Pat, I feel your pain. Not only have I never been the same since having a moderate case of COVID, but before that, the vaccines put me in bed for over 3 weeks. I was having the worst headaches of my life which were unrelenting. There were accompanying symptoms as well like nausea, dizziness, tinnitus, debilitating fatigue and depression. My physician told me I needed an MRI of my brain to rule out a tumor. With great relief, my MRI was normal. Then he surmised I was having an inflammatory response to the vax and prescribed a taper pack of steroids which helped briefly. Basically I just had to ride it out because nothing addressed the pain, and I refused narcotics and opioids.
As fate would have it, I contracted the virus anyway, and the symptoms returned, leaving me a completely different person physically.
I'm just tired. I have spurts of energy few and far between. This is deemed "Long Covid", for which there is no protocol, no treatment.
I took the vax in good faith, mostly to protect my elderly parents whom I see often. So now my quality of life is forever changed, and there's not a darn thing I can do about it.
I push myself to walk atleast 3 miles a day and I'm completely wiped out afterwards and have to basically go to bed. Any new illness is much worse than it should be and recovery is eternally slow.
My resulting physical condition has caused financial issues, falling behind on monthly expenses and even defaulting on a credit card. It's embarrassing and depressing.
In short, these vaccines and the virus have changed my life forever and even affected my friendships.
Additionally, I now experience symptoms of IBS for which I don't even want to be evaluated, and even if I went, I have no medical insurance. It sucks, but this is my reality.
My heart goes out to all.