I just can't this week
(But I sorta still did)
Welcome to The Tonic, a light-hearted, heavily resourced newsletter for folks interested in learning about long COVID, ME/CFS, and other chronic illnesses. Come for the info; stay for the whimsy. Or vice versa.
I will generally post once a week on Saturdays or Sundays: a narrative post when my energy allows and resource roundups (known here as The Antidote) at all other times. Occasionally I post more than once a week, usually to announce an event or to push brief, timely info out to you sooner.
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I just can’t this week
Friends, I’m spent. After three weeks of nearly round-the-clock care of our little feline surgical patient, including this past week when Baldy was away visiting his parents and I had to take over some of his usual duties, I am fresh out of spoons.
The irony is that I just had to run the dishwasher because I am literally…fresh out of spoons. The load of no-Baldy-dishes shows me that I use an excessive number of bowls, mugs, and cutlery (that doesn’t cut). Who knew?
Answer: he did. Because on top of all the other things he does around here, he loads and unloads the dishwasher.
But before you go granting him husband-sainthood status, you should know that he does this because allegedly I am the latter party in the following scenario:
I would vehemently disagree, but I’m not gonna lie: I did take pains to load the dishwasher more carefully this week in an attempt to disprove that I am a drug-addled trash panda. No offense to raccoons, pandas, or the addicted. Though I’d say the only thing I’m addicted to apparently are actual spoons and the foods one eats with them🤦🏼♀️.
Alas, Baldy stopped at Krispy Kreme for me on his way out of South Carolina, so maybe he does deserve husband-sainthood.
Okay, I’ve digressed enough. The point is, there is no big involved post this week that will be coming out of my fatigued brain and my neuropathy-riddled arms. I am looking forward to trying to spend the next few weeks getting back to my previous baseline. I’m hopeful that I can.
I will throw in a few noteworthy links here, just so no one can say I short-changed them. In a newsletter that is totally free…
Before I do, I want to acknowledge a kind gesture this week by a most considerate soul named Brintha J., my former co-worker and current friend who took it upon herself yesterday morning to take an at-home COVID test ahead of our lunch date. As an immune-compromised person, I felt validated and held. THANK YOU, my friend.
I’d be remiss for not also shouting out my dear friend SueB (“SOO-bee”), who, after being in tight spaces with lots of people, routinely insists on waiting five full days and taking an at-home test to be sure she doesn’t have the cooties before visiting me. KISS KISS, my little friend! (*air kiss).
PHEW! Links below. No After-party this week. I’ll see how I feel next week for our upcoming edition of The Antidote (links round-up). Until then…
In sickness and in health,
✌🏻Amy
🤔 This new study showed no difference in symptom exacerbation after exercise between long haulers and healthy controls…and yet, the long haulers reported more muscle pain and concentration problems, and had lower aerobic capacity and less muscle strength, so…make it make sense.
🦠 Dr. “Been” (Mobeen Syed) breaks down the new study by Dr. Bruce Patterson et. al. on the persistence of the spike protein in post-vaccine long haulers:
☀️ Have you heard? (<sarcasm>). There’s a solar eclipse tomorrow for much of the U.S. Here’s how to safely watch it.
✊🏻 My good friend Kym with a great TikTok video educating us all on some of the roots of capitalism off the backs of Black women and also misogynoir (what is that, you ask? click here to find out quickly before moving on to the must-see video).
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❤️🩹 Grief is what happens to those of us who have loved, and folks with long COVID and ME/CFS know a very specific kind of grief at having lost the ability to do many of the things they’ve loved in life. Do not miss this essay by Rashid Hughes, My Dark Companion: Grief.
🐈⬛💩 And finally, a mini-dump this week:
Zira got her stitches out on Thursday and she’s doing just fine. She may try to murder me in my sleep for the indignities associated with making her wear a protective collar in the likeness of a piece of toast, but hopefully she’ll reconsider once she has some quality couch time with her favorite person ever, Baldy.
The toast collar... I can't. HAHAHA!
Re: dishwasher loading: My spatial skills are very poor: about 30th percentile on the last test I took (I admit to laughing at how hopelessly bad I was trying to rotate shapes in my mind.) This is to say I do load the dishwasher but unless it's a very small load, my wife will always correct it.