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Chronic EBV
Following my first bout of COVID in September of ‘24 I have been suffering from what I thought were Long Covid symptoms (brain fog, nerve pain, unstable mood, persistent cough, exhaustion, insomnia-to name a few). My symptoms reached a fever pitch this November as I developed panic attacks due to my inability to “function normally”. I took a leave from work and have been seeking medical treatment. My doctor believes I have pernicious anemia and Chronic EBV (confirmed by blood tests). I’ve been receiving b12 injections three times a week but haven’t really felt any improvement. Is there anything else I can do to help my conditions? Or are there any other tests I should suggest to my doctor to run? I’m sick of feeling this way and want to get back to living my life.
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People will disagree but the only thing that helped me was long term high dose valacyclovir. I was taking 1g every 8 hours for probably 1.5 years before I started feeling normal (Maybe even longer. I'd have to look back to be sure). Coincidentally, I watched my EBV EBNA result drop from 600 to around the 250 range and that is when I started feeling better.
It's not a cure. I stopped cold turkey for about 9 months and started to feel some of the symptoms start to return. Started 1g daily which helped but my EBNA was still rising and I was still feeling some symptoms. I talked my doctor into 2g daily and all my numbers improved. I could probably get away with 1.5 total grams a day but I don't know. I was also weighing about 285lb at the time.
It was a long time of steady decline in my case and the recover was just as slow.