Finally... Some answers
I'm a runner and at the end of 2021 I was the fastest I'd ever been. I was 44 years old and could hit the mile in under 6 mins. Within a couple of months, I couldn't get in the 9s without my heart rate getting out of control and my legs basically dying.
Around the same time, I began smelling things that weren't there. I thought I was going insane. No doctors could tell me what was going on so they'd just treat the pain I had begun to experience in my back and legs, which did nothing. I underwent shots and PT and cupping and massages all to no end. Nothing helped. I just accepted that I was getting old and this was life now. Pain, fatigue and slowness.
Three weeks ago, I ran a mud run with my daughter and my heart rate was hitting 205 consistantly. If you know anything about age and heart rate, you'll know that's way too high for a now 48 year old. I scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist to get checked out.
All checked out fine but they asked me what other symptoms I had. I began to list them; pain (widespread by this point), exercise fatigue, high heart rate, odd smells that didn't exist, aversion to cold touching me, etc. They told me about long COVID and I began to read. This was it. My breakthrough.
I saw my PCP, who doesn't believe LC is a real thing. I moved on. I went to a neurologist, also didn't believe it's a real thing. Now I'm with a pain specialist and they have me on a variety of nerve drugs that seem to be making a dent. I can sit in my chair at work and not just be in excruciating pain all day because my back and hips hurt. I also seem to not get out of breath when climbing stairs now.
Most of all, I feel like there will be an end to this and I can enjoy running again. I know that I may not regain EVERYTHING but at this point, I'll take anything. I'm glad I found this group. I've been learning so much and I'm appreciative that my symptoms aren't far worse, as they could be.
I look forward to continuing to read all of your experiences.
Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Post-COVID Recovery & COVID-19 Support Group.
Did the Motrin stop your symptoms immediately or one year later?
One certainly finds out who your friends are.
It's pretty much full body at this point but the MAIN pain felt like IT band issues. I had shots for trigger point and sciatica and they did literally nothing.
Horrid visits with neurologist. Essentially no inclusion of Long Covid. Most emphasis on dementia. I am f-ing angry.
Hi @suefish. So sorry you had “that” experience. They obviously have no training or experience with long covid. May I suggest you contact your healthcare systems physical therapy dept and ask phone consult with Neuro Pt who hopefully can share better avenue of getting care🤞Speech therapist and recent neurologist for me was “that” experience and this other avenue enabled wider range of techniques for the slightest improvement to build on throughout body symptoms! Quickest healing to you🌈
Thank you SO MUCH!!
Since several of you have referenced not being believed by physicians, or even disbelief that LC exists, here are a few recent articles in journals that reference the prevalence of LC:
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-025-22987-8 May '25
"Long COVID affects 7.2% of US adults, with higher vulnerability among women, middle-aged individuals..." (390,000 subjects)
(n.b. that 7.2% of the general population, not just those who had Covid!)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-10120-z Aug. '25
"Of 25,000 participants who had Covid, 20% went on to have LC"
Also of note (for the skeptical physician):
"Post-viral syndromes in the coronavirus family were observed in previous diseases related to coronavirus, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)"
https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000269 Apr. '25. 40% of Health Care Workers, (meta-study)
"The pooled prevalence of long COVID among HCWs who had SARS-CoV-2 infection was 40% "
Hope this is informative, and useful for your "arsenal"!
Is b1-b12 the name? Or is that b1 all the way to 12 you are taking?
Hi, I was only taking vitamin
B1 and vitamin B 12,
I readjusted . All I really need is just B12.
B1 was too strong
Hope this helps
I live in the Chicagoland area and went to see the Chief of Neuro and Infectious Disease at our Northwestern Hospital in the city of Chicago. He basically told me that I won’t be getting my taste and smell back (after having had Covid in December of 2022). He said that after 1 year we won’t get those senses back and that the olfactory nerves don’t regenerate. I left his office with no hope at all! What irritates me, is that he’s still doing research on Long Covid and for the life of me can’t understand why he told. ME that! How does he know if he’s still doing research? I’m angry too!