About two years ago I had a pretty bad viral infection. Doctor said they weren't really sure what it was at the time, advised to keep hydrated, well rested, etc

About two years ago I had a pretty bad viral infection. Doctor said they weren't really sure what it was at the time, advised to keep hydrated, well rested, etc and to come back if things got really bad. I ended up in A+E a couple of times where I thought I was having a heart attack, Apple Watch had my heart rate at over 200 when I was just laying in bed. All they could find in tests were that might white blood cell count was really high. The main illness lasted about 4 weeks I think, maybe a little longer to really be 'back on my feet' but I was in bed for most of the 4 weeks, and I lost about 30lbs over the whole time where I had zero appetite. But to be completely honest I don't think I ever fully recovered. Even now my fitness level must only be about 50% of what it was before, I feel like I aged about 10 years in the course of a month or so. I'm still on beta blockers, had a bunch of tests on my heart and all the cardiologist can suggest is that it might go away in a couple of years. But for now I get palpitations and general dizzy sick feeling at least once a fortnight and it stays around for a few days at a time. It's so strange to think about what a difference there is before and after. I was just getting ready for a holiday with some friends to Octoberfest before I got ill, but the idea of being able to go out like that for four days is insane, there's no way I could do it. That and I had to quit drinking alcohol completely as it seems to really exacerbate the heart issues. I've read quite a lot of people talk about post-viral issues, and I wonder if the long COVID stuff is going to turn out to be something quite similar. Would be nice to have more research being done to see if they can help at all, as it can be quite hard now to get a doctor to take it seriously. I get the impression from a conversation with my doctor that the reason they were more willing to do tests for me was that I had no history with going to the doctor before that unless I had some sort of physical injury, like a broken shoulder. I think we maybe living with more than the economic damage for quite sometime after this is all said and done. Can only hope for the best for people that are dealing with it longer term.