The Antidote #6: child long haulers, mask mandates, and cold showers

Plus: resolutions vs. intentions, woolly mammoths, ugly dresses, and pretty cats

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). Occasionally I post more than once a week, usually to announce an event or to push brief, timely info out to you sooner.

New year, same me?

As the end of 2023 approached, I was contemplating any resolutions I might make, as humans are wont to do. Since I am determined both to recover my health and to be gainfully employed again someday, I briefly toyed with the idea of making mine: “to be well enough to return to part-time employment in 2024.”

But then I came across this video by Dan Buglio, from his Pain Free You channel on YouTube:

Ugh, he’s right. They don’t.

The idea of setting a recovery and back-to-work deadline for myself is just my overachiever part (named Saul) trying to get the better of me yet again. (I wrote a whole post about him here).

I also remembered that I’ve never really been into resolutions. Here I offer you the Gin Blossoms with one of my favorite song lyrics of all-time:

🎵 “If you don’t expect too much from me, you might not be let down” 🎶

they wrote some good tunes and they were great live, and I’ll thumb wrestle* anyone who tries to music-shame me (*prior to March 2020, this would have said ‘fight’…sadly, I am now a little weakling, but I still have long thumbs so BRING IT)

However, during the first session this new year of the Women’s Wellness Circle (a group coaching and support program for women-identified people on a journey to wellness), we were encouraged to explore whether we wanted to set “intentions” for the year ahead. That seemed gentler; I could “intend” to do all kinds of things and not feel at all bad if I didn’t achieve, achieve, achieve.

So, here are my 2024 intentions that I wrote down during the group:

1. keep Saul in check (a.k.a., chill the F out and try not to control everything)

2. do more feel-good activities (a.k.a., bathe my brain in happy chemicals)

3. go out into nature more/get more sunshine (a.k.a., see brain bath above)

4. wear sneakers most days (even if I’m wearing pajamas. I always felt powerful and strong when I wore sneakers in the “before times,” so a.k.a., trick my brain into feeling that way again).

a workout pic from February 22, 2020 - 19 days before I was exposed to COVID and 32 days before I had my first symptom.

We’ll see how this all goes. No presh (back off, Saul).

And now you. Do you have any resolutions and/or intentions for 2024 that you feel like sharing? I’m down to clown if you are.

And now for some gratitude…

Wish list shout outs!

I continue to be astounded by the support for my work here via the Amazon wish list in lieu of paid subscriptions (which could jeopardize my disability benefits). A big new year’s Tonic THANK YOU this week goes to Joanne C., Elyce C., Lauren P., Sue B., and Shauna R. and family for your generous gifts! This was the busiest week yet in the Receiving Department (a.k.a. the one-Baldy package-opening operation in our basement).

If anyone else is interested in showing support, see below for info. 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!

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover in this sixth issue of The Antidote, so mask up and let’s go.

COVID and Long COVID

🚩 Do not miss this post by

Ruth Ann Crystal MD

; she opens with a stunner.

We are presently in what appears to be the second largest COVID wave of the entire pandemic.

This is not hard to believe, given how many people we all know who have COVID right now. Dr. Ruth gives a superb update on the current status of COVID infections and she shows data about the large number of new long haulers all of these active infections may produce. In her excellent section on long COVID, she discusses among other things a study out of Yale using the invasive cardiopulmonary exercise test, which revealed that post-exertional malaise is an abnormality of oxygen extraction by the tissues in the body. This is similar to what has been shown in ME/CFS patients who undergo the same testing. Do check out her post, as there is so much more about long COVID than I can summarize here.

COVID news & more 12/30/23

🧩 I have admittedly not finished reading this one, but Betsy Ladyzhets of The Sick Times interviewed Dr. Eric Topol, who writes the

Ground Truths

newsletter, on all things Long COVID. I can’t wait to finish it (after I am done with this pesky little newsletter of mine 🤭).

♿ People with MS, traumatic brain injuries, or spinal cord injuries were more likely to be hospitalized when contracting acute COVID and experienced lasting symptoms afterward. Read about it here.

