Today is my second recovery day after going to see 7 yo grandson's playoff day. It was cloudy and unexpectedly cool, so I decided to risk being in the world irl.
2/
I also played catch with him before the game. Afterwards I pitched whiffle ball curves to teach him how to hit a curveball. They were good curves and spooked him. Took maybe 30 pitches before he started to figure it out. We quit after he crushed one :-)
/8
I also learned from my outing that watching 30 seven-year-old kids play baseball can just about trigger an #ActuallyAutistic meltdown. Take care and be safe!
3/
Yesterday was full blown #PEM and even worse, diarrhea from reactivated #LongCovid. The #chronicillness crew here at Twitter warned me about #PEM. Can't say I really knew what 'malaise' meant. It entails basically to not give a f*ck. It's pretty boring.
4/
Walking leads to a burning pain and increasing difficulty to maintain walking. The burning pain and deadening feels like the pain and loss of function I felt after running a 1:51 sec half-mile.
/5
Now I suspect it is lactic acid buildup. It does not go away quickly, and yesterday both legs and shoulder girdle had burning pain. With running that pain resolves quickly. The longer duration in #ME may represent ongoing mitochondrial dysfunction.
/6
Today my body feels better. I still feel the malaise. My ability to comprehend what I read is less. Usually Twitter is in small chunks, so no cognitive overload. Now I am overloaded before I even sit down.
/7
I got bored lying in bed - so I have been futzing around trying to learn how to write a thread. Maybe this one will work :-)
We created this account in2013 to provide a source of educational information for pain patients. I was at that time starting a new practice. We hired a consultant to create content. The pain practice grew so quickly I never devoted any attention to Twitter.
/6n
Now I can recognize, that I am really sensitive to post-viral syndrome. I have had several exacerbations over the past 50 years. Probably started with EBV in 1970. I first complained of an unusual fatigue in college. Was told allergies. Which seemed a plausible explanation.
/7n
I could not learn the statistics because of post-viral cognitive dysfunction. At least now I don't feel bad about it, though I do feel bad that I no longer can figure things out. Like how to download an app, or use Twitter or pay bills.
@lyssasphere The Buddha experienced his awakening approximately 500 years before the birth of Christ. What he awakened to was the presence of birth, old age sickness and death. When he really saw all these aspects of life he left a privilege existence and became an ascetic.
@lyssasphere \2
He became disillusioned with the spiritual life of the ascetics. One night he sat beneath the Bodhi (awake) tree vowing not to arise until he knew wtf was going on. And he observed the suffering of all sentient beings.
@lyssasphere /3 According to the story, the Buddha realized what he understood could not be taught. So he remained silent. Some ascetics, who had known him, were amazed at his transformation, and asked him to teach them. And he taught for the next 40 years.
Buddhist formal psychology (found in the Abdhidharma 3rd BCE) considers the "mind" as an organizing process which makes coherent to a person the stream of their perceptual input. Disruption of brain function then disrupts "mind" function leading to "scrambled brain"./1
Psychedelics, hallucinogens, excessive stress, grief, hypoglycemia, ischemia, stroke, encephalitis, exhaustion etc. can all disrupt capacity of mind to provide a coherent perceptual experience./2
The process making your #experience coherent is not 'you'.
Walking is not 'you' - it is a process, coupled to motivation, intent, decisions, and functional capacity. The "mind" is not 'you'. It supports body-directed goal oriented behavior. Hunger - not philosophy./3