Earlier this year my immune system developed COVID FOMO and caused inflammation that destroyed my heart's AV nerves. I got relatively lucky that the inflammation didn't seem to cause any muscle damage. My heart looked perfect on an MRI, despite only beating at 21 BPM at the time. Apparently inflammation doesn't really show up on an MRI unless it's horrendously bad or it's caused fibrous scarring. The scan that really shows inflammation well is PET, and you don't really want to do a PET scan without good reason since it requires getting injected with a radioactive substance.
I've likely had inflammation in my lungs for years based on a previously unexplained chronic cough, and since getting treated for the inflammatory condition, within weeks my cough was gone and my pulmonary function is quantifiably normal.
So, it seems to me like systemic organ inflammation isn't too big a deal unless it happens to cause nerve damage, or gets bad enough to cause fibrous scarring. Unfortunately, if you can see it on an MRI, then you're probably already screwed. You can get a good view of any inflammation via PET, but you're going to glow for a while after.
Perhaps viral inflammation is a lot more destructive than autoimmune inflammation alone? It sounds like contemporary COVID treatment has become more effective with the addition of anti-inflammatory medications, though, which is great news.
My blood pressure dropped from 135/85 to 115/80 after I got COVID.
I haven't checked it recently because I'm left with tinnitus in my right ear (that rings very loud when stressed or when exerting myself) and I was stressed about that, but I'll do an ultrasound checkup on my heart.
You did not mention an ultrasound exam on your heart, I thought it was pretty good?
I believe at this point I've had every type of non-invasive scan available, not including all the various contrasts and radioactive tracers that are possible. An echocardiogram showed my heart beating weird obviously, but revealed no structural problems. The doctors seemed to use ultrasound mainly to look for perfusion through my heart muscle after pacemaker surgery, and once again provided no clues as to the cause of the nerve damage. It was a mystery until I had a PET scan, which was very telling, and then a subsequent biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.
I now have a lot of cool images of my insides on a CD, and I'm Bluetooth enabled.
I've likely had inflammation in my lungs for years based on a previously unexplained chronic cough, and since getting treated for the inflammatory condition, within weeks my cough was gone and my pulmonary function is quantifiably normal.
So, it seems to me like systemic organ inflammation isn't too big a deal unless it happens to cause nerve damage, or gets bad enough to cause fibrous scarring. Unfortunately, if you can see it on an MRI, then you're probably already screwed. You can get a good view of any inflammation via PET, but you're going to glow for a while after.
Perhaps viral inflammation is a lot more destructive than autoimmune inflammation alone? It sounds like contemporary COVID treatment has become more effective with the addition of anti-inflammatory medications, though, which is great news.