It's been a month since I finished doing the minimum dose nicotone patch 24/7 for 7 days, exactly as described in the journal article on the original small-scale study in Germany. I started feeling definitely better on the 4th day. After the 7th day, I was 90% better. I would have been happy with that -- but I continued to feel better every dayfor weeks afterward.

I was so scared that it was just my imagination that I hesitated to write about it. I had my RSV shot and it mede me feel pretty dopey for a day and a half, and I was afraid it was Long Covid coming back - but it wasn't. I woke up every day, feeling better than the day before, for about 3 weeks. I am still being surprised by tiny new improvements. I feel like I've never been sick at all - as if the concussion in the car accident and hospitalization for Covid in the same week never happened.

I used to be so fatigued I'd take a 5-minute brain break and rest for 10 more minutes every hour, but still took 2-3 naps a day and then slept all night.

I'm 82 and deconditioned from being so weak for almost a year, but I'm now able to go all day long and feel good-tired at bedtime.

In the 2 weeks after treatment, my sleep score went from in the 50s and no deep sleep at all for months, to scores in the 90s and close to 2 hrs of deep sleep a night. And I fall asleep within minutes.

I love to read, but it had taken me literally 8 months to get through one chapter of a book. In the 2 weeks after completing the treatment, I read two books and was halfway through a third.

My cognitive problems were the worst and lasted the longest, and some of them may be due to the brain injury in the car accident. But I used to be unable to remember a name and phone number, with pen in hand, long enough to write them down. I would get too confused to follow a recipe. I couldn't concenteate on a book for more than a few paragraphs. I missed appointments, forgot to pay bills, bought the same grocery item 2 or 3 times. All of those are 90% better, and I catch myself daily multitasking; fixing a tech problem; remembering words if I just wait a few seconds. Now I wonder if my remaining memory problems are just due to being 82.

The patients in the originsl study were contacted 6 months later and reported no recurrence of symptoms. If this topic is still slive next May, I'll report on my status again.