For over a week I was feeling excellent again. I’ve been going on long, hilly walks for exercise.
On Monday, I again developed deep chest congestion. I was emotionally devastated. Then, a friend who also has been dealing with COVID-19 helped me out...
My symptoms onset was over a month ago. Yet, I just can’t seem to shake the effects of this virus.
My friend (whose father is an epidemiologist) reminded me that my immune system has been weakened by this virus. He also noted that exercise can tax weakened immune systems.
I was doing intense exercise (I say “hilly walks”, but our hills in San Francisco are practically mountains).
This is what walking up the street to the adjacent neighborhood looks likes like in elevation change - 200ft (61 meters).
My friend reminded me I was doing too much.
Additionally, there’s been researching showing that #COVID_19 attacks t-cells like HIV (but, thankfully, does not replicate inside them like HIV does but instead die once the host cell dies).
This could perhaps explain why those with compromised immune systems are more at risk.
That’s all early reports, but it was enough (along with warnings from my doctor and friends) to get me to rest once more. I also have an autoimmune condition (#EoE) which I had been slacking on taking my medication for.
So, I’ve been resting and taking my medication this week.
With me having the flu/pneumonia in February followed by #COVID_19 and COVID-19 induced pneumonia in March/April, it’s been over two months of being sick.
My body is aching to exercise and get back to work, but I’m trying my best to keep it at rest for now.
I’m was considered a pretty healthy person before all this. I ate right, exercised, ran half-marathons, etc. Still, this virus has totally wiped me out. It got much darker at times than I let on.
I’ll be fine, but am still dealing with the shadow of all this. So, please...
Please (please) treat this virus as the serious thing that it is. It will not only protect you, but protect your loved ones and neighbors around you.
Someone wrote that Judge Amy Coney Barrett would bring “heart” to ‘special needs’ if confirmed to the #SupremeCourt. After showing my respect for the person who wrote that, and understanding of where they were coming from, this was my response:
“Disabled people don’t need lawmakers or jurors to bring “heart” to ‘special needs’. That’s what has led to patronizing policy which has f%¥ked over the exercise of our equality and marginalized our full participation in society over-and-over-and-over again...
It’s one of the greatest things we organize and fight against and we will continue to fight against it until the law and policy makers recognize that we are just like everyone else...
The whole #BobWoodward thing reminds me that our better politicians understand the press will try to ‘get’ them, and that’s a good, healthy thing for our democracy. They respect and welcome that.
—> It’s a BS check.
Bad politicians think the press is there to serve them.
*I should say it’s not as much that the press tries to “get” politicians, but that they don’t regard a politician’s messaging priorities when they are reporting stories. That’s an amazing thing, and when I was a press officer it drove me up the wall.
I hated it, but I loved it.
And the #BobWoodward tapes remind me of #LouChibarro of the @WashBlade. When I was a press officer, he was so masterful in asking a question, letting you answer, then NOT SAYING ANYTHING.
The subject felt compelled to fill the silence with more information.
👨🍳💋
So, while I very much *feel* #SpoonTheory in my being, it all falls apart when trying to use it as a metaphor with others (or as an accommodation strategy for myself). I constantly miscount and lose them.
When speaking, or in meetings, I’m often asked by folks to explain spoon theory. I usually just turn to someone I trust and ask “Could you explain it?”
For myself, I’ve learned to just make myself stop, slow down, or turn down requests when needed — and to be ok with that.
I mean, I’m a huge supporter of spoon theory as a metaphor to explain things to others and as an accomodation peoole can use themselves. It just all gets tangled and anxiety-inducing for me.
I love to laugh at that, though. You kind of gotta.
I often think on how research, medicine, and psychiatry approach and ‘treat’ autistic people today in the exact same manner they approached and ‘treated’ homosexuality until 1972.
Then, thanks to #LGBTQ advocates, homosexuality was suddenly ‘cured’ by @APAPsychiatric overnight.
Where are the endless research papers about the genetics and epigenetics of gay people?
Where are the warnings of “risk factors” for lesbians?
Where’s the pleading for “early intervention” for bisexuals?
What about environmental factors?!?!
We probably know less about gay people now than autistic people. But, we know enough not to funnel everything about LGBTQ people through a pathological frame.
All the questions we ask about autism are still there (and largely unanswered) for LGBTQ people.