I ended up getting Covid last May, around the time when my country had its first major outbreak. My mom made a foolish decision to go out to eat even though I advised against it, and it was truly a nightmare to get her to come out of denial and deal with the problem(I had to fight with her to get tested after she started showing symptoms, and I had to argue with her on multiple occasions during the quarantine because she wasn't monitoring her condition. I was the one who called the hospital after making her check her SP02 level(which she refused to do) and found that it was way below the acceptable level).

Fast forward a year later, I found out that I had serious heart problems after doing some extensive testing. I did get X-ray last summer and the results showed that my lungs were doing fine, and I've regained my fitness to the point where I've been doing 50-90km bicycle rides on a regular basis. The only reason I decided to get checked is that I found out that there is a hospital near me that has a pretty extensive long covid rehab program and I wanted to check for some benign symptoms like runny nose and occasional bouts of dizziness and pain/discomfort.

When I arrived at the hospital I was actually taken back by the gauntlet of tests I had to do in one day. I didn't feel they were necessary because I felt ok for the most part, but I decided to just go along with it. The doctors noted that I walk/cycle very fast during some of the tests I had to do that day and I thought I was in alright shape. Well, it turns out that my VO2 Max is actually half of what is expected after doing the cycling test. The doctor told me my chance of death increases by 1%for every point below the expected range. I was 16 points below that range. I was also told that I may have an enlarged heart.

This came as a complete shock because I've never had any heart problems prior to getting covid. It's also pretty demoralizing because I did have to work pretty hard to get back to my former shape. I could barely do half of what I used to do when I first came out of quarantine, and it took months to get to the point where I was able to ride/exercise like I used to, and I even surpassed that point. It really scares me to think what my VO2 would have looked like if I didn't bother to get back in shape.

This was 2 weeks ago, and it really changed my perspective about how I look at long covid. I was wary about having to do further testing, but I now realized that this is important. I need to come to terms with the fact that I am in a lot worse shape than I think even though I may not really feel it.

I also started to think that maybe I've been downplaying my brain fog and minor discomforts like chest pain and shortness of breath. I may be doing a lot better than when I first recovered from Covid, but it's nearly impossible to compare how I am right now to how I was before getting covid. I guess what I am trying to say is this. There are definitely bouts of extreme dizziness and discomfort, but I am starting to realize that the brain fog is persistent and it's I am probably less lucid than I was before getting covid at my base level of functioning. It's just that I've gotten so used to the mild level of brain fog that it has become the new normal for me. I can probably say the same for the shortness of breath and chest pains. They may not be severe and don't happen very often, but then again, those things never happened before I got sick either.

I guess I am just here to share my experience. I don't want to scare people about long covid, I think it's important to be open to the idea that you may not be doing as well as you think without blaming yourself for it. I've been making a genuine effort to live a better lifestyle for the last couple of years and I will continue to do so, but the problem with my heart is something I may have to wrestle with for a very long time.