🚸 Do you know any children who are long haulers? You may not; long COVID is apparently much more prevalent in adults than in children, according to this not so new meta-analysis and this newer study. However, through some of my adult long hauler friends who have children or adolescents who are also long haulers, I can tell you that it’s devastating to witness how these young people are robbed of their lively childhoods or teenage/young adult years. Parents of these afflicted young people often feel powerless to help their children or to advocate with health and education systems that aren’t taking the problems seriously. And if the parents are also long haulers, they are dealing with their own limited physical and cognitive energy levels.

😷 Mask mandates are coming back in some area hospitals: Mask mandate resumes at all 11 New York City public hospitals amid rise in flu, COVID and RSV cases and Mask mandates return at some US hospitals as COVID, flu jump.

🫂 The Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association (known colloquially as “MassME”) is offering online support groups for adults impacted by ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, long COVID, Lyme, and related conditions. You do not need to be a Massachusetts resident to become a MassME member or to join the group (check out their site; they’re a great organization).

Sad news - content warning

🕊️ The ME/CFS community has been rocked by the recent loss of one of its champions, who tragically died by suicide. Beth Mazur was one of the co-founders of #MEAction and a staunch advocate for folks living with ME/CFS. Here’s what #MEAction had to say about the devastating loss, and here’s what appeared in The Sick Times. Those of us whose ME/CFS or long COVID came with the pandemic certainly owe Beth a moment of reflection and deep gratitude (if it is not too triggering).

Survey

📄 If you live in the U.S. and have a disability, please fill out the 2023 National Survey on Health and Disability (NSHD) based at the University of Kansas. It’s really important that a diverse array of people fill this out to accurately represent disability experiences, which will be used to shape policy. The survey closes at the end of this month, so fill it out and share it with those you know.

Webinars/pods

👩🏻‍💻 Many long haulers have mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), an immune response that causes allergy antibodies to be released, causing a variety of allergic reactions to all kinds of things: food, medicine, personal care products, and odors or environmental toxins. You don’t have to have long COVID to experience this, though a huge number of us have it and scientists don’t really know why. A lot of long haulers find that they can only eat a very small number of foods, which can be really challenging and upsetting when you are trying to regain your health. I for one seem to have a post-COVID skin reaction to dairy products, but only on my right arm (weird).

All that said, I watched this fascinating Ari Whitten podcast on MCAS with Dr. Kelly McCann, who specializes in treating the disorder. I learned a lot and I wanted to pass it on.

🫁 Jackie Baxter (who hosts The Long COVID Podcast) is also part of a team called Long COVID Breathing, which offers workshops and assistance to long haulers trying to improve their breathing and enhance their healing. Check out their New Year’s Resolution series of short videos for areas to focus on in 2024.

Workshops

⭕ The aforementioned Women’s Wellness Circle is hosting a virtual workshop called Welcoming your Wholeness: A Transformative New Year Workshop this Monday, January 8th at 9am PT/12pm ET/5pm GMT. The workshop promises to “settle your nervous system, dream into 2024, engage your inner critic and achiever and invite their energy, wisdom and perspective into the room. To connect to your most loving and wise Self as a source of wisdom and nourishment".” The fee is £33 for the live workshop and the recording of the session for your personal use afterwards. Note: this particular offering is open to people of all genders.

😨 Disrupting Fear: A new way to live with chronic illness is a free workshop being offered by Michelle Irving on Wednesday, January 10th at 3pm EST. With lived experience navigating chronic illness, Michelle will help attendees regain their emotional wellbeing when fears start to rise and take over their thinking. Register here.

Miscellany

🥶 Have you been wondering what all the hubbub is around cold-water therapy? Polar bear plunges and cold showers, etc.? Is there any science behind the supposed benefits? Here’s some answers: a deep dive on cold water dips and I took a cold shower every day.

I started turning the end of my warm showers to cool and then cold water about six months ago. It’s a BE-OTCH at first.

But then, like anything else, you get used to it. I find it to be very helpful with my POTS symptoms (tachycardia upon standing) and what I believe to be a reduction in my neuroinflammation, since I always feel calmer and a bit sharper-minded once I emerge. Letting the frigid water cascade over my coppertop and brain stem seems particularly helpful.

Have you tried cold showers or plunges? Helpful: yay or nay?

