The only good thing I can say about this clinic is that they believe Long COVID exists. If your PCP/GP doesn't believe in Long COVID, or understand the concept of pacing, then this clinic might improve your care. Otherwise, it will probably be a waste of your time. If you go here, you'll be seen by a nurse practitioner. She's a nice person, but she won't offer you any treatments. When I went there in April 2024, I was given a basic physical and a booklet with some suggestions. They didn't order any labs or prescribe any medications. When I mentioned that the Stanford Long COVID clinic prescribed LDN, they told me they wouldn't do something like that because they "didn't believe there was enough evidence." Experienced Long COVID patients know that LDN is considered a first-line treatment with a decent amount of supporting evidence and a great safety profile. So don't even dream about getting anything exotic here like antivirals. Instead, they suggested three things: an anti-infla­mmatory diet, pacing, and green tea. Those things are fine, but all very basic stuff you can try on your own or read about online. The booklet they gave me was similar, with simple suggestions on things like sleep hygiene. I found a few things problematic about the clinic: (1) They didn't encourage protecting yourself from reinfection. In fact, the nurse practitioner told me she knew two people who had their Long COVID "cured" through reinfection. This is contrary to all evidence (every COVID infection is dangerous, and often makes people with Long COVID much worse) and might even lead some people to harm themselves by seeking out a reinfection or dropping precautions that they would otherwise maintain. (2) The booklet they gave me had a suggested reading list which included "Overcoming chronic fatigue in young people". This is a dangerous and unscientific book. You can read more about one of the authors here: https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Trudie_Chalder In addition, they were quite challenged logistically. I think I waited in the exam room for nearly an hour before I was seen.

Dr Meeneghan is very knowledgeable about Long COVID, chronic fatigue, mast cell issues, mold toxicity, hormone issues, and Lyme disease. I've been working with him for nearly a year, and during that time, he has helped me with antivirals, supplements, probiotics, peptides, and hormones. If you've seen traditional doctors and they've been unable or unwilling to help you, I would strongly recommend setting up an appointment with him. He has a lot of suggestions, always answers my questions, and is willing to prescribe many helpful treatments. He's based in LA, but I live in the Bay. I've only seen him virtually.

Dr Natasha facilitated three of my ketamine IV sessions. She has a sharp, dry wit, which I found endearing. Although she works in a clinic that has undeniable "woo" aesthetics, she has a definite bias towards the more hard aspects of medical science. She took her time speaking with me and listened intently to my ideas. Outside of our sessions, we exchanged lengthy emails about scientific research, and she answered all of my questions.

I saw Dr Sara 3 times for ketamine IV treatment. During those sessions, I found her incredibly compassionate and interested in what I had to say. Outside of our sessions, she quickly responded to my emails and gave me many helpful suggestions for other providers to seek or treatments to try beyond ketamine. She answered all of my questions in a manner that made me trust her, and she went out of her way to try to reduce some of the discomfort I had with the procedure.

When I first saw her in 2023, Dr Patel's wait list was 11 months long, but she was the only doctor I found who could treat my Long COVID smell loss. She prescribed 2000 mg of fish oil per day, 6 months of daily smell retraining sessions, and twice-a-day rinses with budesonide. But the cornerstone of her treatment protocol is PRP injections in the nasal cavity. Over the course of a few months, I had three rounds of injections which cost me around $5000 and was not covered by insurance, but which improved my smell tremendously. Although there were still some scents I could not smell after her treatment, my ability to smell things at a distance was restored (e.g. food cooking in the kitchen across the house). Dr Patel was also very knowledgable about Long COVID and was willing to answer all of my questions in detail.

I saw Dr Hilliard only once. During that appointment, she reviewed my Radiance Diagnostics bloodwork and prescribed Maraviroc and Atorvastatin per the Patterson protocol. Initially, I planned to see her again, but I found her scheduling process and staff unprofessional. I paid for an hour appointment (she only accepts cash), but it lasted only 40 minutes, as she showed up 20 minutes late. It was also hard to get ahold of her staff to schedule follow-up appointments, as they did not respond to my emails. Nevertheless, I thought it was worthwhile, as my other doctors were unwilling to prescribe Maraviroc/Atorvastatin.

Dr. Geng was the first helpful doctor I saw when treating my Long COVID. When I first met her, she validated my experience and offered me treatments (something the other doctors I had seen before did not). I don't get to see her often—maybe once every 8 months or so—and she hasn't offered me many different treatments. However, she prescribed Naltrexone, which was very helpful, and she has made referrals to other departments within Stanford. During our appointments, she always listens intently to my list of symptoms and makes valuable suggestions for other specialists I should see. When I was first learning about Long COVID, she was very helpful in answering all my questions and was able to rule out some symptoms I was concerned about, such as PEM.

As soon as you meet her, it's evident that Jo cares about her patients. She's knowledgeable about Long COVID and will listen to you and ensure you feel validated. She knows most of the first-line treatments and is comfortable prescribing them. While she hasn't been willing to offer some of the more exotic treatments I've asked her about (antivirals, injectable hormones), she has been willing to prescribe Naltrexone and similar treatments. If you're in California and starting out on your Long COVID journey, I would recommend seeing her in place of a Long COVID clinic. Unfortunately, she doesn't take insurance, but I found it easy to get the cost of her calls reimbursed by my insurance company.

