vienna, Austria, had people that spoke English. I started wiring money to the clinic for the first appointment. I met with a physician. You're still feeling low after getting Covid 2 months ago, he asked? Try another round of Paxlovid. He also ordered a bunch of biological tests (blood, stool, urine, saliva) and said, come back when you have the results of these and we'll talk.
I have to say, the second round of Paxlovid, 3 months after I had Covid, gave me quite a bit more energy. I was feeling more like my best Long Covid self. Maybe these guys know something, I thought to myself.
Over $1,000, lots of in-home stool, urine and saliva collections and multiple visits to a phlebotomist later, I got the results. I sent more money to the clinic and talked to another physician. We spent an hour going over all the vitamins, minerals, and health supplements he recommended I start taking based on the test results. I'm now taking I think 13 supplements at least once/day. This is more important than Inuspheresis, he said. This is upstream. You need to get your mitochondria in balance before we can do Inuspheresis. That is a downstream process.
Weirdly enough, the supplements seemed to be working. I had a bit more energy every day. My breathing was easier. Yes, one day I pushed it too far, and ended up in bed the next day in pain with post exertional malaise. But my exercise envelope was definitely larger.
I spent $100s buying the vitamins and supplements. I spend time every day taking the vitamins. I had to buy a giant-sized pill organizer. Now I'm ready, I said, for Inuspheresis. I scheduled it for the week of May 6th. More wire transfers to Vienna, and an airplane ticket later, I was in Europe. There were 2 treatment days, one on Monday morning at 9 am and one on Wednesday morning at 9 am. It's not especially fun being hooked up to that crazy machine for a couple of hours. But it's uncomfortable, not painful. I take it easy between the treatments, but start feeling better by Wednesday afternoon. I'm staying with cousins, we celebrate with a bottle of fine Austrian white wine. I fly back Saturday to Indianapolis.
And I feel really well. Really well. Can I run a marathon? No, not right away, but I did start a routine of morning exercises that I could not have done before the trip. People notice I have more "pep." I notice I have more "pep". I notice that exercising my muscles is causing them to get sore, and then get stronger. It's only been two weeks.
But I have a new Mission. Waking up in the morning, and instead of working on my Wordle streak, rolling out of bed and doing pushups, leg lifts, squats, planks. I'm giving up my old Wordle streak and starting a Workout streak instead. Wish me luck.
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