Sorry to be long in responding but have been in Nepal until yesterday and in a poor internet areas.

Still interested in solving this. I am hoping it is covid related because that means I can get over it.

So, more details. After stents were put in in February, I was put on 40mg statins later reduced to 20mg. Otherwise the stents improved performance as I lowered my 5km time by 5 minutes after.

Was trekking before getting covid in May and went well. After covid I returned to Nepal late Sept and was noticeably, dramatically, tired and went breathless on uphills. After 6 weeks mostly above 4000m, I never improved so I feel it is not acclimatisation. After 10 weeks of walking most days, still got immediately breathless when going uphill so felt it is not a fitness thing.

My first day home, as a test, I went up a local hill and felt good and climbed at a rate that I feel is normal for me and the breathlessness did not appear. I performed similar to how I went before leaving for Nepal in September.

My amateur diagnosis is that it is related to altitude because I felt the effects even at 2700m, after the Lukla flight, and felt worse as I went higher. Went I got home at basically sea level, the symptoms did not appear.

Local doctors have not had any ideas. Of course, I’ve looked on the Internet and there seems to be post covid things that might explain this. I write here as I am hoping someone has an experience with this that might shed some light on it.

Thanks – Mike