Long COVID: Lasting effects of COVID-19

Some people continue to experience health problems long after having COVID-19. Understand the possible symptoms and risk factors for post-COVID-19 syndrome.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Aug. 23, 2024

After any coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) illness, no matter how serious, some people report that symptoms stay for months. This lingering illness has often been called long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome. You might hear it called long-haul COVID or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC)………………………

When we got back from Hawaii, we bought a house in WA, where Homer grew up and proceeded to plan to flip it by 2025… We bought it in 21…

Well that flip turned into a royal pain, because it was over 70 years old, had cast iron plumbing, aluminum wiring and a power box that was from the dark ages…

After the sticker shock of $20K to redo the box and install split units through out that 2400 square foot 3 level home… We hit the floor running…. Signature loan for $50K, credit cards maxed out twice at $20K and hired help at $25 a hour… Yea Covid really fucked up remodeling homes and the costs involved…

We didn’t make money on our last flip, we barely broke even… Those loans and cards had to be paid off before we could sell… So, tight was normal for us and living without was normal for us….

By August of 2023 we actually knew we could finish by the summer of 24 and then someone gave me a hug on my birthday and 48 hours later, we tested positive for COVID 19… and the hugger, never apologized for making us ill and Homer is immune compromised…

That was our first lesson with the shots wearing off, before we got our next shot and now getting a booster, well, that’s on our menu about June time, but we didn’t do that this year, we forgot…

Come July this year and we go to Homer’s neurology appointment and within 48 hours I am sick and I think it’s a norovirus… WRONG!!!! I never tested myself for COVID, that’s my mistake…

After we got our Tri flu shot this week and our MRNA covid shot, I got to thinking… What if my assumptions about everything that went down since Aug of 2023 was wrong??? What if we had long covid???

So this morning when Homer gets up and while his brain isn’t fuzzy from his dementia, I ask a bunch of questions, tell him to read about long Covid and when he’s done he looks at me and goes, yea… It matches the last 3 years….

First off, September 2024, we are moving here and Homer has a heart incident… Now keep in mind he was in stage 3 kidney failure that the Omak clinic missed and the hospital in Spokane, didn’t treat him like they should… They missed things…

So we get on the road to move here and we both are having issues… Homer mainly, mine were, I thought related to my injuries, I was wrong… But Homer’s, well, he ended up in the hospital and we cut our trip here short to get him near a hospital before the event happened and again… I thought this was all related to other health things, not Long Covid…

Going back over everything we both experienced from August of 2023 till now, when we got the COVID shot this year…

It’s the only answer that fits the bill….

Non stop congestion ever since 2023, non stop headaches for me and gastro issues… and Homer has had issues with his heart and they changed up his meds and this was all done in the last two years… All after our getting Covid 19 in August of 2023…

Like I have said before, I don’t go looking for medical information, I am not a looky lou hypochondriac… I want concrete proof before I research anything, and not my assumptions…

Well that worked out this time… I blamed everything we were both experiencing on our individual issues and those issues, were all triggered by the COVID we got in Washington in 2023….

Now how do I know that I am right???

I am a super taster and smeller… I am so sensitivie that cooking toast or english muffins will send me out of the room or turning exhaust on to get the smell out…

Well those smells have bothered me non stop since 2023…

I am a toast person and I love english muffins, but for the last 3 years, I couldn’t stand the smell…

Another thing… I couldn’t really taste the heavy tumeric spice mixture I put on all our cooked food and I did that until this year, and stopped, because the pups can’t have some of the spices in that mix… So we flavor our food after I cook it, so the pups can have nonseasoned human food… and I noticed… all of a sudden I could taste the flavors of the spices I mix together… That has been missing since August of 2023…

Not a foodie… I eat to live, other wise, I pass on eating… It hurts to chew, my jaw gets tired, I tear the inside of my mouth up when the jaw dislocates and all of this I have lived with since Don knocked me across the room on Okinawa at Naha AFB housing… I was 17 at that time I am 72 now… But hey my younger brother got dental implants and the Air Force paid for it, but me… a woman… yea, lets not go there about the hate towards women veterans even by blood…

We have gone through dozens of bottles of cough medicine to help dry our sinus up and we should take stock in kleenex….

Bottom line…

The majority of health issues we have been dealing with, has been long covid and for me it’s done except for the non stop drainage and Homer has same issue…

Our diets are good, we love spices and we both are finally really tasting what we are eating and most of all…

I can smell and the puppies let me know I can smell… They smell like puppies…

Another eureka moment, but not really… I don’t assume… I want answers based on facts and history, not rhetoric….

I got a feeling, July at the neuro office I was exposed to COVID and not Noro…. I didn’t bother to grab a kit out of the cabinet and test myself, because Homer never presented sick until we got the shots this week and it did us both under… Definite heads up for next year… Get a booster in June, like we had done before our move…

This COVID stuff is not fun… We had it in 20 when it first hit the big island, then we get it again in 23 thanks to stupid… Well this stupid will be making sure we get boosters from now on… Even if we have to pay for it…

I feel better, now, than I have in a long time and no fog, the fatigue will always walk with us both because of chronic healing or disease issues…

Hope this made sense… I got very little sleep last night… Definitely asking for nerve pain med, when I go in for my checkup…

Have a wonderful day…

I remember…

copyright protected 2026 all rights reserved©️