u/Ok-Walk-2224

This is a new symptom for me, after months of post-viral syndrome. My heart rate randomly spikes sometimes (like, if my resting is 65, my heart rate will suddenly jump to the 140s) and I feel like I’m going to faint. It reliably happens every time I take a shower, and it will occasionally happen when I go on walks. Idk if it’s POTS, but I also don’t care, because I feel like it must be psychosomatic since it randomly appeared 8 months into my illness! I also don’t think there’s any underlying lifestyle cause—I’m hydrated, sleeping enough, and have a healthy diet. Any mind-body tips to combat this? I’ve recently been trying to “welcome” my other symptoms and react with curiosity rather than panic, but the lightheadedness kind of overwhelms my senses (and I also don’t want to faint and get hurt).

I have a ~10 year old pair of size 2 denim shorts from Zara that fit great. I want to order more online, but wondering if their size 2 has gotten bigger over time? It’s so frustrating, I fit a 0 or 2 in a lot of brands a decade ago that I’m now completely sized out of it, despite being the exact same size!

I had long COVID a few years ago and made a full recovery after around 9 months. My recovery was pretty linear. I listened to my body and did as much physical activity as possible without pushing past my limits, and I found I was able to do more and more, little by little, until one day I was back to running and lifting heavy weights and working a demanding job. About 8 months ago, I got post-viral syndrome again from a cold. This time, recovery has been much less linear. I’ve had a couple of crashes that have taken months to crawl back from. The first was from too much physical activity. The second was from getting another cold a couple months ago, and I had just barely worked my way back to being able to take short walks outside. I recently bit the bullet and took short term disability from my job (which I was super resistant to doing) and was hopeful that I was crossing some kind of threshold and was on my way to getting better.

This morning, I woke up with what I’m 75% sure are cold symptoms (despite my spouse and me taking more or less COVID-era precautions since my cold a couple months ago—it seems almost comically unlucky that this could have happened given my exposure level, especially since it’s June). I’m terrified. I’m going back and forth between trying to convince myself that maybe it’s just allergies and it’ll be okay and wanting to just kill myself.

I feel like this is ruining my life. I love my job, and now I don’t know when I’ll be well enough to go back or how this will impact my career long-term. This has also wrecked my personal life. I’ve come to resent almost all of my loved ones for not showing up enough for me during this time or trying harder to understand what I’m going through. This has also pushed back my timeline for having children. I just feel totally done. Has anyone found anything at all helpful when reinfected?