17+ Months Long COVID

All various symptoms: My ‘Bag-o-Symptoms’
“Every day is a new day. It’s like drawing the lottery out of my Bag-o-Symptoms to see which will ail me and to what degree. They all just wax and wane throughout my days.” (Kind of along the lines of Forest Gump’s Box of Chocolates)

-Initial Symptom Onset 9/11/2020 (after asymptomatic acute COVID infection - up until 9/11/2020, I would describe myself as healthy and active. All through Spring and Summer 2020 was walking 3-7 miles/day.): Symptoms came on literally overnight from 9/10/2020 to 9/11/2020. Hit me like a Mack Truck.

-Chest Pressure: Elephant on my chest

-Heart Racing/Palpitations: Jack LaLanne is inside my chest doing calisthenics

-Cognitive Issues: Getting lost in - trying to navigate through the Brain Fog Forest (At about a month in - early 10/2020 - before I knew “Brain Fog” was a thing, my journal entry described … “Brain is in a fog - very hard to focus.”
[Entry in late 10/2020:
I’m really thinking the “brain fog” thing is a real thing. My therapist said that last week she didn’t want to freak me out, but she noticed I was missing words when I was talking to her. She knew the thoughts were there, but when I tried to put them into sentences, I missed saying some words.]

-“Crushing” Fatigue - must sit or lie down for a “Pass Out Nap”

-SOB: Feels like my lungs are wrapped in cheese cloth

-Chest Pain: Radiating gripping pain

-Nausea, followed by Full Body Flush and Heart Rate Spike (as high as 200+) with no apparent trigger (often while sitting and/or little to no exertion) … I call “Episodes”

-If I push myself too much in a day (like take a shower AND leave the house for an errand or meal), I risk “paying for it later” with a “crash” of severe symptoms that sometimes last days. (Not always, mind you … lottery/Bag-o-Symptoms)

-In the early days after all the regular diagnostics came back with results in “Normal” range, my journal reads, “Just wish I could buy a clue on diagnosis.”

UPDATE: I’ve been accepted to the Mayo Clinic Post COVID Recovery Program - Rochester, MN. Initial (virtual) consult in April with a follow up week of in person diagnosis and treatment planning. Hopeful to “buy that clue”.