The brainstem sensation is most specific - it feels like someone is gently squeezing it, or like someone had previously hit me in the back of my head.
In the worst times, but not always, this comes with vertigo and vision issues.
It doesn’t seem like PEM bc it’s instant. 2/
An example: I lugged a suitcase up 4 flights of stairs, & my heart rate hit 150 (I know, I wasn’t thinking).
By the top of the stairs I had the brain feeling and it lasted for about a day (was in bed the whole time). 3/
Weirdly, I also occasionally get this feeling with certain medications (like ambien) and sometimes will wake up with it (possibly from sleeping on my back?) The frequency has increased over time. 4/
I have referrals for a cerebrospinal fluid MRI and a brain CT scan; I already know I have low lying cerebellar tonsils but don’t seem to have Chiari. Any other directions I should be looking into? 5/
44 countries have experienced a 10-fold increase in at least 13 infectious diseases compared to pre-pandemic rates, including RSV, cholera, measles, influenza, chickenpox, tuberculosis (TB), and others. 2/
While some (like TB) may be related to declining vaccination rates, COVID impacts the others.
"Immune mechanisms [like] a period of increased vulnerability to other infections following acute COVID infection" is a major contributor, esp irt respiratory infections in children 3/
Michael Peluso (@MichaelPelusoMD) introduces CHIIME, which adds an arm of ME/CFS patients to the LIINC study - will include PET imaging and tissue biopsy analysis, gut biopsies:
Phenotyping with patient-reported and objective clinical measures:
Incredible visit Thursday to the opening of Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness, led by the renowned @PutrinoLab! #LongCovid 1/
The Center is incredible and truly blew me away - designed on so many levels with patients in mind, with top notch care, using many of the most advanced tools available 2/
Some of the many tools patients are assessed with include:
The fibrin also:
-promotes neuroinflammation & neuronal loss post infection
-promotes innate immune activation in the brain & lungs independent of active infection
-downregulated JAK-STAT pathway & targets of p38 MAP kinase, pathways that regulate NK cell activation #LongCovid 2/
They used a monoclonal antibody targeting the fibrin domain, and found it protected against microglial activation & neuronal injury, as well as from thromboinflammation in the lung after infection! #LongCovid 3/
I've been doing #TheNicotineTest (via 7mg patches) for a month now & it has greatly improved my quality of life.
Major caveat: I'm on ivabradine. The nicotine increases heart rate, & I wouldn't recommend to anyone w POTS who isn't on beta-blockers or ivabradine. #LongCovid 1/
The biggest change is feeling like I have more *oxygen* circulating in my body - the weird altitude-sickness feeling is lessened.
Major improvements to cognition/awareness (esp executive functioning & processing), and improved physical capacity and overall baseline. 2/
The first tolerance break I felt more air hunger and worse baseline than pre-nicotine, but every other tolerance break has been equal or better than pre-nicotine.
It feels like an excellent symptom management tool, but *not* a cure. 3/
This could cause additional impacts like deficits in platelet energy metabolism, or hormonal dysregulation (because platelets carry serotonin) #LongCovid