Our meeting 👋
In a few short days, I’ll be one year in with long Covid. I started working on this blog in May of 2025 - yes, it’s November 2025 now. I have finally gotten things like worsened ADHD and brain fog somewhat managed these days. Let’s rewind to the beginning with this first post.
One of my greatest challenges has been worsened ADHD from this. Oh hey, I could use Hugo to make a blog, and it will be super easy if I pace myself and take my time. It is, but enter the state of brain fog and poor attention. I want to put up a featured image. Oh look, it’s not working for days because every inch of energy used is spent overthinking how this platform works and overcomplicating every darn thing.
Nothing here will be perfect (deep breaths), and there is more to come here, but I needed to get this started, so here we go!
The Courtship 💃
On November 28, 2024, I was enjoying Thanksgiving here in the US with friends and family. It was the second year back at this, as COVID had disrupted in-person gatherings for a few years. The group is COVID conscious, and no one was showing any symptoms. I didn’t see Rona, but a presence was felt. As the night went on, I started feeling more tired than usual. Caulked it up to playing outside with the kids before dinner. I drove my family home - I remember that drive for some reason in vivid detail. The streetlights seemed brighter than normal, and the dusting of light snowfall was bothering me a little bit more than it did before. Nothing I couldn’t handle, though.
At home, I felt pretty wiped out. Kids to bed, and I went to bed soon that night. I awoke the next morning feeling like garbage. My first thought was, this is COVID. I need to test. It was positive and would be my third known infection of COVID. I started Paxlovid, as I have asthma, like I did the first two times.
The Rebound 🪃
December 7, 2024: After six days of working here and there, resting, and taking it easy, I felt almost 100%. Sleep wasn’t great; I was waking up early but falling asleep fine late in the week. I took an at-home test, and it was negative (clear it was a single line). This seemed to track; I felt good, and like before, this was about the course of having COVID for me.
I had energy and played football outside on Sunday. Sunday night I felt odd, sore, and fatigued. Chalked it up to intense physical activity during football. I was able to get to sleep and deal with the pain with a dose of NyQuil Flu. The next morning, I awoke feeling awful, like I had COVID again. So, I took the lollipop at-home test (pictured), and to my confusion, it was positive again. I took another one, different brand, same result. I went to urgent care a few days later for a nasal swab test, and that was positive.
Component results
| Component | Your value | Standard range | Result Date | Result Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 INTERPRETATION | Detected | Not Detected | 12/10/2024 | 4:01 AM |
| SARS COV-2 SOURCE | Nasopharyngeal swab |
| Narrative |
|---|
| Test performed by Transcription Mediated Amplification. TMA has been shown to be equivalent to commercial real-time PCR tests. This test has been authorized by the FDA under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use by authorized laboratories. |
And so it begins
I followed up with Urgent Care again, as my kids ended up having strep concurrently with this (I did not test positive for that). Urgent Care had nothing to offer me about rebound infections but a 5-day course of prednisone, which I accepted. I was told not to do Paxlovid again. However, I did go down that rabbit hole of did Paxlovid cause a rebound potentially? The answer appears to be likely not (https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/what-is-paxlovid-rebound-covid-rebound).
What follows next is a hell of neurological symptoms from COVID along with coronasomnia, short-term disability off work, and a low quality of life I have never experienced before in my life. I will have the symptoms page up soon.