Hyperbaric Chambers at Fantastic Wellness Center in West Palm Beach, Fl.
We may think COVID is over, but tell that to COVID.
Everybody’s COVID story is different. Here’s mine.
At the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami, I shared popcorn with the guy from San Francisco sitting next to me. At the time, COVID had supposedly only appeared in the Pacific Northwest. it was only later that it was discovered that it had already arrived by then in San Francisco.
When I got sick a few days later, my doctor gave me a flu test, which turned out negative. Over the next few days, as I lay on the couch during the day, I came to feel like what it must be to know that you are dying of a disease. It took me 6 months to fully recover back to my old self. It was great to finally be able to do all the active sports that I enjoyed now that I am retired and have the time.
I am a very active 73-year-old. I love to kiteboard in the ocean and paddle surf waves. I play tennis at least once a week and work out at the gym with a trainer for 90 minutes 3 days a week. So I’m in good shape.
A year ago, I drove over to Sarasota Florida for a memorial service for one of my cousins. I was one of the three attendees that came down with COVID. This COVID was just a bad cold. I took Paxlovid. After the regimen was over, I felt good enough; that for three or four days, my wife Maria and I went out and did things together again.
Then I got the dreaded rebound. This round was actually worse. I never seem to actually gotten over it for the last year. Yes, I had brief times, where I thought I was getting back to my old self and started doing all my favorite things outdoors. But this time was different. For the first time in my life, I developed asthma. I still have an annoying persistent COVID cough, even while using a daily inhale of Trelegy, which costs an eye-popping $625 for a one month supply. Now my trainer actually had to keep a handful of Kleenex handy for all the expectorant that I coughed up. You can be sure all the other people in the gym looked at me like Typhoid Mary. But I was testing negative for COVID. I was fully boosted with all of the Pfizer vaccines and supplemental boosters. My workouts exhausted me. When my wife finally got Covid, for the first time last month, I took no precautions; because my doctor had pointed out that I had enough anti-bodies for an elephant.
I’ve been going to a functional medicine doctor. She is a colorectal surgeon, who found that if she got her patients bio gut straightened out, she didn’t have to operate, except in maybe 20% of the cases. Every 6 months she draws a prodigious amount of blood, takes urine and fecal samples and sends them away to state-of-the-art labs. Most blood tests spin out the platelets, but one of the labs actually tries to figure out how much of the nutrition in your body is actually getting through the cell walls and measures it.
She had been able able to get my body to stop producing painful kidney stones, which were afflicting me on a frequent basis. Now she noticed, after this recent bout of COVID, that my Epstein-Barr virus had been triggered. If you have ever had mononucleosis, then you are still harboring the Epstein-Barr virus in your body. COVID triggered it and it came on with a vengeance. Where at one time it measured at only 18, now I was getting readings of 300 to 600 and the subsequent chronic fatigue. My white blood cell count was low and other vitamins and minerals were not in my usual balance.
Over the past year, whenever I got tired and run down, it seems the Epstein-Barr would fire back up again. Since this last time, from a little over a month ago, I haven’t been able to bounce back again. It appears I have developed what is called PEM (post-exercise malaise). Now, if if you’re feeling tired and run down you must be out of shape therefore got to toughen up and work out. It turns out that is the worst thing to do. Research indicates that PEM often affects Type A athletes. I have an athlete’s heartbeat that normally is around 45 now my resting heart rate is up in the low to mid-50s. My oxygen level which used to be 98 to 99 is in the low to mid-90s now.
Some research indicates that the flow of oxygen from the lungs into the blood is interfered with by nodules forming on its blood vessels. So I’m trying an experimental treatment to try and break those nodules free. Every weekday I go down the equivalent of 45 ft underwater in a hyperbaric chamber for an hour breathing 100% pure oxygen. When back I come up, my oxygen level is back to 98 or 99. Before I go in it’s 93% or 95%. Now that improvement doesn’t last all day but I’m hoping that over time it’ll eventually improve my condition.
Some reports of relief indicate that it doesn’t last. Hey, but at this point I’m willing to try anything. Yale researchers are pointing to a 5 to 10 day additional course of Paxlovid appears to help. I’ll consult with my doctor on that course of treatment.
There is no clear number on how many people have long covid, because the government doesn’t track it. Some estimates are as high as 30% of infected people have lingering symptoms in some form. There attempts being made to add Long Covid to the list of tracked diseases that the your doctor can check off. Insurance companies are fighting are fighting it, because if it becomes a recognized disease, then they would have to cover it. I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford the $2,750 for 10 Dives in a hyperbaric chamber. Hopefully it’ll be worth it.
