Recovery Timeline
Feb 2023: Acute Infection
My acute infection was mild - ironically, I thought I was one of the “lucky ones” at the time. My fever never went above 99 degrees for 5 days - then it vanished. I had traditional “cold” symptoms for about 10 days, then my nose cleared up.
But as my “cold” symptoms got better, the rest of me got worse. By weeks 2-3, I was starting to have lung problems that kept me up at night. I started to get pain in my legs that made it hard to walk or stand up.
Spring 2023: Getting steadily worse. It was terrifying.
I kept noticing terrifying new symptoms in my body, that I’d never noticed before.
My lungs started doing this very odd thing where if I breathed deeply (like you do when you’re starting to fall asleep at night) I would get light-headed and jerk back awake.
Walking from my bedroom to the kitchen and pouring a glass of water felt like I was running a marathon - I was completely wiped out afterwards.
I developed POTS, and had to stay lying down for the majority of the day. If I stayed upright for more than 20 minutes, I began to feel light-headed, like I was going to pass out.
I began to notice that I could see all of the veins in my feet, in ways that I never could before.
I tried to seek help for all of these problems - through virtual urgent care and in person at the ER. Most times, I was told things looked normal. “Oh, we see feet that look like yours every day” the ER staff told me about my veins.
May 2023: Tested Positive for Microclots @ David Putrino’s Lab
I was accepted into a study at Dr. David Putrino’s lab at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC, where they were examining the blood of Long COVID patients for microclots and hyperactivated platelets.
I tested positive for both- my results pictured below:
David also performed the NASA lean test with me, confirming a diagnosis of dysautonomia.
June 2023: Symptoms worsen
June was a terrifying time. My symptoms were getting worse and worse. I could barely sleep because my lung symptoms and the feeling of not getting enough air would jerk me awake.
I’d get a strange, painful tingling sensation all over my body every time I laid down or held still, which would also cause me to wake up when trying to rest.
I felt that I was getting worse and worse - it was hard to see a way out.
Beginning Dual Anticoagulant Therapy for Microclots
That spring, I connected on Twitter with microclot researcher Dr. Douglas Kell, who connected me with Dr. Jordan Vaughn in Birmingham, AL. Dr. Vaughn prescribed me dual anticoagulant therapy of apixaban and clopidegrel to treat microclots.
Apixaban helped somewhat; I found I was better able to sleep through the night.
Clopidegrel was the real game changer. The first time I took it, I felt a sudden rush of mental clarity. My emotions felt normal. I remember I was listening to music and all of a sudden I could actually feel the music, in a way that I hadn’t been able to.
I realized I hadn’t just been depressed - I hadn’t been getting enough blood flow to my head.
I’ll never forget the moment was listening to this song, when I felt my ability to actually feel the music return:
I had additional improvements as well:
My lung symptoms calmed down, to where I no longer had to limit the amount I was speaking during the day. Most nights, I could count on being able to sleep.
I also had improvements in physical PEM, to where I could at least walk to the kitchen and get myself a glass of water without that lactic acid feeling of having done an extreme workout afterwards.
My ability to stay upright increased gradually over the summer months as well. I went from 20 minutes upright to a time, to an hour, to even two - as long as I stayed well hydrated.
Dual anticoagulant therapy didn’t cure me - but it did get me to a point where I was at least able to live, while I waited for additional treatments.
In retrospect, I truly do not know what would have happened to me if I didn’t get these medications at this time.
Between my infection in February and starting the meds in June, I had been getting steadily worse each week, with more and more symptoms resulting from improper blood flow.
Frankly, I am not sure I would have made it - although I try not to think about it, most of the time.
Oct. 2023: POTS symptoms had begun to stabilize
By October, I could be upright for as long as I wanted - as long as I was sitting down. I also found I could do more physical activity before getting PEM, although it still wasn’t very much.
I reached a point where I was able to live alone, in a small studio apartment, and do the bare minimum to take care of myself before getting back into bed. I did everything remotely - got groceries via delivery or curbside pickup.
Thankfully, I never seemed to get cognitive PEM - so I was able to spend a lot of time researching treatments.
But the physical PEM was still debilitating, and I knew something still had to be very wrong. I poured over all of the Long COVID research and papers that came out.
Viral persistence: the alien living in my body with me.
Ever since I’d first gotten sick, I felt like there was as an alien living in my body with me, messing up all of the chemical reactions it needed to create energy. Like my body wasn’t fully mine - almost like it was possessed.
The viral persistence hypothesis had always terrified me, ever since I first started researching Long COVID. It was basically my worst fear.
However, as time went on, I realized that treating the microclots hadn’t gotten to the root of the problem. There had to be something else.
Finally, this preprint from Rodriguez et al. came out in February 2024. Based on their observations of the most severe Long COVID patients, the authors made the case that there was likely a correlation between high levels of anti-spike IgG antibodies, and failure to clear the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
My own anti-spike antibodies had always been high, ever since my infection.
In this moment, I realized the thing I was the most afraid of was also the most likely to be true - that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was still in my body.
So I decided to face my fear.
Feb 2024: Began preparation for antiviral treatment.
I shifted gears, and began to prepare everything I could think of to clear the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
I knew that researchers had hypothesized several different forms the virus could persistent in - both replicating and non-replicating. I decided the safest thing to do was to design a protocol as if it was replicating - in order to avoid the possibility of creating resistance.
