Hi
@GlassCannonLife I'm so sorry to hear about your crash and hospital visit. I tend to agree with Judee about the hydrocortisone. While PWME often to have low cortisol and feel better with replacement,40-60mg hydrocortisone is above what the body would make physiologically, so if you are on that dose and still have crash symptoms, I would venture that the symptoms are due to more than adrenal insufficiency. That isn't to say a higher dose can't be helpful to suppress inflammation and an overactive immune system, jump-start the engines a bit, increase blood sugar, but at that point, it is a very pharmacological effect beyond what the body would normally do and isn't sustainable without some negative effects. Of course, if you feel it is helping, we do what we need to to get through a crash. I think you know it can't be stopped suddenly.
Are you still testing positive for COVID? It seems that even "normal" people who get COVID can pass through a couple of weeks of intense fatigue before turning around. I imagine COVID fatigue compounded on top of ME fatigue is just crushing. Anyhow, if you are still testing positive, do you think trying to get ahold of some Paxlovid would be worth it?
These are probably thoughts for another time, but pregnenolone In addition to being the "mother" hormone" is such a neurally active steroid with mechanisms on multiple neurotransmitter receptors, looking at those actions may help you find other things that could be useful. I'm guessing your pregnenolone receptors have down-regulated quite a bit atm due to the large amount of pregnenolone that must be circulating in your system, making it harder to get the same previous response.
Sending you my best wishes to feel better soon. I wish I had a magic bullet, I wish I had one for all of us.