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Finally... Some answers
I'm a runner and at the end of 2021 I was the fastest I'd ever been. I was 44 years old and could hit the mile in under 6 mins. Within a couple of months, I couldn't get in the 9s without my heart rate getting out of control and my legs basically dying.
Around the same time, I began smelling things that weren't there. I thought I was going insane. No doctors could tell me what was going on so they'd just treat the pain I had begun to experience in my back and legs, which did nothing. I underwent shots and PT and cupping and massages all to no end. Nothing helped. I just accepted that I was getting old and this was life now. Pain, fatigue and slowness.
Three weeks ago, I ran a mud run with my daughter and my heart rate was hitting 205 consistantly. If you know anything about age and heart rate, you'll know that's way too high for a now 48 year old. I scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist to get checked out.
All checked out fine but they asked me what other symptoms I had. I began to list them; pain (widespread by this point), exercise fatigue, high heart rate, odd smells that didn't exist, aversion to cold touching me, etc. They told me about long COVID and I began to read. This was it. My breakthrough.
I saw my PCP, who doesn't believe LC is a real thing. I moved on. I went to a neurologist, also didn't believe it's a real thing. Now I'm with a pain specialist and they have me on a variety of nerve drugs that seem to be making a dent. I can sit in my chair at work and not just be in excruciating pain all day because my back and hips hurt. I also seem to not get out of breath when climbing stairs now.
Most of all, I feel like there will be an end to this and I can enjoy running again. I know that I may not regain EVERYTHING but at this point, I'll take anything. I'm glad I found this group. I've been learning so much and I'm appreciative that my symptoms aren't far worse, as they could be.
I look forward to continuing to read all of your experiences.
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What help me was B1-B12 vitamins had real BAD brain fog getting better finally after
4 years also all the doctors for those pass 4 years would say yeah yeah and ignore me because blood test physical appeared looked good.
Ps it would take me 1/2 hour give or take to write this response just 8-6 months ago
stay strong (:-}
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3 ReactionsI appreciate the response. I'll give that a try. The brain fog isn't too bad but I do forget words here and there. I go to trivia every week and I was finding it hard to get the answers out of my mouth even though I knew that they were in my brain.
Heading to Amazon now!
Yes, well, sorry you've had to find your way to this group, but you'll see you have lots of company.
I don't think there's any kind of actual cure for this presently, so you will have to be patient, since most likely with the passage of time you will get better. While I'm saying this, I'm aware that there are some who have had this for several years, but hopefully they are outliers. (My initial bout with this in the '90s lasted two years, then simply labelled "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome")
My opinion is that, without any real cure or way of dealing with this illness directly, the best thing is to just work with sympathetic and LC-aware physicians who can help you manage the symptoms, which seem to vary wildly from patient to patient. My own suspicion is that it somehow targets any pre-existing susceptibilities or weakness we might already have.
It sounds to me like you have already embarked on this course, dealing with pain management, which is wise. I'm sorry to hear about your pain; that must be awful.
The one specific thing I might suggest would be that you might consider acupuncture for that pain, specifically. It is sometimes surprisingly effective for ailments that conventional medicine tends to shrug its shoulders at.
It also has the benefit of no side effects, and if you've never experienced it, don't be put off by the idea of the needles, as they're almost hair-thickness fine, and you really don't feel them. Many medical plans also cover such "alternative" therapies.
Years ago, we had a standard poodle with sore hips who was helped by his vet who could do acupuncture, and the interesting thing about that is that there is no question of it being placebo effect with an animal!
Anyway, don't push yourself too hard, and it strikes me that you have a very good attitude, so I wish you all the best.