News out of the #LongCovid community is even more heartbreaking than usual today. I don’t peddle in toxic positivity or false promises but my experience for the last 2.5 years has shown me there are reasons to stay here and keep living. I understand. I’ve had some VERY dark days. But 2.5 years in and I am now riding my bike multiple times a week! Yesterday I rode for an hour! My first year of #LongCovid, I couldn’t walk half a block! I couldn’t stand up long enough to chop a carrot! Somedays I literally could not lift my head off my pillow to eat a meal!

I'm seeing and hearing from so many people who are experiencing—or have friends/family experiencing—#LongCovid from recent infections. In addition to debilitating physical symptoms, there's complete and total emotional and mental devastation. For me, it was mental annihilation. I am absolutely not here for toxic positivity, and 'it'll all work out,' and 'everything happens for a reason.' That's garbage. But I do want to offer you maybe a little hope. When my #LongCovid started after I got Covid in March 2020, it wrecked my entire life. I was hopeless.

Here's one of my favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg stories: In 1960, Harvard Law Professor Albert Sachs suggested Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter take on his star student — Ginsburg — as a clerk. Frankfurter was a notorious sexist and said no because Ginsburg was a woman. One of Frankfurter's most misogynistic rulings was from 1948, when he wrote the majority opinion in Goesaert v. Cleary, upholding a Michigan law that prohibited women from obtaining bartender licenses, unless the bars where they worked were owned by their fathers or husbands.

Last week was one of those weeks when everyone on the Autostraddle TV & Film Team was just out here doing what they love and doing it so brilliantly it was a joy to watch. I love these humans so much. Here's a thread of our week. First of all, this roundtable where I made everyone confidently describe a gay TV show they've never seen—do yourself a hilarious favor and watch @PunkyStarshine mash-up Star Trek and BSG, and @natthedem mash-up Buffy and Save the Last Dance. bit.ly/31z5yZp

Tomorrow is three weeks since my dysautonmia diagnosis. My life has changed so dramatically in the last four months. I had a mild case of COVID and now I use a cane, a shower chair, multiple medications to manage my heart... I can walk slowly around my house during the day, wearing compression socks and stockings, but still need to spend a significant amount of time in bed and need to avoid stairs as much as possible. I only leave my house to go to the doctor. I have to take a car, door to door.

#Covid1in20 #LongCOVID update!

Week 16 here. Was diagnosed with post-COVID postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) today. Cardiologist said I'm the first patient she's seen with post-COVID symptoms, but wasn't surprised. She'd been anticipating an increase in patients suffering from dysautonomia after having COVID.

My symptoms have evolved to tachycardia, orthostatic intolerance, light-headedness, brain fog, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain and heart palpitations.