People look at me strangely, but I don’t go in anywhere without a mask, still. I don’t eat in restaurants, I don’t go to indoor family gatherings without a mask.
It’s a big sacrifice but I’m not willing to live with long COVID and brain fog.
As someone with long covid, it is fucking hell. The extreme fatigue, muscle soreness, lengthened healing times of wounds or new sicknesses or physical exertion have made life hardly bearable. I just straight up don’t have the energy or mental capacity to do anything I used to love and enjoy.
It’s endlessly depressing, even though I know I am keeping myself out of clinical depression after learning how to deal with depressive issues more proactively now.
I wish I just wore an n95 whenever I was around people now, but I know I never would have done so unless I knew how truly awful long covid is.
I’m there with you. If you haven’t already, look into the treatments for mast cell activation disorder, it has a lot of overlap. In fact, I’m convinced they’re largely the same thing. I’m popping pills like candy nowadays but I’m finally on the upswing.
It’s so wild to hear that people don’t know this.
I:
- Fainted while watching TV on the couch.
- Had a blood pressure of 80/40.
- Have been to the ER twice.
- Had long-running (over two years) chest pain, heart pounding, weight loss, vision differences, dizziness, shortness of breath.
- Was so sick with those issues I was bed bound for months.
- After I started feeling a little better, overdid it and put myself back to bed for a week. Twice. With easy shit like rearranging the canned goods cabinet.
- Lost a tooth. (White lie, actually. I’m scheduled to have it extracted early February.)
- Still have lingering heart pounding and dizziness on a not-infrequent basis.
All from covid.
I’m fortunate to be mostly recovered. It sucks that there are so many who haven’t recovered to speak of.
