The Journey through Long Covid

The Journey through Long Covid

by Vir McCoy, author of Healing Therapies for Long Covid and Liberating Yourself from Lyme

Before I became sick with Covid, I was healthy and active. I surfed, ran, swam, did yoga and breathwork, and exercised regularly. I considered myself health conscious and in touch with what worked for my body. I ate a mostly organic diet with high fats, few grains, lots of vegetables, and tons of herbs and wheatgrass. I had plenty of love in my life, no real stress, lots of meditation, and so on. But that did not protect me from what was to come.

My first symptoms of Covid-19 came in early December 2020. It was likely the Alpha variant, and pre-vaccine. I likely contracted it at Thanksgiving that year, as I had a few folks over, although no one else got sick.

My initial symptoms were mostly mild, with some body aches and a low-grade fever for three days. After about a week I noticed I had lost my sense of smell, which tipped me that my illness might be Covid. I tested positive by PCR test on December 8. Except for the loss of smell, the initial symptoms soon abated.

However, a couple weeks later other symptoms kicked in, with headaches (which felt like an ice cream headache or hangover that wouldn’t resolve), brain fatigue (which felt sort of like an electrical-frizz brain fire), loss of smell, lethargy, weakness, general malaise, ringing in the ears, mild cough, sleeplessness, anxiety, air hunger, jumbled thinking, and depression. Later I developed a kind of mental “fritzing” or scrambled brain, like I was going crazy, plus blurry vision in my right eye. In addition, I suddenly developed a histamine intolerance or mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). High-histamine foods that had been healthy mainstays in my diet for years, like sardines and fermented sauerkraut, had to be eliminated. Sometimes consuming just one high-histamine food would trigger an excruciating headache that lasted for days. It turns out many others were experiencing symptoms that were very similar. This was what was being called long-haul Covid.

There were times when I was in so much pain for so long I felt like giving up, as I know some do. The mental scrambling and the pain were almost unbearable at times. Chronic pain can grind a person down and create a depression, but I knew I had to keep the faith and ride it out for the “long haul.” I had too many people I loved, including my newborn child, so I just had to keep going and get well.

In Los Angeles I found a doctor who practiced integrative medicine and was experienced with long-haul Covid, and I also consulted with two doctors, Stephen Harris and Runa Basu, who’d been incredibly helpful when I was recovering from Lyme disease in years past. Blood and urine tests showed an increase in cytokines and inflammatory markers, increased glucose levels (to the point of being prediabetic), increased levels of the C4A protein (common in cases of chronic infection and inflammation), exposure to high levels of mold (aflatoxin and others), low testosterone levels, low levels of CD8 and CD57 lymphocytes, high cholesterol, increased levels of Epstein-Barr virus antibodies, and other weird things like low uric acid and cortisol levels. These all turned out to be classic long-haul indicators.

In addition to the MDs, I also went to herbalists, acupuncturists, homeopaths, osteopaths, Chinese medicine practitioners, neuroplasticity retraining (the Gupta Program), and various hands-on and energy healers. As those with long-haul Covid know, you will do anything to get better. Sometimes it was incredibly frustrating, with waaaaay too many pills and expenses. But I kept at it and eventually narrowed it down to what was working for my body.

After a month my sense of smell came back. Slowly but surely, over the course of a year, I got better. I took notes on my progress and insights. I read all the research I could lay hands on, looking for evidence to support my own evolving understanding of the disease and its treatment. As I progressed, I slowly began to put together a protocol for treating long-haul Covid, with the guidance and feedback of doctors and healers.

That protocol became the basis for my book Healing Therapies for Long Covid. There was no miracle cure; instead, what worked to help me recover from long-haul Covid was a comprehensive integrative program that included both Western and alternative medicine, a dietary regimen, psycho-spiritual development, mental and physical activities, and time—it’s not a quick process. Though I worked with a variety of medical and therapeutic experts, much of my healing journey was directed by what may seem an unlikely guide: my intuition.

