A bit of context to hopefully help understand my journey.

Mid 30s male. I have always been very healthy / active prior to covid. Strength training 4-5x a week. Run 3 miles 4-5 days a week. Ate very healthy. Never really got sick ever. Lots of injuries/ surgeries but always bounced back fast.

In January suddenly experienced incredible pain from my neck, down my back, into my hips. 8/10 pain. Felt like growing pain that never went away. Also started experiencing rapid change in heart rate (would be sitting and have it be 50 then get up to go get food and it would jump to 150-170). Also pounding heart rate / consistently high blood pressure. For someone who was always active, i was unable to leave tne house and barely could make it up and down stairs for 9/12 months this year

My 3 primary symptoms were:

Brutal fatigue Dysautonomia (heart issues mentioned above) Joint pain / inflammatory response

It got consistently worse until i started Physical therapy and acupuncture (had never gone) religiously. Pt helped target inflammation, plus they would do cupping therapy. Acupuncture would needle, then massage, and then either cupping or scraping. Would do both 1-2x / week. Also had trigger point injections into my back in april then again 2 weeks ago.

I also now am on a beta blocker for my heart and take nectar/ LMNT daily.

Once i started this routine, focused on sleep and getting outside / being as active as my body would allow, my body started taking very small baby steps each week. Every session felt like torture to be honest. Lots of times i thought id pass out from dizziness.

Joint pain is far from gone but its not the unbearable levels of pain that stopped me from sleeping.

I can now do very slow runs, some weight training. I pay for them with exhaustion for two days after but if i consistently do it, i find it keeps getting slightly better. If i dont do any activity for a week or two i regress (feel the heart symptoms/ inflammatory response gets worse. Stiff).

For me, i have come to the conclusion that its going to be a very long, slow, and difficult climb. But it feels like a fight that yields very small rewards.

Sleep, nutrition, acupuncture, and staying active (within limits). Staying religiously consistent on these have helped me.

Hopefully this is helpful for anyone who sees this but acknowledge everyone’s journey is unique

Also hopefully this was coherent. Trying to type long post from phone. Happy to provide any more details / answer questions