Charise Woodall

First, thank you for doing this. Your support, outreach and work are greatly appreciated. My whole family came down with Covid in early Jan 2021. I was the most severe but wasn't hospitalized. I was able to stay out of the hospital by very closely monitoring my Oxygen saturation levels and staying in close contact with my doctor. One by one, my family recovered. I didn't. I just never got better. I ended up on full medical leave for a few months and then out on intermittent leave (working no more than 6 hours a day from home) for a year. During that time, I had crushing fatigue, no voice, brain fog that was thick as well as a slough of other symptoms that came and went. I know I'm blessed. I can walk on my own. I'm not on oxygen. I have a full time job and my marriage is intact. That isn't to say that life hasn't changed for me. I've learned how to manage Long Covid for the most part but not completely. It still knocks me on my butt when I least expect it. I had been with my Dr at Kaiser Permanente for well over a decade when I first got sick. Lucky me, my Dr became the Long Covid Specialist for the area I live in. Except, she knew far less than me and I was always having to educate her, convince her of the realness of this condition and simply could not get any help. I switched insurance programs and doctors in Jan 2025. I now drive roughly 100 miles 4x a year to see my primary care physician. Since then, I have also been diagnosed with POTs and autonomic dysfunction. My new Dr is great--he thinks outside of the box, is creative and unafraid to try new things. He was highly supportive when I told him I wanted to try the nicotine patch. I saw amazing results especially with regard to my energy and brain fog. For about 6 weeks. Then, my allergy to adhesive made it impossible to continue with them. Very disappointing. I am on LDN and a GLP-1 and have improved quite a bit since Jan of 2025 but I'm also now convinced that this condition will very likely be with me for the rest of my life. I have a new normal. My most common issues: Low tolerance for activity; PEM; POTs; Deep body aches; Bone crushing fatigue; Memory issues---I often do not form short term memories at all; Vibrations in my brain (the sensation of roller skating on asphalt but in my brain, not my feet/legs); Lost voice (this is now both a symptom and an early warning sign for me); Brain Fog--this encompasses a whole lot of things; Auditory sensitivity--loud and/or busy sounds (movie theaters, being in a crowded location) is very difficult to tolerate; Low tolerance for stress of almost any kind. On top of that is this sense of imposter syndrome that creeps up. Maybe I'm not really sick. Maybe I did just glom on to some things and claim them as reality. Maybe I don't tolerate activity well because I've been mostly inactive for 5.5 years. Maybe, if there was a test for long covid I would discover I had made it all up. Thankfully, I don't tend to live in that for long (usually because my body responds inappropriately to the least trigger) but when it pops up it's awful. And I don't see this get talked about much but I know others struggle with it too. Now, I use a handicap placard for parking, use a wheelchair in airports when traveling, use several accessibility tools at work to help my efficiency as an Exec Asst. I have lost friendships and have been blamed for my condition (it's because you are overweight, not trying hard enough, aren't eating, drinking, doing the right things in the right way). And I know this is the story for many people with Long Covid. I'm amazed at how thinking or concentrating hard can impact me physically in such a negative way. Just 2-3 hours of concentration can put me in PEM for days. I used to feel impervious to stress. Today, I can't deny it's impact on my physical condition. I carry the nut for my husband and I. He quit working during the pandemic due to extremely severe anxiety attacks. My company has gone through severe cuts going from 120K employees down to less than 80K and more cuts are happening now---to get us down to about 70K. I've been with a company for 20 years and have just learned that our newest cuts are happening without any packages and only 2 weeks notice. Max. That's stressful. My mom has many states away in a rural, hard to get to place and has been having a lot of health issues. Stressful. We've been in the same rental home for 19 years and just learned that the house is being sold at some point and our lease will not be renewed (we have 5 pets that we've allowed to have while here). Yep, stressful. I now plan my days out. Saturday, I cleaned out the fridge (didn't wash it out), washed my hair, and went to dinner with my husband, which happened only after negotiating my activity with him and promising I would listen to him if he told me he was noticing me overdoing it. Yesterday, I was couch bound with fatigue, horrible body aches and brain fog. Today, I'm a little better but still dealing with brain fog, fatigue, and an achy body. I miss spontaneity. Desperately so. I hate saying no as often as I have to. And yet, I am grateful for the life I have. Grateful for my family, my job, friendships that have deepened while others fell away. I don't know what the future holds but I know I want to be here for it and experience it as fully as I'm able to. And I want that for every other person who is dealing with Long Covid. At the beginning of the pandemic I remember telling my husband I wondered about the people Covid didn't kill but who just never got better. To this day, I have no idea what made me think about it and I wish I didn't know the answer so intimately. Thank you, again. For everything. If it's helpful, I'm very VERY open about my life with Long Covid and have no concerns regarding privacy. You can contact me any time if it would be helpful. — Charise Woodall