Hear ye, hear ye! Long COVID and ME is…

...changing its name!

Oct 05, 2023

What’s in a name change?

Take a little walk down memory lane with me before we get to the main event.

Twenty and a half years ago, my bald-pated fiancé and I went out to dinner with his family. Everyone was in a celebratory mood since we had just recently gotten engaged. Midway through dinner, my MIL, seated next to me, asked me in a curious yet lighthearted tone if I’d be changing my name. I answered cautiously but honestly: “I’m not entirely sure yet.”

My FIL, seated across from us, clinked his fork down on his plate. He looked up and said, “What do you mean, is she changing her name?” YIKES.

Baldy (who really didn’t care one way or another if I did): “Dad, women don’t always change their names anymore.”

FIL: “I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

Mind you, this was 2003, not 1973. You’d have to be living under an increasingly small rock to have never heard of this. Nonetheless, his reaction made an imprint on my 27-year-old conscience.

Simultaneously, I was experiencing some complicated family stuff and wasn’t sure I wanted to hold on to my last name any longer. It was the combination of my FIL’s reaction plus this family shite (and a smidge of “it’ll be easier to have the same last name if we have kids”) that ultimately prompted me to change it.

What I didn’t entirely think through was the short- and long-term impact on my day-to-day life.

My maiden name was one syllable. My married name is four.

this meme was a randomly awesome find…I am mostly German and got a long and hard…last name on my wedding day

It is a very easy name to pronounce if you approach it like an uncaged beast - slowly and calmly (it’s straight up phonetic, in both English and the language it’s really from). However, it is a fairly uncommon last name, at least in the U.S. It trips most people up before they even try. I learned quickly to be kind and patient with these scaredy cats. I also learned that saying, “go slowly, it sounds just like it’s spelled” feels really condescending even though it’s just helpful + FACT.

Also, spelling it out for people using the whole “F as in frank” routine is exhausting. But even more exhausting? Listening to Baldy spell it out using the military alphabet, especially to folx in overseas call centers whose first language may not be English military: “B as in bravo, A as in alpha, R as in romeo, F as in foxtrot”, etc. (my last name doesn’t have barf in it; this is just an example to throw you off the scent. Remember, I’m not sharing my last name here because I don’t want disability to find me online and hold this newsletter against me).

What’s the whole point of this, Amy?

Okay, okay…sheesh. Where’s the kindness and patience from two paragraphs ago??

The point is that Long COVID and ME is getting a NAME CHANGE.

Despite Grumpy Cat’s harsh truth bomb, the name change…is like love on The Love Boat: exciting and new. Come aboard…we’re expecting youuuuu………… 🎶🎵

The new name is shorter and punchier, yet still meaningful. It also achieves a few purposes for me:

1. It gives me a little needed distance from the nomenclature of sickness. You may have noticed that my “name” on Substack is “Amy – Long COVID and ME.” I chose to put the name of my newsletter in my personal name here because showing up as just “Amy” is too vague, identity-less, and confusing. But doing so pegs me as “sick girl,” and although I am proud in many ways of what I’ve come through with this illness, I am working hard to put myself in a recovery mindset, and that starts with identity.

2. It sets me up to eventually broaden the scope of my writing here on Substack, which gets us to #3:

3. It will (hopefully) attract readers who don’t necessarily have long COVID or ME/CFS, because although this is currently my main audience and I will always want to serve up great info and stories for my peeps, there is also just some damn good writing and solid information to be had here. The feedback I have gotten over these last few months from folks living with chronic illness and those who are not has made me confident that I’m peddling a quality product (that’s free, lol).

But how will people find you? Especially if they have long COVID or ME/CFS?

No worries here; the new name comes with a new description, but it still includes the words long COVID and ME/CFS, and Substack support assures me that anyone new here should still be able to find me when they do a search for those terms.

Okay, enough waiting! What’s the new name?

Drumroll, please…

Introducing…

Whoa! What is a tonic and why is it such an awesome name?

Great questions! And, you have impeccable taste 😊

Tonic has several definitions, but the one we’re going with here is:

ton·ic

Noun: one that invigorates, restores, refreshes, or stimulates

Now doesn’t that sound like exactly what you’d want from a health newsletter?

When I was trying to think of a new name for Long COVID and ME, one that was succinct yet really captured what I’ve been trying to accomplish here, and I landed on The Tonic, I then found this definition and almost couldn’t believe how closely aligned it is with my vision of what this newsletter is and should be.

I want to give myself and others journeying through long COVID and ME/CFS a feeling of hope. I want to give everyone else a more stimulating, upbeat take on life with these chronic illnesses than what you might normally see online. Above all, I want to make anyone who reads this newsletter think and laugh.

And so….

The Tonic is a refreshing concoction of wellness resources and stories for those interested in COVID, long COVID, ME/CFS, and other conditions…served straight up, with a dash of humor.

There you have it! What do you think? (I’m doing it anyway, but do tell! I can take a compliment 😉).