I wrote about covid, continuing symptoms of covid, and Jason’s Unshakeable Belief That the Cats Had It for @lrb lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/…
It’s a fairly light piece — it took me 3+ months to be able to write anything about it — so I’ll mention a few more things here.
my tachycardia was intense — my heart-rate would shoot up to 150+ just after walking up the stairs, or sometimes even standing. the only thing that helped was giving up caffeine; my body doesn’t seem to be able to process it anymore. giving up caffeine also helped the vertigo.
I also found a partial solution for the brain fog: NICOTINE LOZENGES. I pop one in, wait till I feel my comprehension increasing, then discard it. sometimes I swallow too much of my spit and then for the rest of the day I am “chasing the dragon,” but who cares.
I’m using both a stylus and compression gloves for the arthritis, which is the only way I can type. (the stylus also works on trackpads, which are very painful right now.) I look like angelina jolie in a pbs remake of hackers.
the arthritis also happened to jason, by the way. I love you too much to show you a total picture of his foot, but you can see it here. mine is most visible in my middle fingers and wrists. none of the bumps were there before and YES that is a dvd of Mannequin in the background. 
in terms of cognitive difficulties, I did *everything wrong.* if you’re experiencing similar symptoms, do not try to read dead souls. rest as much as possible and don’t push yourself — try reading rainy-day books, comfort reads, and stuff from your childhood.
of course I was freaking out because reading is my job. but the few days I managed to take off from reading entirely did me more good than attempts to throw my shoulder at the wall. (I don’t even think that’s an idiom. aphasia, baby!)
I’ll add to this thread if I think of anything else, and in the meantime cheers to jason who it turns out did NOT have Man Corona, and cheers to miette who crapped all over the apartment for five days and then was better!
