<div>As many of you know, at the beginning of November 2020, I caught COVID from my doctor (I went in for a cough that had lingered for a month in spite of testing negative for COVID), gave it to my mom, and we both ended up having the mildest, practically nothing experience of the virus. I thought I had "kicked COVID's butt" until two weeks later when post-COVID - aka <strong>"Long COVID/Long Haulers" </strong>- kicked mine. 
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<div>These were some of the symptoms that I experienced:
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<div>- Impaired vision and proprioception (I nearly killed someone the first time I drove as I could not see them in my peripheral vision)
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<div>- Diminished hearing
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<div>- Felt like a tight helmet was being squeezed around my head
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<div>- Extreme brain fog (I literally could not think and every decision - big or small - felt so hard) &amp; both short and medium-term memory loss; I couldn't remember my computer/ATM passwords, my credit card #, my nephew &amp; niece's birthdays. It was so awful that I felt like my brain was completely broken
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<div>- Changes to my skin (I felt like I aged 10 years in 2 weeks)
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<div>- Hair loss and density/texture changes 
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<div>- Inability to articulate &amp; lost all access to creative thought (as someone who shares and writes for a living, this wrecked me)
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<div>- Racing heart (I would walk up 6 stairs and feel my heart beating out of my chest) 
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<div>- Debilitating random hip pain one evening that landed me in the emergency room because I could not walk
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<div>- Gained 20 lbs 
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<div>- Extreme emotional distress going from feeling like a vibrant 41-year-old to the above 
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<div>Refusing to give up (although, believe me, I wanted to), after 5 months of complete #longhaulers hell and really struggling with my recovery in my home environment, my best friend, Emily, said that I should come down to South Carolina and focus on my recovery at her place.
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<div>At that time, vaccinations for my age group had just opened up in Maryland, so I rushed to get one while still in MD and ended up getting the J&amp;J vaccine right before I left (&amp; about a week before the news came out about J&amp;J's vaccine); unfortunately, I am one of those rare cases - <strong>THIS DOES NOT NEGATE MY BEING 100% PRO-VACCINE </strong>(b/c I fully understand the science &amp; data of NOT getting vaccinated and vaccine side effects versus consequences of COVID) who experienced a side effect. Ever since getting the vaccine, I have had acute headaches specific to my right temple and behind my right eye that come and go.
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<div>All that being said, I am channeling what Emily said... I AM getting better and I know that I am so lucky that most of my worst symptoms in the initial few months cleared, and any that come back post-COVID/post-vaccine don't stick around for as long as they used to, so... yes, it feels like rock bottom/ground zero all over again, but my recovery trajectory is moving upwards. 
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<div>On that note, I wanted to explain this GoFundMe.
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<div>Between integrative medicine doctor appointments (not covered by insurance, but mine has been critical in offering me guidance and support), countless supplements, organic foods/healthy food meal services, hyperbaric oxygen treatments, IV fluids, acupuncture, and more, my efforts towards recovery - which were working when I was doing them all - were (are) so costly, so I am asking for help sustaining everything that I need to do for at least another six months to get back to good and stay there (I thought I was "good" so I weaned off doing most of those things &amp; it was too soon to do so).
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<div>Re: asking for help... as I mentioned in a recent video share that I did (where I mentioned how I would not wish how I feel on my worst enemy), it is - especially being South Asian, where we are never supposed to share our hard times and asking for help is considered shameful - honestly a huge shame thing for me, but I am trying to offer myself the same grace, care, &amp; compassion that I believe I offer others and, most of all, forgiveness for being in this "situation" because of what I lived through (being a DV survivor which included being held hostage &amp; suffocated by a body pillow in the context of a 3-month dating relationship, spending $30,000 in court with the same female judge in the first case against my ex only to lose my case, and spending $30,000  in recovery efforts from extreme PTSD and depression following that time which happened in the <em>middle</em> of 5 lay-offs in 3 years)
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<div>Love,
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<div>Smita
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<div>p.s. - Since GFM takes a fee, I am including the below, and I swear on every hair on all the babes I love and #futureonedaybabe that - as mentioned above - I will account for each donation and how it is used publicly. 
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<div>- PayPal - paypal.me/smitamoon (pay as friends &amp; I can also give you my email)
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<div>- Venmo - @SmitaC
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<div>- ChasePay/Zelle - Please message for my email
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<div>- CashApp - $smitamoon
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<div>- <a href="https://www.facebook.com/iamsmitamoon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook pay</a> 
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<div>- For my international friends, Xoom &amp; I can send you my email
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<div>p.p.s. - The last 8 years have put me in a place of needing to replenish lost resources, so - while you will see me working so hard to earn funds through my sharing efforts of things like the <a href="https://www.zencrack.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brain gadget</a> that changed my life or the <a href="https://www.modere.com/productdetail/trim/?referralCode=6517007" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">body composition altering collagen pudding</a> that I love, and all kind of other stuff I share in my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/smitashares/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">group</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SmitaShares/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">page</a> - funds raised will help me in being able to move forward with this sooner rather than much later. Note: If you have any questions about the gadget, pudding, or anything else, please message me as I can help get you all the science behind the things I love plus the best cost. 
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My COVID Recovery Journey

Support urgent earthquake relief and past recovery in Venezuela.

Apoya la ayuda urgente tras el terremoto y los esfuerzos de recuperación en Venezuela.

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

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Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

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OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

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US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

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Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

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Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

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Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

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EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

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fallback mode accounts

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Auto Thanks Feature Audience

International Only

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Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

Support Comments Allowlist

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

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AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

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ai_title_page

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openai

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Native 11.3.0 and above

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New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

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challenge-fundraisers

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CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

My COVID Recovery Journey

Still $6,622 to go. Help us build momentum.