The Antidote #5: plea to Biden, messages of hope and safety
Plus, more free rapid tests in the U.S. and free spoonie yoga!
Welcome to The Antidote, the biweekly roundup post from The Tonic that is filled to the brim with goodies.
The Tonic is 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.
If you’re new here, you should know that my posting schedule is generally once a week on Saturdays or Sundays, and I alternate between a narrative post and a roundup post, so as to get more resources out to you and also to manage my own energy levels (often referred to as spoons). Speaking of spoons, I need a bit of a break, so I won’t be publishing another narrative post until the new year. Occasionally I post more than once a week, usually to announce an event or to push brief, timely info out to you sooner.
Wish List
If you are enjoying The Tonic and would be interested in showing support, my Amazon wish list is hyperlinked below (in lieu of paid subscriptions, which could jeopardize my disability benefits). There’s something on the list for every budget, and anything you send will be very much appreciated.
The Tonic is free to read - Amy is so happy you’re here! There is no paid subscription option here like with other Substack newsletters. However, if you are valuing the experience and are able, please consider a show of support by sending a gift of health, wellness, or joy from this Amazon wish list. Anyone who does gets a 📢 in an upcoming post. Thank you!
I’ve had to tee up this post early due to holiday travel and family time, so if I’ve missed thanking anyone, rest assured I’ll get you next time. In the meantime, enjoy this pic I took of one of our holly bushes from earlier this week.
Now let’s get to it.
Home Tests - U.S. residents
The U.S. government opened up another round of free at-home COVID-19 tests for anyone who has not placed an order since November 20, 2023. Here’s the link.
You can order up to four (4) free tests. And if you did not order your four tests that were available as of September 25, 2023, you can actually order eight (8) tests right now. Buying these tests at the pharmacy is not cheap, folx, so get ‘em while they’re hot.
Long COVID
🗞️ From our friends at The Sick Times, the new website/publication devoted entirely to covering long COVID and similar conditions: Policy experts, scientists, disability groups urge Biden to address the Long Covid crisis. (You can sign up on The Sick Times website to receive their newsletter; the publication is just getting going and will never have a paywall, so if you’ve got a few coins to spare, consider a donation). In the article, you can find a link to the open letter, and at the bottom of the open letter, there is a link to sign on as an organization or as an individual.
🏥 Also from The Sick Times: a deep dive on federally-funded long COVID clinics.
💉 From the minds of our Yale friends Harlan Krumholz, Akiko Iwasaki, and their team of researchers comes the first scientific article legitimizing vaccine injury: Post-Vaccination Syndrome: A Descriptive Analysis of Reported Symptoms and Patient Experiences After Covid-19 Immunization. (note: this is a pre-print and has not yet gone through peer review).
🍏 Cort Johnson at Health Rising with another great piece: Apples and Oranges? The Common Cold, the Coronavirus, ME/CFS and Long COVID. (If you’ve benefited from Cort’s work, consider donating to Health Rising’s end of year drive).
📃 For folks with ME, POTS, hEDS, MCAS, and Long COVID: #MEAction still needs another 50+ people to complete their Chronic Illness Survey Adventure (a five-part survey) to hit their goal of at least 2,000 respondents. Sign up here if you’re interested.
Substack-related goodness
🤒
works her magic again, this time interviewing several Substackers about managing their chronic illness for a fantastic piece in Vox.😫
has a unique take on long COVID suffering:
🩺 And this one’s not new, but it’s a new find for me, and it’s health-related for my trans readers and their allies:
Miscellany
🫁 We all know plenty of people who go into the hospital for one thing and wind up catching one or more additional bugs while there, which makes this particularly interesting: if you find yourself in the hospital for any reason, brush your teeth twice a day to reduce your risk of catching pneumonia.
📘 A few weeks back, I picked up a book in my local used bookstore that had an interesting title: The Anatomy of Hope. Well, I devoured it. Written by Dr. Jerome Groopman, it tells the tales of several of his patients and colleagues and their relationship with hope in the face of serious illness. I have been looking to soak up all the hope I can get around my recovery, and this was a great read. There’s a chapter toward the end that talks about the biology of hope. This goes beyond mere positive thinking, folx!
🧘🏻♀️ Here’s info on a four-part New Year’s online meditation retreat with Martin Aylward. The retreat is 60-90 minutes each day from December 29th-January 1st. There is a fee of 100 pounds (about $127 USD right now). Anyone can sign up - you don’t need to have ME, long COVID, etc.
🧘🏽 I am a big, big fan of the virtual classes at Nourish Therapeutic Yoga (known as “spoonie-friendly yoga” for folks with all levels of energy-limiting illnesses), which has an offer for a free class, as well as free one-week trials for all-inclusive monthly memberships or for video library memberships. For the free class, use holiday promo code TRYME23 at checkout. Info on the free one-week trials can be found here. If you’ve been curious about how to incorporate gentle movement into your recovery without triggering a crash, this is your chance to learn more!
☮️ Calming your nervous system so that your body can get in a healing state is all about finding safety. Check out Dan Buglio’s video from his YouTube channel Pain Free You on sending your brain messages of safety:
Now stick around for…
🥳 The After-party 🥳
Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery
😂 Doug Ouimette is a comedian whose wife has ME/CFS and he makes that a focus of some of his stand-up as a way to raise awareness about the illness. Follow him on Instagram to learn more. He also has a comedy special coming out soon with ME/CFS as a theme.
❄️ No one is likely to have a white Christmas this year in the U.S.
🤦🏼♀️ Buffoons of the week: Actor Jonathan Majors, convicted on domestic violence charges (reckless assault in the third degree and harassment) this week for abusing his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. Marvel has dropped him. Buffoon of the week also goes to the Hollywood Reporter for this terrible line, calling the Marvel drop: “a stunning career blow for the once-rising actor.” It was Jabbari who received the stunning blow, you morons.
As a 25+ year domestic violence advocate, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention what tends to happen in these celebrity DV cases, especially when the victim is a relative unknown (but not always: see Amber Heard). The victim often declines to file police reports or participate in an investigation or prosecution because they may feel responsible for what will happen to the perpetrator’s career if there is a conviction. There are so many celebrity DV cases that never see the light of day for this very reason. If they do go forward, they often still have to live with the guilt of “career blows” for the “once-rising” star (or ball player, etc.).
Make no mistake: Majors brought on his own downfall here, just as other perpetrators of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse who come to light do.
🏆 Winners of the week: Dubbed American heroes, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are the Georgia election workers who stood up for what was right and subsequently had their good names smeared and their lives upended by NYC mayor-turned-traitorous-turd-pile Rudy Giuliani (or “Rudy Colludy,” as
calls him). A jury ordered Colludy to pay the women $148 million in damages. He then defamed them some more after the ruling, and they filed another suit against him this week. Turd pile just filed for bankruptcy, which everyone saw coming. Who knows if Freeman and Moss will ever see even close to the amount they’ve been awarded, but this week we applaud their commitment to democracy and their right to defend their honor and to be vindicated.🐈⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump. An indoor cat medley with a slight holiday theme 🎄
Hi Amy, thanks so much for sharing my article in your great collection of links. I am honored!
Thanks for all the great info, Amy! I hope you enjoy your holidays! I am just getting over my third round of Covid - very mild symptoms, thankfully. Half of my family in MA has it too, so it’s a NYC Christmas for me this year 🤷🏻♀️