My COVID Recovery Journey

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 "Long COVID/Long Haulers" - kicked mine. 

These were some of the symptoms that I experienced:

- Impaired vision and proprioception (I nearly killed someone the first time I drove as I could not see them in my peripheral vision)

- Diminished hearing

- Felt like a tight helmet was being squeezed around my head

- Extreme brain fog (I literally could not think and every decision - big or small - felt so hard) & both short and medium-term memory loss; I couldn't remember my computer/ATM passwords, my credit card #, my nephew & niece's birthdays. It was so awful that I felt like my brain was completely broken

- Changes to my skin (I felt like I aged 10 years in 2 weeks)

- Hair loss and density/texture changes 

- Inability to articulate & lost all access to creative thought (as someone who shares and writes for a living, this wrecked me)

- Racing heart (I would walk up 6 stairs and feel my heart beating out of my chest) 

- Debilitating random hip pain one evening that landed me in the emergency room because I could not walk

- Gained 20 lbs 

- Extreme emotional distress going from feeling like a vibrant 41-year-old to the above 

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.

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&J vaccine right before I left (& about a week before the news came out about J&J's vaccine); unfortunately, I am one of those rare cases - THIS DOES NOT NEGATE MY BEING 100% PRO-VACCINE (b/c I fully understand the science & 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.

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. 

On that note, I wanted to explain this GoFundMe.

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 & it was too soon to do so).

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, & 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 & 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 middle of 5 lay-offs in 3 years)

Love,

Smita

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. 

- PayPal - paypal.me/smitamoon (pay as friends & I can also give you my email)

- Venmo - @SmitaC

- ChasePay/Zelle - Please message for my email

- CashApp - $smitamoon

- Facebook pay 

- For my international friends, Xoom & I can send you my email

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 brain gadget that changed my life or the body composition altering collagen pudding that I love, and all kind of other stuff I share in my group and page - 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.