First, I wanted to start by building a proper foundation, to try to get my body into the best possible shape to fight off the virus.
From my research, I learned there were some types of foods/nutrients/supplements that could have antiviral properties, without creating resistance.
Omega-3 fatty acids can make it more difficult for the virus to puncture through a cell membrane.
Coconut oil contains multiple virucidal compounds that can actually disintegrate a virus’ membrane on contact.
Probiotics can modulate our immune system, and help it fight off a virus more strongly.
So I began the above interventions, and more. You can read more about what I did in this post:
March 2024: Stopping anticoagulants
Since October, I had experimented with cutting back on the anticoagulants. It seemed like I had hit a plateau, in terms of improvements. My lungs had improved and I no longer got dizzy while sitting up, my PEM was better … but nothing else seemed to be changing.
I didn’t want to be taking unnecessary medications - especially since blood thinners come with risks.
First, I experimented with cutting back apixaban from once a day, to every third day, then once a week, then not at all. I didn’t really notice a change, so I stopped it officially.
Next, in December 2023, I tried to cut back on clopidegrel. That was a little harder. I was able to get it to once every other day, and then once every third day, before my POTS symptoms would come back when I tried to be upright.
In March 2024, once I started all of these nutritional interventions, I was able to completely stop clopidegrel without relapsing.
I may never know for sure why this happened. I may have improved with time, or more likely, the dual anticoagulants had given my body enough of a boost in order to heal in some way.
However, it was a significant enough correlation that I do think it’s worth noting.
June 2024: Began antiviral treatment plan:
By June had a new, improved baseline. I think that’s important to note, because I don’t know how this protocol would have affected me at a different point in time. By this time I no longer had POTS/trouble being upright, my lung symptoms were improved, and generally things felt a lot more stable.
It’s possible my immune system had simply calmed down with time. However, I think it’s more likely that the dual anticoagulant treatment helped my body recover and clear some viral persistence, although not all. (I’ll explore these mechanisms further in another post).
The Protocol:
Pillar 1: Mitochondrial & Metabolic Support: Glutathione, CoQ10
Pillar 2: Antiviral
Pillar 3: Thymogen Alpha 1: Immune Stimulating Peptide
Had gradual improvements at this time. Found my step count was increasing. I could do more before I got PEM.
August 2024: Switched to Thymosin Alpha 1 Peptide.
Thymosin Alpha 1 has more aggressive and direct antiviral properties than thymogen alpha 1 does.
I used it for about four weeks in August and September. I had a horrible “herx” type reaction to the point where I could barely stand up some days.
I tried to push through, but the reaction scared me and I eventually quit taking it.
It took a few weeks for the effects to wear off, and for a while, I was scared that I may have permanently harmed myself. However, that all changed a few weeks later….
Oct. 2024: My post-exertional malaise was gone.
The peptide slowly left my system, and I began to feel less sick/more normal again.
Right as I was coming out of this haze, I had to drive 3.5 hours from my apartment in upstate NY to Boston.
Normally, when I made this drive I had to stop and take breaks every hour or so to rest my arms.
I wasn’t expecting anything on this drive (if anything, I was still scared the peptide had somehow harmed me).
But I was shocked to find I was able to make the entire drive without my arms getting tired.
The next day, I drove to a medical appointment that was a 2 hour round- trip.
And STILL my arms were not tired. I couldn’t believe it. I was expecting to be a complete wreck, but I got home from this trip and still my arms felt normal.
I hadn’t experienced my body acting this normally since before Covid.
It seemed as though I was not hitting the same wall of post-exertional malaise that I had been previously.
I could exercise!
I went home and put on some music to psych myself up. I was frightened of what would happen, but I decided to do some of my core exercises that had been a main part of my fitness routine pre-Long COVID.
And I found I could do them. I was, of course, weaker and I couldn’t do as many reps. But I felt… normal. I didn’t get PEM.
I didn’t have the same sick feeling of exhaustion later that day, or the next day. My core muscles recovered from it normally!
Last remaining symptom: Difficulty standing
Unfortunately there was still one major thing wrong, which was that I still couldn’t stand up for very long without getting pain building up in both of my lower legs.
I’d assumed it was part of my PEM, but now that my PEM was gone, this additional symptom remained completely the same.
Present Day
I’ve been stable now for over a year - my PEM hasn’t returned! My muscles now recover completely normally from exercise - if I’m doing my core workout lying down, or swimming, which doesn’t put pressure on my legs.
I continued to take the antiviral until the beginning of March 2025 - meaning I took it for a total of 9 months. I’m not sure how much it really did, relative to the thymosin alpha 1, but I wanted to be sure not to lose any benefits by stopping it too soon.
I’m currently trying to figure out my remaining symptoms.
Last summer, I experimented with antibiotic and herbal therapy after testing positive for Bartonella via the IGenX FISH test - this unfortunately did not lead to any improvements (and the drugs made me quite sick).
My main hypothesis right now is that I may have an iliac vein compression limiting blood flow out of my my legs, so I’m currently investigating that. Dr. Vaughn first identified this as a possible issue for me in 2023. At that time, curing viral persistence was my main focus, but now that I no longer seem to have chronic pathogens driving my issues, I’m giving it all of my attention now.
I welcome any and all feedback and/or suggestions as I move forward into my next phase!