something that researchers are learning more and more about.
I'm vaxxed and boosted, and with Asperger's, social distancing is my superpower. But I still got covid and it damn near killed me. Fourteen months later and my physical stamina still is far less than it was, and my mental acuity is nowhere near what it was. I feel that I aged a decade in the few weeks that I was at my sickest. At least my senses of taste and smell mostly came back in about a month. Two of my favorites do not taste the same though, guacamole is almost tasteless and hashbrowns have a bit of an unpleasant, cardboard taste.

Like you, fatigue is my daily companion. It only started to get better a few months ago. I started taking collagen peptides, and that's the only thing I can attribute to my improvement.

I also still have brain fog. But I had a seizure last year and that's made it worse.

I still have issues with food. Couldn't eat bread until about a month ago. Ever since I got covid, it has tasted like cardboard. Interesting that we both have had the feeling that we're eating cardboard. Had to give up all animal proteins. Couldn't stand looking at it, let alone tasting it. Everything I ate tasted either utterly horrible, or tasted like something that it wasn't supposed to taste like. Macaroni and cheese tasting like fish? Ketchup tasting like rust?

I definitely aged from having covid. Not only in the way I feel, but in the way I look. It really took a lot of years out of my life.

You said your taste and smell is pretty much back, but I want to know if you've had any kind of phantom smells? Those actually showed up for me after I recovered from covid. I smell used cat litter all the time. Really disgusting used cat litter. I don't have a cat. Sometimes the smell changes. Never pleasant, always icky.

People who think that they are protected because they have the vaccine, they don't realize they can still get long covid and it may never go away.

Hang in there. I can relate and I feel for you!

I will try the collagen peptides. I need to do something about my fatigue. I've been getting ready for the hurricane, even though it should be well north of here and I'm exhausted again.

I haven't had any phantom smells or tastes. I have never really had a great sense of smell or taste though. On the other hand I do smell cat litter sometimes, but I do have two cats.

It is sad that the vaccine isn't 100% effective. And especially sad that people don't understand the effects of covid, even now.

You hang in there too. And thank you again for suggesting the collagen peptides.

Have physicians come up with any more explanations, promising research or treatments? Maybe not. It's been a while since I looked into how things were going with long covid.

During the pandemic I was a real pest with f&f, emphasizing the importance of getting the shots, masking and taking precautions. Researchers will be studying the impacts and after effects of the covid pandemic for decades like other diseases.

My mother whose father was a doctor always emphasized the importance of health and medicine esp. having grown up during the 1918 Flu and polio epidemic. Both sides of the family managed to evade those illnesses although a young relative died of Aids due to the Reagan administration's bigotry, delay and neglect, until Rock Hudson and women were getting Aids.

Thanks for posting, I hope something of help develops for you. Take care.

I'm a retired registered nurse and I have been keeping up on some of the research. There has been a lot learned but long covid varies a lot and many patients seem to need several separate treatment plans.
I'm gay and I has just passed boards when the Aids epidemic started. Scary times.

and at one point ended up in the hospital.
I saw him on July 4th. He had a heart attack the night before in the hospital—I guess he died.
When I visited, he told me, "I only remember falling asleep, and then waking up to them pounding on my chest and running air lines down my throat. I didn't see any white light or anything."
He seemed concerned.

Who knows. Logic tells me there's nothing.

My dad was a great man. I was in my 20's when he passed. RIP.

that Trump, RFK, JR and the entire RW are using to bamboozle the American people. Just as they disrespect the sacrifices of the military, they do so against all the HCWs who truly DID sacrifice (many having Long COVID as a result that Workman's COMP DOES NOT COVER---even while most early on WERE infected at work) is just damned EVIL.