Living Life Again: Life One Month After Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment for Long Covid

It's been a month since my last of forty HBO treatments, and I am so grateful to say I am back to functioning at a level even better than before I got sick. In December 2023, after almost three years with Long Covid, I was by my neurologist's assessment disabled. I had started an SSDI application and I had told my daughter I could not longer watch the kids two days a week. Only one day a week, and with one of the parents home.

I write this update as my 16 month old grandson is sleeping upstairs at my home, after spending a morning getting his sister off to school and wandering our property, I am back to watching them two days a week, which involves loading and unloading them from the car, driving them to and fro, and carrying around the young one who prefers to be carried. This weekend, I had the great fortune to go up north to our cottage, and completed a hike involving 300 steps to climb up and down. My husband and I both remarked at how much easier it was for me to ascend stairs relative to my breathing. Last year, I had to stop every 10 steps to catch my breath. I stopped twice on the way up this time. This is a huge difference.

Cognitively, my memory has improved so dramatically, I can multitask if necessary, computate, and continue to compose. I am playing the piano again, continue to sing in the choir, and am running errands other than medical appointments. I am also in charge of tranforming our church into an underwater seascape for our Vacation Bible School this summer.

I do continue to have pain in various joints, but it is tolerable, and not draining my energy the way it did before. I have taken a few naps here and there particularily after busy days with the kids, but I am not nappying every day, and or going to bed before the 6pm news. My adrenals are keeping up, and I no longer experience the deep exhaustion that left me mindlessly numb.

Overall, if anyone can afford the time and money to invest in this treatment option, I am still holding my own. My physician who tracks my long covid symptoms essentially discharged me from the every 2-3 month visits, although is available for questions.

I do need to have surgery in a month to repair a torn meniscus root, and I pray this does not cause the cerebral mapping issues I had with a previous foot surgery. Only time will tell.

I pray this helps someone. That's the reason this is written.