🤢 This is interesting, for those of you with gut concerns: Today’s at-home microbiome testing industry is fraught with snake oil. I did one of these tests a few years back (Viome) at the behest of my functional medicine doctor and the results definitely seemed to line up with what I was experiencing and what he suspected was going on, but I did not follow the individualized food plan they recommended as he did not put much stock on that. Multiple restrictive diets and thousands of dollars spent on pre-, pro-, and post-biotics later, and not a single thing has changed for me. Drop a comment (you can use the button above) if you’ve had any experience you want to share around this (whether you’re chronically ill or not).

🩺 In this week’s edition of “our broken U.S. medical system” comes this: Insurance companies are forcing psychiatrists like me to stop accepting their coverage. This quote speaks volumes (bolding is mine):

I realized that from the insurer’s perspective, the numbers mattered more than the care: The insurer was getting paid from the premiums of my patient, and from the premiums of prospective patients, all while denying me payment for my work and preventing me from doing additional work. This is the business model — customers pay for the right to be deprived of the product they’re purchasing.

I know he’s referring to health insurance here, and many of us have certainly experienced frustrating denials of coverage, but this is also exactly how I felt when my employer’s short- and long-term disability insurers kept denying me, after 15+ years of my employer paying my premium. It’s maddening.

🦷 Here’s another Ari Whitten podcast that had me throwing out my conventional toothpaste. I have since switched to a more natural toothpaste with the ingredients Trina Felber recommended and I also began tongue-scraping. The results have been FAST and astonishing: my teeth got whiter within a week (I’m really not exaggerating here). Check this one out when you have some time. (Note: I did not buy the tooth powder she was peddling because it’s not cheap. I have been using this product by David’s.).

Now stick around for…

🥳 The After-party 🥳

Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery

admit it - you hear the song, don’t you? 🤭

♊ Cool new year’s story: Connecticut family welcomes twins with different birthdays — and birth years. Welcome to this crazy world, Seven and Souli! 🧑🏽‍❤️‍👩🏽

👨🏽‍🎨 Here’s something neat I stumbled across through Substack: free drawing classes through the month of January!

❄️ We’re finally getting s(no)w in NY this weekend - maybe? Check out the probability range. We could get two inches, we could get 12. Or we could get rain, or we could get nothing. Remind me again why I didn’t go into meteorology? Where you can actually get worse at your job as technology advances at a dizzying pace and still get paid 🙄.

🦣 Coal miners in North Dakota unearthed a huge woolly mammoth tusk. Additional bones were found by geologists and archaeologists nearby soon after. (fun fact: that’s an actual woolly mammoth emoji - who knew?)

Seven feet long! (North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources© Front Page Detectives)

👗 This one’s fun: Every Year Her Dad Hides an 'Ugly Dress' in One of Her Presents.

🤦🏼‍♀️ Buffoons of the week: New York badass attorney general Letitia James is not only closing in on the Trump Organization, she’s breathing down the neck of the NRA. This week’s buffoon is Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, who stepped down this week ahead of the trial, where he and others are being accused of “unlawfully profiting” through “false reporting of annual filings with the IRS and New York’s charities bureau, improperly documenting expenses, improper wage and income tax reporting and excessively paying people for work for which they were not qualified.” Looks like they were so focused on the Second Amendment that they forgot to read federal and state laws governing charitable organizations. Oopsy.

🏆 Winner of the week: 16-year-old Brit Luke Littler made it to the World Darts Championship this week, only to lose to another Luke. But he’s still becoming a big sports icon. Never mind that he looks like a 32-year-old; his mother released his birth certificate verifying he’s in fact half the age he appears to be. Congrats to both Lukes!

🐈‍⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump. Calico Corners edition (do you remember that store?).

top row: elder stateswoman Zira, bottom row: Birdie's bathrobe photo shoot

If you liked what you saw here, please like, subscribe, restack, and/or share.

If you’re reading this in an email, you can still like or comment; scroll to the top of the message and see the ❤️ and 💬 icons.

**Disclaimer: Although I AM licensed to drive and to practice social work, I am NOT a licensed medical professional. You should not rely on any information contained in this newsletter in making medical, health-related or other decisions. Please consult a doctor or other health professional.