Home Alone 2020: A First-Person Case Study on Surviving Modern Pandemics and their Aftermath of Illnesses

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and long COVID share symptoms, and both may involve reactivated or persistent viruses, yet patients are often slow to be diagnosed and/or believed. This first-person case study reports my path (2010 to 2026), drawn from my own health records, laboratory results and HOME ALONE written during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. After a polio booster (2010) and exposure to pathogens abroad (2011-2013), I developed ME/CFS with an off-the-charts Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) load, declined to very severe illness, and was close to death in May 2017. Four years of Western treatment, including valacyclovir (Valtrex), did not lower my viral loads. Weekly acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (2018-2019) coincided with a return from bedridden to dancing, next to my bed. From July 2019 on, I added Lomatium dissectum, a Native American plant remedy, and the EBV load fell from over 600 to normal in three months and to zero, with antibodies, in six months. Other protocols were stem cell phototherapy patches, concentrated oxygen and xylitol nasal spray. I did not contract COVID-19 during the 2020 extended lockdowns, but I did succumb in June 2022. Because several protocols were used together, none can be credited alone, and the evidence for most of them is limited to laboratory studies and personal experience. Viral reactivation (along with other pathogens) deserves testing in ME/CFS and long COVID. This study offers questions for controlled research alongside an urgent need for pandemic preparedness, especially during Climate Change.