Thread by @kirahagen

#TheNicotineTest day 96, about 3 months in. I don't generally feel like I have #LongCovid anymore, but I'm still dealing with damage done... especially in the summer heat. At the beginning of March I could barely walk 500m; now I've biked up to 15km.

Starting March 11th I did two days of half patches, then six days of full patches, 7 mg/ 24 hours of Nikofrenon brand that cost about E25 for a 14 pack on German Amazon. That week was pretty miserable: nausea, insomnia, headaches. But I started getting some energy too.

A week after I finished the patches I was doing a lot better, and a sudden transit strike meant I had to walk my son 4km to an appointment that couldn't be rescheduled. And I did it! But I could feel the PEM crash coming. So I put on another patch... and it didn't hit.

I stayed on my feet. Since then, I've taken follow-up patches whenever I overdid it and had a PEM (now gone) or POTS (now minimal) episode, which has worked out to be a patch ever 7-14 days. My metabolism is still readjusting and what's "too much" is really unpredictable now.

I did not take nicotine patches on their own, btw. I'd started nattokinase in November and it did so much to "unclog" and oxygenate my body and lungs that I went from needing my emergency inhaler 8x/ day to rarely needing it at all. I was taking 10,000 fu or 5 pills/day.

Someone on youtube talking about using nicotine gum recommended taking it with Vit C and I took that and also an "adaptogen blend" of herbs starting day 4 or 5.

Charcoal tablets, like you'd get for food poisoning, also helped immensely. I had some in my travel kit, so when the nicotine patches caused nausea, I took one or two per day as needed. When the nausea stops you've probably removed most of the reservoir infection.

Damage done: liver damage, vascular damage, executive function/ attention span issues, extreme susceptibility to heat exhaustion. I'm at about 70% of the health I had before covid. I put on about 10 kg while housebound and need to get it off, but can't change my diet much.

I had fatty liver disease 5 years ago and quit regular sugar and alcohol, and only have minimal amounts of both now. I can't do no-carb now because money is too tight and carbs are cheap. Exercise has become possible again, but figuring out pacing in summer heat is hard.

I had allergy-triggered asthma before covid, really bad asthma until I discovered nattokinase after it, and then barely needed my inhaler until it got over 25C. This part of Germany has poor air quality regularly, and that doesn't help. Using an exercise bike is safer, if dull.

I used to be able to do 100km of bike trekking in a day. About 15 - to downtown, around a bit, and back - is my max so far. The heat is really getting me though. My muscles feel dipped in acid afterwards and my asthma's been bad. Fingers and toes tingle and wrinkle.

So I feel safe in saying I have not yet reached any new homeostasis, and recovery is ongoing. My doctor has been largely useless, doesn't want to know anything about long covid, and went tests showed liver damage he told me to lose weight and that was that.

Regardless, I am in MUCH better shape than I was before taking nicotine patches and I'd recommend them to anyone who might have viral persistence. Treat the patches like a small chisel digging out rotten wood - use lots of little careful taps, and repeat as needed. Good luck!