The first treatment I tried for my smell loss was a smell retraining kit. I used it once or twice a day for about two months. My sense of smell improved slightly, but the change wasn't very significant, so I stopped. Later, I talked to an ENT who told me that to be effective, smell retraining must be performed twice a day for at least six months straight. Perhaps if I had done that, my results would have been better.

I tried several treatments (PRP, budesonide, smell re-training), and they all helped my sense of smell, but they didn't completely fix it. Nasal glutathione finally brought my sense of smell back to almost normal. My sense of smell is probably only 90-95% of what it was before COVID, but it's almost indistingu­ishable from how it was on most days. A naturopath prescribed it, and a compound pharmacy made it for me. I used it daily for about 2 months. Unfortunately, it wasn't pleasant to use, but I enjoyed having my sense of smell back.

I was prescribed budesonide in liquid form. The instructions were that I mix the liquid with distilled water and salt and then rinse out my sinuses with the mixture using a neti pot twice a day. I did this for several months, and I noticed that my sense of smell markedly improved over that time. I tried several treatments (budesonide, PRP, glutathione) to restore my sense of smell, and almost all of them helped. So, it's difficult to say definitively how much one helped compared to the others. But when I stopped using the budesonide rinse for a while, my sense of smell worsened, so I know it was having an effect.

I first lost my sense of smell from COVID back in 2021. For the first year, I couldn't smell anything at all. Over time, it very gradually improved, but the process was slow and limited. By early 2024, I could smell things up close again, but I couldn't smell anything at a distance. For example, in the past, if I walked into a movie theater, I'd be able to smell the popcorn just walking by the lobby. Now, I couldn't smell it unless I literally shoved my head into the popcorn bucket. Over the course of about 2 months, I had three rounds of PRP injections into my nasal cavity. The procedure greatly improved my sense of smell at a distance. Unfortunately, it didn't totally resolve my smell issues. Even after the procedure, there were still some scents I couldn't smell. It was costly, and insurance didn't cover it, but I didn't regret it and would recommend it for anyone who can afford it and misses their sense of smell.

I've been using tirzepatide for the last 7 months. It did not seem to have any effect on my Long COVID symptoms, but it did help me indirectly. After my second COVID infection, I developed an intolerance to alcohol. For years, my alcohol intolerance upset me, as I previously enjoyed drinking and I missed the experience. But as soon as I started using tirzepatide, I lost all desire to drink alcohol, to the point where drinking never even enters my mind anymore. I haven't had a single alcoholic drink in nearly 4 months now -- the longest break from alcohol I've ever sustained as an adult -- and it hasn't felt challenging at all. I've also lost about 20 lbs without trying. When I was first starting the medication, I had some brutal pain in my guts that I found almost unbearable, but it passed after a couple of weeks.

I did 6 sessions of IV ketamine spaced out over about 1.5 months. It wasn't instantaneous, but I noticed a gradual improvement in my mood throughout treatment. Unfortunately, I had bad hangovers following most of my sessions. I found myself more or less couch-bound for the rest of the day after every session and felt sick the following day. I worked with my providers to adjust the dosage, change my eating habits, and experiment with adding scopolamine. That helped, but I found the 12-18 hours after a session mostly unpleasant. I didn't notice any changes or improvements to my other Long COVID symptoms from the ketamine as some people claim, but neurological symptoms (e.g., brain fog and memory issues) have never been a significant part of my Long COVID.

I started LDN at 0.5mg and gradually increased my dose to 6mg over about 7 months. During this time, my Long COVID heart symptoms (which included stabbing chest pain and palpitations) gradually receded. I also found that it benefitted me in other ways. For example, even before developing Long COVID, I had some digestion problems that bothered me for most of my life. I noticed that these went away when using LDN and didn't come back so long as I kept taking it. Also, when I first started using LDN, it significantly reduced my appetite, and I lost about 5 lbs. Unfortunately, this only lasted for about a month. It was quite hard to start taking LDN--I had almost unbearable brain fog for about 5 days when I first began taking it, and I experienced severe fatigue crashes. This happened every time I increased my dosage, although it got less severe over time. My wife asked me to warn her when I was increasing my dosage, as it made me very irritable. Thankfully, these effects didn't last. I still take LDN today and will probably take it long-term even if I fully recover from Long COVID because of the improved digestion.

I took Ivermectin daily for about a week to see if it would improve my Long COVID symptoms. As far as I can tell, it had no effect either positive or negative. While I was taking it, I had some dry skin, but I'm not sure if it was a side effect or just a coincidence.

I've had 3 Novavax shots and every time I get one, I experience improvement in my Long COVID symptoms. It takes about 2 weeks before I notice an improvement, and it does not seem to last indefinitely, but I've felt like I have a higher baseline and fewer Long COVID symptoms for about a month each time.

I had the stellate ganglion block performed at the Stanford Pain Management Clinic. It led to a slight improvement in my sense of taste, but other than that, it didn't do anything. I only had one side blocked, but I know the block was performed properly because I experienced Horner's Syndrome. In the days that followed, my Long COVID heart symptoms (chest pain, palpitations), which had mostly gone away, returned with a vengeance. Thankfully, they were short-lived and went away again after a few days. Initially, I had planned to try a second block, but after that experience, I didn't bother.