I have always been sensitive to sound and energy, even as a child, in a way that seemed a bit unusual. These sensitivities and a love for nature directed me into the fields of natural science, art, and music. I now work as a field biologist and botanist, conducting rare plant and animal surveys, as well as a professional musician, touring venues and music festivals throughout North America. I have worked at both of these crafts for more than thirty years.

A third career developed along the way. I had struggled with health issues as a teenager and in my early twenties, which led me down the healing arts path. I went to massage school and later obtained certifications in somatic and neuromuscular therapies. Over the years I also studied herbology, breathwork, meditation, homeopathy, and various other healing modalities.

From 2001 to 2009, I was sick with Lyme disease. During that time, I began to “see” inside myself the way a shaman or medical intuitive might. I began to have sensory impressions or insights into what was going on inside my body, and remedies and things my body needed to heal came to me, like the way a dog craves grass or other animals seek out other specific plants when they are sick. These sensory impressions, or suggestions as I call them, provided a window into the appropriate path of healing for my body, an ability I believe we all possess. I call it intuitive access, and I believe it is an important tool for healing for all of us. I coauthored a book with Kara Zahl about my experience with Lyme disease called Liberating Yourself from Lyme. Learning from and learning how to use intuitive access constituted a major part of my healing and thus constitutes a significant part of both of my books.

The intuitive process involves quieting the mind and tapping into our sensory perception. We all get a “hit”—that gut feeling about something—from time to time. It may come in the form of an image, a smell, a sound or word, or a feeling that seems to arrive from beyond us. That’s our intuition working, and it is a powerful tool for healing and navigating in the world. Accessing that inherent intuitive power comes from a relaxed, loving place. A place of listening. There are exercises in my books to help you cultivate this tool and build your intuitive muscle.

Most of the remedies presented in Healing Therapies for Long Covid came from explorations I undertook using this intuitive process during my illness. I kept listening to the pain, tuning in to my body, trying to figure out: What is my body telling me? What is the matter? What does it need? The process was both humbling and validating, teaching me to trust my intuition. When I was “shown” a remedy, I would read through the latest medical research or check in with my doctors about it, and they would confirm and refine what I had intuited. This method helped me validate what I was seeing and sensing.

Though I rely on my intuition for direction, I have no intention of debating against science. In fact, it’s the opposite: I believe the scientific process is essential for collecting information and validating (or not) what we intuitively hypothesize. The intuitive process is a kind of spiritual science, like an inner Sherlock Holmes looking for clues. You get a lead (from intuition), and you track it down to confirm it (with science).

The protocol I developed for the treatment of long-haul Covid, based on a partnership of intuition and science, is broadly integrative, combining the common and the unusual. It includes not only my own intuitive information but also many promising options, protocols, and remedies from other success stories, with the science to back them when available. Some suggestions and medicines are of an anecdotal and unproven nature, but it is important to know what has worked for others, and sometimes science takes a moment to catch up to validating (or disproving) what may appear to be effective.

With long-haul Covid you must find the middle road: Work with a good integrative or functional doctor or healer who understands long Covid, and trust the intuitive process. It’s important to find a doctor or healer who has all the tools in the kit, from Western to alternative, because you’re likely going to need them all.

As well, don’t be afraid to reach out to others for support and connection. Long-haul Covid can be incredibly debilitating. We are not meant to take it on alone. Cracking the long-haul Covid code has been an incredible group effort among scientists, doctors, practitioners, healers, and people like myself, searching for answers. Much more information continues to be uncovered. It is my hope that my book teaches you not only to trust your intuition and unique path but to find the remedies, practices, and practitioners that work for you. Ultimately the book is meant as an offering to help you find a way through the suffering a lot more quickly than I did, because long-haul Covid is not fun—not fun at all.

The book is not a substitute for a doctor, but hopefully it is a useful tool to help you see not only what I intuited, as a guide, but what you may intuit. Becoming your own medical intuitive is incredibly powerful. After all, it is your body, and ultimately your willingness to listen and heal, that will guide you. Hang in there; there is a way through.