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[nicad13]

Hey there. You mentioned doing PT for long COVID and I’m curious to hear what that entails. I have a couple of friends who have been dealing w various complications since 2020 but I’ve not heard of PT being helpful. If you’re willing to share, I’d love to hear.

Absolutely!

I'll start with two important points: 1) I am very fortunate to live near one of the AHRQ Long COVID clinics (a list of which can be found here), where the care I've received is provided by people who specialize in long-COVID. 2) Long COVID is not a coherent, unified syndrome - it manifests very differently in different people, and what has helped me will not necessarily help everyone. During my six-month check-in with the clinic coordinator, she stated it was "refreshing to hear from someone who is actually improving," which implied that many (most?) patients were not, but I'll admit I didn't pursue that line of conversation.

I'll continue with some context. I've always been an active person, even if only a mediocre athlete. I ran cross-country and track through middle and high school, and continued running until my mid/late 40's when old injuries caught up with me and I had to switch to an indoor rower. Just before I got sick, I was rowing 20K a week and could pull a 5K in under 22 minutes (not amazing, but pretty good for a 49-year-old woman). I mountain biked regularly and could ride a 25-mile cross country trail and still feel like a human being after. Never smoked, drank casually, and was effectively managing hypothyroidism with medication. All of this is to say I was reasonably healthy.

Despite being fully vaccinated and generally masking in crowded indoor situations, I managed to get COVID. Best guess is at the dentist, but there are a couple other possibilities, so I'm not really sure.

The acute phase actually wasn't too bad - first few days were like a moderate flu, then I made a quick improvement and sailed through the 5-day precautionary period feeling almost normal. Day 6 I woke up with a racing heart and my head feeling like it was stuck in a vice. My bout with long COVID had begun and that headache lasted for three months. It didn't really ease up until my next COVID booster.

The clinic I'm at doesn't enroll patients until you have symptoms for three months, and makes referrals specific to patient issues. Mine were primarily headaches and racing heart & chest pain after any kind of physical exertion - I went from the activity level I described above to not being able to walk more than a quarter of a mile at a time. A glass of wine a month after COVID made it feel like a xenomorph was trying to tear its way out of my chest. Near-constant chest pain made it difficult to sleep. My first referral was for a pulmonary function test to make sure I could handle PT. It was challenging, it was painful, and I felt like garbage for a couple days after, but my results were normal. On to PT!

The first test I did there was to walk laps around the gym for 5 minutes, with the goals of measuring how far I could get, reporting my pain level (2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10), compare my blood pressure from before, immediately after, and five minutes after, while monitoring my heart rate throughout. Recovery was reasonable enough so that the following week I did a Buffalo Test (developed at the University of Buffalo) - walked on a treadmill where the speed was gradually ramped up while my heart rate and pain level was monitored throughout, again with BP comparisons before and after. I recovered ok there, but, confirming my therapist's hunch, I had elevated stress levels (as measured by a Garmin watch) and felt like garbage several hours later. That lasted for a few hours and went away. Diagnosis made: I was having an inflammatory response to physical exertion, but with careful supervision, it's possible to train that out. One quick check with a cardiologist to confirm that my heart was up for it, and I got underway.

Two key points with the PT program I've followed: 1) unlike traditional competitive training that alternates hard & easy days, this has mostly been steady & consistent - no hard days, but no days off either. 2) closely supervised! I've had to keep an eye on my heart rate through all of this, made possible by the smartwatch I already had. I started off with getting a minimum of 10K steps in a day, including a brisk 1/2 mile walk every day with the goal of getting my heart rate up to 100 bpm but not going over that. (Normally, my resting heart rate is about 47 - at this point it was in the mid-50's and it didn't take much to get me up to 100.) Within a few days of that, I noticed that the chest pain improved and I was much more comfortable to sleep. After a while, that got bumped up to a mile. Then a mile and a half, etc., until a few months later when I got up to 4 miles. Then we added some rowing a couple days a week - first a few short intervals keeping under prescribed heart rates. (The smartwatch worked less well for this and I had to get a chest strap.) That felt horrible at first, but got better, and now I'm at 20 minutes twice a week, keeping my heart rate under 168 bpm. I have to be mindful to lay down and take it easy for a few minutes after to get my heart rate down (and keep it down for the rest of the evening).

My progress seems to have plateaued out for the last month or so. I'll hit the one-year mark next month. Current thinking is that the driving force with long-COVID is inflammation, so eating a diet that counteracts that (minimize processed foods & preservatives) is a general recommendation for everyone. So I do have to be careful about what I eat, and have noticed new things that disagree with me - Kraft mac & cheese (probably the preservatives in shelf-stable cheese), tomato sauce (high acidity, probably a GERD issue), and hummus (probably a preservative in that as well). I still can't drink without feeling like garbage and I'm big mad about it. CBD gummies give me chest pains and headaches as well.

