Got sick during boxing camp… cancelled my fight. ~1.5 years later: mostly housebound

Hey everyone. So here is my story (M18):

I got sick in late September 2024, right in the middle of preparing for a boxing fight. It wasn’t a “mild cold” type of thing, I had a fever and was genuinely sick for 2–3 weeks. I kept thinking I’d bounce back and get back into camp, but instead things started getting weird.

The part that still hits me is that I crashed the day before the fight. I felt so off that I had to cancel. Mentally that was brutal. I’d been preparing for a long time, and it felt like I was letting down my coach and the whole team that had supported me the entire way. I don’t think people really understand how much identity and motivation can be tied to something like that. After I cancelled, I went into a pretty dark/depressed phase. A couple months later my GF broke up with me, which didn't make things better.

At first I still tried to come back to boxing. I kept telling myself I just needed time, or I just wasn’t fully recovered yet. But every time I pushed it, it backfired. Eventually I quit, not because I wanted to, but because I just couldn’t do it anymore with what was happening to my body.

Since then, my symptoms have basically become my “normal”. They’re almost always present, and when I crash they all flare up hard and I can be knocked out for days.

The main symptoms for me are:

• Head pressure / headache (this is the big one). It’s more like a constant pressure than a typical headache. I feel it in my head, temples, and sometimes there’s pressure behind my eyes too.
• Neck pain/stiffness, especially right below the skull (this one is also really irritating and constant).
• Jaw stiffness/soreness (comes and goes, but often feels tied in with the neck tension).
• Ear pressure
• Lately ear pain (it feels like inflammation or an ear infection).
• Mild tinnitus (a humming sound).
• Hair loss got worse.
• I also get throat discomfort/sore throat, but compared to the head/neck stuff it’s more in the background.

One thing that confuses me: lately I often feel a bit better late in the evening. Maybe that's because I take 3mg Melatonin in the evening.

Day-to-day life looks like this:
I’m basically at home most of the time. I mostly sit and study at my desk or lie in bed. Sometimes I can do short walks or light housework, but that’s about it. I’m studying at ETH Zürich, and I’m lucky I can do most things from home. But missing out on all the social events and just being with friends hurts a lot.

Trigger-wise, something really specific stands out: social interaction crash me even if I’m doing nothing physical (literally sitting on a couch talking). But studying/cognitive load isn’t as big of a trigger I can study quite a bit without the same kind of crash. I noticed something that surprised me: during my last exam phase I studied for ~1.5 months, and then during the two weeks when the exams were, I was honestly very stressed and nervous the whole time. I even took lavender oil pills to calm my nerves (didn’t notice much effect). Strangely I didn't have hard crashes during these 2weeks. Could the oil pills have had sth to do with it? (Side note: I passed :) )

Doctors haven’t found much so far. The only recurring lab thing I’ve been told is that my ferritin is elevated. I’ve mostly just been told to wait and see, and I’m struggling to find a clear direction.

Diet: I tried a strict carnivore diet with eggs for a month. Right now I’m still mostly carnivore, but less strict, I occasionally eat bread and some cooked vegetables

Supplements I take:

• Fish oil (high EPA/DHA)
• B1 (benfotiamine or TTFD), B2, methylfolate
• Vitamin C (liposomal), Vitamin E
• ALA, zinc, TMG, L-glutamine, pantethine/B5, L-citrulline malate
• Melatonin 3 mg before bed (since summer)
• NAC and some salt in the morning

I’d honestly appreciate any thoughts on any part of this, whether you relate to the symptom pattern, have ideas on what to look into, or just want to share what helped you personally. If you had similar head/neck/ear pressure symptoms, I’d love to hear what your path looked like. Also curious how people handled movement/exercise without making things worse (walks vs very light strength, or avoiding exercise altogether).

Even short replies help. I’m trying to figure out what direction to take next.