@lkirnbauer 2020 was my first Covid infection. Symptoms: hot skin and the inability to have clothes touch my skin, a rash covering my joints and loss of smell and taste. I recovered within 3 months. Then in 2023 I contracted Covid D. First symptom was tongue distress (burning and yellow coating) and loss of smell. 2 day I lost all taste. I spent 6 months in marathon doctor visits and referrals to determine why Covid test strips continued to show positive results for months. During this period of specialist treatments I was prescribed 3 totally separate fungus meds (without any labs to confirm this was needed), and, when that failed to treat my tongue coating I was given 3 rounds of different antibiotics (again without any labs performed). Throughout this mess of meds, the tongue continued to have thick coating and felt on fire 24 hrs a day. Without any improvements by the end of a year 2024, I began to have long streams of yellow ooze deposit in my Navage morning nose evacuation. ENTs (3 different referrals) focused on the swelling in my Sphenoid sinus found in CT scans. ENTs and even a 4th doctor who specialized in SBG injections remained mystified by and therefore didn't treat the tongue. The specialist in neck nerve bundle lidocaine injections said he likely could not bring back loss of smell and taste due to the length of time since I lost them. But he was very concerned about the coated tongue which seemed to make things worse. It wasn't until a random visit to my dermatologist in June 2025 who was treating what appeared to be an unrelated new skin problem called rosacea that my Covid journey to healing took a new perspective. My dermatologist was a Long Covid sufferer and without me talking about my condition she asked: Are you a LongHauler? She said she saw the signs so took a risk to ask me randomly. Sort of amazed at her question, I shared my history of Covid. She had taken the same journey. She recommended the Nicotine patch to bring back my taste and smell. That is what led to the return of both my taste and smell. As an added bonus, the laser treatment for the skin condition PLUS the month long use of the Nicotine patch which returned my taste and smell senses also appears to have stopped the rosacea. Since June 2025, I have been blessed with a NP that joined my fight on this long covid journey and all of its twists, turns and stumbles. This past summer my NP entered the picture because with all the meds for things I didn't have like fungi and 'bacteria' I developed a full on attack of my gastrointestinal tract. Nearly 1 1/2 yrs of various meds for fungi and anti-biotic led to C-Diff. While it took a gastroenterologist to resolve the C-Diff, my NP jumped back into the mission when it was cleared and began many specific blood labs mentioned here on Mayo Clinic Covid Long Haul groups. My NP was spot on when she ordered T-Cell labs to confirm my compromised auto-immunity. She is continuing on labs for vitamin level because the body is unable to produce the things that my cells need to be healthy, like Vitamin D2. After reading about Dr. Peterson's work on Long Haul Covid, this is my current view on my health: I'm come to believe, every symptom I've had points to the fact that I am allergic to the Covid spike protein. My body has never cleared the spike protein because the spike protein set up a 'nasty replications' factory in my sinus cavities, suppressing my sense of smell and taste, burning my tongue which irritated my taste buds and then trashed my gastro tract. This protein caused my auto-immunity systems to fail.