Thanks for sharing. I have this feeling that Long COVID will be one of those things where even if the initiating event is the same (the COVID infection), the causes of the symptoms will be multifactorial, so some treatments might work for some people and not for others... So for example, Paxlovid may work for some people with Long COVID who still have active virus somewhere in their bodies (i.e. there are many cases of people continuing to test positive long after the acute illness has passed, who also have Long COVID), but maybe that doesn't impact others.

My original conditions were set off by a viral infection, so I'm curious if Paxlovid would help me because I felt great when I was on it for COVID. But it didn't prevent Long COVID for me.

And I know...that's all speculation.

I had POTS, central sensitivity syndrome, and an inflammatory arthritis as well as other chronic conditions that were set off by a viral infection. So I'm very, very familiar with the idea that a viral infection could set up an immune response and trigger all these symptoms: brain fog, chronic fatigue, exercise intolerance, GI symptoms, autoimmune conditions, etc. And now I have a Long COVID diagnosis because symptoms that I worked really hard to manage all of a sudden got worse and I developed other symptoms.

It's been very strange to me to see terms and conditions that were a part of my everyday life, like "post-exertion malaise," exercise intolerance, and brain fog--things that other providers and just sometimes people in general minimized or doubted or hadn't even heard of... Now the terms are so well known and everyone's up in arms about how there are few treatments and not enough help. It was always like this. When Long COVID cases started emerging, it just wasn't new to my doctor, PT, and me. If there's any silver lining to having these conditions and then getting thrown off course again by yet another virus, I guess it's that my care team was well-positioned to be able to help me because we're already familiar with the some of the treatment strategies.

I'm glad they're trialing Paxlovid as well as some other drugs and a graded exercise pacing strategy. It seems like there will literally and figuratively be a lot of trial and error.