So that's the general rundown. Again, what has led to improvement for me won't work for everyone - I had to pass a few tests to make sure I could tolerate it, and I was under very close supervision to start. I'm still nowhere near the person I was a year ago, and I have no idea if I'll ever fully recover. The funding cuts for scientific research and an anti-vaxxer getting installed at the head of HHS in the US does not fucking help. We'll see what happens.

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Andor Struts Supercut

I screamed. I pumped my fists in the air. I kicked my feet with glee.

The internet remains undefeated.

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My main issue with Joel's initial reaction was that it was inconsistent with his past with Bill and Frank. As far as we can tell, them being gay was a non-issue for him. Did I miss something?

I find it funny that people are freaking out about Joel not initially being fully accepting of Ellie as a lesbian.

If you think a 60-year-old man born and raised in Texas wouldn't be at least somewhat homophobic. Then not only are you fooling yourself, but you've created a fanon version of Joel who isn't allowed to have any flaws. Aka a gary stu.

What's important is not that he has homophobic views, but that he learns from it, and accepts her regardless. He doesn't abandon Ellie over it, and he protects her from those who would use her sexuality to harm her. Like Seth.

We all want a parent who accepts us from the start, but most of us don't get that. I would rather have a parent who didn't understand at first, and then grows. Versus a parent who completely turns their back on me.

You can have flaws, and grow from them. That's a good thing.

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Hard to believe all of this was written a couple years ago. Someone please check if Tony Gilroy has a time machine or crystal ball or what the fuck ever...

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Margaret Atwood: I will write a dystopian drama that hits way too close to home.

Tony Gilroy: Hold my beer.

I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come. I stand this morning with a difficult message... ANDOR | 2.09

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Therapist: So did you do any non-physical activity things for fun before Covid?

Me: I wrote an embarrassing amount of Mandalorian fanfiction.

Therapist: Is that so? [drinks from ginormous Star Wars mug]

I then went on about the writer's block that has been exacerbated by living in a fascist regime, when he gently steered me in the direction of, "hey, now that we're seeing first-hand how democracy dies, is there any chance that can get dumped into some writing instead of spiraling all day long?"

Not quite there yet, but maybe in a bit...

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So when Lorne asks Drummond how many more [goats she would have to part with as they were sacrificed to lead people to the afterlife] and Drummond says as many as it takes...

HOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE HAVE THEY ALREADY MURDERED DOWN THERE?!?!

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PEDRO PASCAL

Sundance Film Festival 2024 // "Freaky Tales" premiere in Oakland, California, 2025

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Waffle Party for Helly!

helena is probably showing up to work dizzy as fuck every morning just hoping her innie will eat something for her before 5pm. helly gaining consciousness in the elevator like “damn i feel terrible! i guess that’s just what severance does!” no girl!!!! you’re swimming laps at dawn and then eating two bites of an overboiled egg while your father berates you!!! of course you found those deviled eggs uncharacteristically delicious!!!! she’s starving you out there!!!!!!

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I can think of a lot of House Reps and Senators who need to have this smashed into their faces.

IT MEANS EAT SHIT MR DRUMMOND!!!!!!!!!!

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this blog hates donald trump

Look how many people hate him. I’m pretty damn happy about that 😁😁😁😁😁😁

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Better things to do tonight than die!

Are ya ready to rock wreck?

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In a similar vein for writing, Stephen King advises to "write the first draft with the door closed." The important thing is to let whatever it is screaming in your head out. Don't worry about what it looks like in that moment. Polish later.

My artist hot take:

If your sketchbook is mostly polished/finished artwork, that isn’t a sketchbook and you should call it something else. Try “art journal”. “Process book”. “Collection of art experiments” Whatever.

“Sketch” implies a rough unfinished piece of artwork—look it up. Calling polished work a sketch can be discouraging to aspiring artists AND puts unnecessary pressure on yourself. Stop it.

A sketch book CAN be a safe space to make mistakes and try stuff and practice your craft IF you don’t put pressure on yourself (and anyone who sees it) to make it presentable. In fact, don’t feel like you have to let anyone else see it at all. Thats like expecting a musician to perform their scales, or unfinished scraps of melody that aren’t a complete song yet. They can share if they WANT to, sure, but it’s really really weird to expect them to.

Your sketchbook should serve YOU and your art development. If making it look “good enough” or “as cool as everyone else’s” stresses you out? That book is not serving you. Stop it.

Let your sketchbook be a safe place to put all the weird bad experimental practice doodles that aren’t meant for anyone else to see—that is what a sketchbook is literally for, and don’t let someone’s self deprecating “oh this is just a sketchbook tour but these are so bad I’m embarrassed” instagram posts (nevermind they’re literally voluntarily sharing them on the internet so color me skeptical) convince you otherwise.

Sketchbooks are for sketches. For practice. Trying new things. Bad art. Stop calling your art journal things sketchbooks.

If you disagree, congrats on having bad opinions, go make your own post.

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A prelude to the US as it goes down in flames under Elon's thumb

SpaceX’s Starship explodes in test flight

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Being a chronic pessimist is bad enough.

Being right about it all the time is fucking horrible.