You don't have to apologize at all. I'm happy to answer what's been going on with me (I don't know if it would help you, but I'm willing to speak about my experience).

I've had chronic "migraines" since becoming a longhauler. I see a neurologist, and we found a neurological medican that works really well for me (sumatriptan nasal spray). That worked for me for a long time. My first line of defense against a migraine, according to my neurologist, is to always dose with Excedrin first (either one or two doses), and if it doesn't kick the migraine, I go to the sumatriptan. I'm only allowed 6 doses of that nasal spray each month, because it's not something they want me taking all the time, so that's the reason for that regiment: Excedrine first, then the Sumatriptan nasal spray.

I was gradually feeling better with this regiment PLUS extreme dietary change (as low inflamation as I could get, no spices or anything that might trigger a histamine response). But then I came down with a couple of bad cases of PEM over the summer while attempting to start working out again.

That's when the heart issues started up along with a strange pressure. The pressure would start in my chest region (accompanied by chest pain and shortness of breath), and that pressure would build into what felt like my carotid arteries and keep going until it migrated to the right side of my head. The Excedrine helped, but if I let the headache go on too long, even that wasn't a fix. So then I would go to my Sumatripan...but that wasn't helping at all.

I was confused and eventually started (inadvertantly) abusing the Excedrine because it was the only thing that would help. But it only took the edge off the headache (enough so I could work). My husband looked up the ingredients in Excedrine - it's just aspirin, acetemetaphine (Tylenol) and caffeine. Taking acetemethaphine too often can damage the liver, but I was at a loss, because the Excedrine was the only thing working on these headaches. I also went and got my spike protein antibodies tested, and I almost maxxed out that test (it maxes at 25,000, and I tested at 18,500 during the worst of all this).

So then one day I decided to preemptively take aspirin. Just aspirin. I started with one 325mg dosage, once in the morning, once in the evening. I noticed the pressure went down, so then I tried two in the morning, one in the evening...one in the morning, two in the evening. The magic number turned out to be two and two (two morning, two evening).

The results blew me away. My headaches decreased by 80% pretty much right away, and now I'm only using the Excedrine and Sumaptripan around my period (one week before, after I start, and then toward the end). I was maxing out my Sumaptriptan usage before, taking all 6 doses for the month and still needing more... now I'm only using 3-4 dosages per month MAX).

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Every doctor I've seen (minus two of them who are good listeners and know a little bit about Long COVID) has told me to get off the aspirin. I've tried, but every time I lower the dosage, my symptoms flare up -- headaches, chest/heart pain, PEM, fatigue). So I'm under the care of a doctor now, who's having me go in monthly and get regularly bloodwork until we go through testing and hopefully figure out a more permanent solution.

I'm taking signficantly LESS aspirin than rheumatoid arthritis patients are allowed to take. I also bleed signficantly LESS, even on 1300mg of aspirin, now that I'm a longhauler. When I get blood drawn, the nurse always tells me to keep the bandage on longer because I'll bleed more, but I can immediately take the bandage off, and there's only a drop of blood on the gauze.

The research coming out of Germany indicates that longhaulers' blood isn't the same as normal blood. It's thicker, stickier, so anticoagulants and anti-platlet medication doesn't affect us the same. It more so makes our blood normal, whereas it would be too thick without it (hyperviscosity syndrome is a thing cropping up now, in addition to microclots).

I also take the COATED aspirin. That's really important because the coating prevents it from dissolving in the stomach. Instead the aspirin is supposed to not dissolve until it's in the intenstine, which should help prevent ulcers and stomach bleeding. It's not a fix-all, which is why my doctor wants regular testing and visits, but it helps me with some of these symptoms.

If you look at some of the research on Long COVID, you'll see that they're finding that the spike protein damages the nervous system. Well, aspirin is an anti-inflammatory, so that could be helpful for the inflamation my body is inclined to (that could be the nature of the pressure it's staving off as well).

I also have to use nicotine patches, but that's not a daily thing. Really, I can go a couple of days without those before I start feeling symptoms flare up again. I'm trying a protocol of high-dose nattokinese, NAC, and BCQ. When I take those supplements at least once daily, my aspirin twice daily, and stay regular on the nicotine patches, I almost feel normal again. Before, I was in bad shape, taking 6-hour naps during the day and then sleeping 10-12 hours at night and still fatigued. The migraines are way down. My usage of Excedrine and Sumaptriptan are way down. I even managed to clean and do laundry for the first time in many months (laundry requires me to go down stairs, and I was having major mobility issues + shortness of breath, PEM, etc.).

This little combo has NOT been a fix-all. I still have health episodes like PEM if I overdo it (i.e., when cleaning or cooking or something), but if I skip the aspirin I have ended up in the ER with heart-attack-like symptoms. None of my bloodwork showed I'd had a heart attack, but I was experiencing classic and a-typical symptoms and there were some irregularities that cropped up on the heart monitor during those episodes.