Intro

I wanted to share my story of how I recovered from Long Covid so that you know that you can also recover.  These are some of the things I tried that I found helpful before I discovered nervous system regulation.

It was in December 2020 that I caught Covid. The acute phase wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t hospitalised or anything.  But a week later, everything changed. Suddenly, the fatigue hit.

Also to provide a bit of context, prior to Covid, I had been recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which had been triggered by a shoulder surgery.  I was almost recovered, but I didn’t feel resilient.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

So when those symptoms came back in early 2021, I had that sinking feeling, the fear crept in. I knew what was coming and how long the road ahead might be—although I really wished I was wrong!

Along with debilitating fatigue, I had developed quite severe brain fog, even trying to do any work was almost impossible. I had internal vibrations (if you know you know!), noise sensitivity and a number of food allergies/food sensitivities.

Treatments and Therapies

These are just some things that helped me, its not medical advice and there is no guarantee they will also help you.

I tried a number of different treatments and therapies to try and improve my symptoms. A silver lining from having had CFS previously was that I knew what I needed. One of my first go to's was an activated oxygen machine. It helped a lot in the early stages when I was really fatigued by improving my energy so I could actually try and go to the supermarket.  I also used ozone therapy in the early months.  Since our mitochondria (the little energy powerhouses in our cell) need oxygen to work, it gave that extra boost. Then there was cranial sacral/ cranial osteopathy, which also helped alleviate some of my symptoms.

One of the other techniques was spinal energy (there is Spinal Energy Technique and Network Spinal Analysis, I had the latter). I initially sought it out for my Covid symptoms, but it ended up helping in ways I didn’t expect. For years, I’d been really stiff, all across my neck, shoulders  and back and this was despite trying yoga and stretching.  I am now more flexible than I was 15 years ago – it had ‘melted’ all the trapped emotional tension out of my muscles, fascia and nerves.  It also helped with improving some of my symptoms.

I also worked with a functional doctor but I’m not sure how effective it was. It was helpful to get supplement recommendations, but honestly, you can find a lot of that info online (Incase it's helpful I'm taking NAC, Resveratrol Vit E, Vit D, Curcumin, B-Complex, Niacin, Omega 3, K2, Zinc, Magnesium - and yes that it indeed a shed load and over time I plan to gradually reduce them). What was really beneficial was using kinesiology to determine which supplements I actually needed so I wasn’t taking them unnecessarily (luckily my energy practitioner also did this). It was also useful to establish whether my food sensitivities were still there or not - and these have also been improving over time.

I always ate pretty well - I had a balanced diet with all of the food groups - and diet is really important for wellness - there is a direct link between the gut and the brain (gut-brain axis), so making sure you're not leading a load of processed or inflammatory foods can really influence the severity of symptoms.

I also started psychotherapy, mainly just to deal with the emotional impact of having Long Covid. But, surprise! We ended up diving into my childhood. Turns out, the way I was raised had left my nervous system a bit less resilient than I’d realised. Coming to terms with how things from decades ago were affecting my health now? Yeah, that took a while.  It was quite difficult to wrap my head around. But knowledge is power and the more you know, the more you can learn what you need to do in order to heal yourself. If you have the resources available to you and don't yet know what could be causing your triggers, its worth finding a decent therapist to help you with finding out some of this.

What next?

The next blog – is about when happened next – what happened when I stopped focusing on my symptoms and instead on what messages my nervous system was giving me.

If you want to understand more about 'why' your nervous system is at the root of your symptoms, you can download my free guide. https://rebalancewithhazel.com/cause-chronic-symptoms--opt-in