Despair to Discernment: Health Back After Long COVID
This Post is in response to @Dilan Alexander 5 min challenge: Health To speak about our health journeys and the knowledge we’ve uncovered along the way. For me, this isn’t just a health story. It’s a story of rebuilding a life, piece by piece, after it was quietly and violently dismantled. Before COVID, I was the kind of person who cared deeply about wellness. Holistic health wasn’t a trend to me, it was a value. Integrative medicine was how I lived. I ate clean, stayed grounded, prioritized the balance of body, mind, and spirit. I'm a Yogi, a Swimmer, a Golfer...That paints the picture.... I never imagined how quickly all of that could fall apart. Then came LONG COVID. Slowly, mysteriously, everything changed. I wasn’t just tired, I was cognitively gone. I had heart damage, brain inflammation, and a nervous system that no longer felt like my own. And yet… the worst part wasn’t the illness. It was the DISMISSAL. My first doctor told me" I was lucky" ... He said others were dying or paralyzed and since I wasn’t either, I’d be fine. He sent me home with Paxlovid — a barely trialed drug — and no answers. I wasn’t fine. I was scared, confused, and quietly unraveling. Looking back, that was the moment I learned one of the hardest truths of all: No one is coming to save you. And sometimes, the people closest to you — even well-meaning ones — may urge you toward choices that don’t align with your values or your body. I was encouraged, even pressured, to take medications and vaccines I didn’t feel right about. And I did. And they made things worse. I don’t say this lightly, and I don’t say it to scare anyone. I say it to remind you: YOUR BODY IS YOURS!!! Your intuition matters. And we must never hand over our health without discernment. So how did I begin to heal? I didn’t give up. For over two years, I lived in a fog. I couldn’t write emails. I’d sit in the same chair for hours and forget where I was.... Even brushing my teeth felt like a task.... But I kept asking questions. I kept searching.... And eventually, I found a compassionate doctor who truly listened. She discovered the cause: a leaky heart valve, blood flowing backward. Brain inflammation. A nervous system under siege. We created a plan. We treated the heart first, we treated the brain. But most important, I returned to my compass.