Episode 16 - Looking Back on 2025: A Recap with Emerson, Rush, and Matt

As 2025 comes to an end, we’re closing out the year with a more personal episode of the COVID Long Haulers Podcast. In this episode, hosts Rush and Emerson share their own health updates and welcome back Matt, our first guest of the year, to talk about how his long COVID has evolved over the past months. Together, they reflect on what living with long COVID looks like years in: the setbacks, the small improvements, the unanswered questions, and the medical labor involved to get some kind of medical answers.Matt talks about managing persistent neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms, navigating reinfection, and receiving a gastroparesis diagnosis. Rush shares his experience with sudden hearing loss, invasive ear surgery, and ongoing recovery. Emerson discusses the realities of ME/CFS and medication trial and error, including a small improvement with cromolyn sodium. Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared, and supported the podcast this year. We’ll be taking a short break and will be back in 2026 with new episodes.You can find a written version of this episode with our sources on substack here. The transcript is available here. And you can view our glossary here. If you liked this episode, click subscribe so that you don’t miss any of our future episodes. You can join our discord server here and if you would like to be a guest on our podcast in the future, you can apply here. Find all our other links here.Please note, that the information provided here is not intended to serve as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have health related issues or believe that you are suffering from Long Covid, please contact a qualified health professional to get the personalized assessment, advice and treatment you need. We will not be liable for any direct, indirect or other damages arising from the use of this podcast. The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of the podcast hosts or team.