#Covid/LongCovid

Happy Wodin’s Day, Everyone! Hope your week is moving along smoothly, and that good things are abundant in your life! Maybe you’re enjoying autumn weather already, and if so, I envy you. It was 94 degrees here yesterday, so summer has definitely overstayed its welcome. BUT … with a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic, it could definitely be worse, so I’m still feeling grateful. So far.

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The first thing I want to share today is that I went to my new audiologist yesterday for a WAY overdue hearing exam. I knew I needed new hearing aids, but really had no idea how much technology had advanced since my I got my last pair five or six years ago. What can I say? I’m amazed at the vast difference in the fine tuning for my individual hearing issues. AND … I learned something I’ve never known in all the years I’ve been using computers. The mouse makes an audible CLICK every time you “click” on something. Even before my hearing got truly bad, I never, EVER heard that noise. But because they can now adjust for specific hearing issues, including low-pitched or high-pitched sounds, as you might need, I now am very aware of things I’ve been missing out on for several decades. Wow!! Color me HAPPY!

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I definitely see at least some improvement in my Long COVID issues. My three symptoms (extreme fatigue, dizzy spells with tingling and numbness in my right leg, and brain fog) are decreasing in severity, and SEEM to be of shorter duration each time they visit. And I’ve had as many as five days in a row with NO visits, too. Used to be only 2 or 3 before they showed up. Now they are farther apart and seem to be going away in a day or two, instead of 5 or 6 days at a time. SO … hurray! I may actually get past this stuff, and back to nothing more than the usual aches and pains of someone approaching eighty. Color me HAPPY TWICE!!

THE OTHER THING

And last, I’ve been absolutely overwhelmed with setting up all my newly referred doctors and specialists (primary care, cardiologist, dermatologist, vision, audiologist, and more). That includes scheduling New Patient Visits for each, and being sure they were located reasonable distances from my home. At the same time, I’m taking care of several time-consuming but necessary house and yard jobs around here on days when I felt physically able to handle them. Urk.

So now, I want to apologize for not being able to visit all my favorite blogs in a timely manner, and falling down on my weekend #Twofer blogs, etc. I have had to accept that I can’t do as much as I used to do, at least not at the moment. (Hopefully, that’s just a temporary thing.) With that in mind, as CEO here at The Write Stuff, I’ve made an executive decision not to schedule any more guest posts this year, beyond the six I already have set up. I’ve also cancelled my December wildlife talks, and the like, though I HOPE by then, I’ll be ahead of the game, and can actually take December off for holiday things and a bit of fun, rather than still playing catch-up at a frantic pace.

I plan to resume regular #GuestDayTuesdays & #TenThings posts in January, and will put out a call for folks who’d like to visit us then. In the meantime, I do have the six aforementioned guests lined up for you and trust me–you don’t want to miss any of these fun and entertaining posts!

9/20 #GuestDayTuesday: D. Wallace Peach /The Necromancer’s Daughter
2/28 #TenThingsYouMayNotKnowAboutMe: Mike Allegra
10/4 #GuestDayTuesday: Jackie Lambert Writer’s Travelogue post Journaling Part 2
10/18 #GuestDayTuesday: Mike Allegra New Release post
11/15 #GuestDayTuesday: Jackie Lambert Writer’s Travelogue Series post

I know you ALL understand when Life doesn’t let you do everything you intended, but I’m really sure this is temporary. I’ll still be posting once or twice a week or so, as I’m able, and I definitely plan to resume my normal schedule, guests and all, by January. I’ll still be checking in daily, posting when I can, and you can ALWAYS reach me via email.

That’s my plan, an’ I’m stickin’ TO it! (If the bridge don’t go, an’ the creek don’t rise, as they say in these parts. 😁)

And that’s it for today.
Have a great week, everyone!

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I did NOT understand the difference, and discovered that a whole lot of folks I knew were also confused. As it turns out, the intermittent health problems I’ve been having for several months have NOT been caused by my diabetes (which is completely under control now, with my A1C test well in the normal range) or residual damage from my fall some time back. NOPE. It turns out I apparently have Long Covid! For those who may have been as confused as I’ve been, here’s what my doctor and the CDC have to say about how this annoyingly persistent problem differs from actual Covid.

Check with CDC for more Info HERE

THE OTHER THING

My Long Covid symptoms have mainly been extreme fatigue, brain fog/inability to focus my thoughts, and frequent dizzy spells, often accompanied by tingling and numbness in my right leg. Yes, all three of those are among the 19 symptoms listed on the CDC website. Fatigue and brain fog are very annoying, and often prevent me from accomplishing anything while they last. But the scariest to me are the dizzy spells. Having received a serious concussion with my afore-mentioned fall, I’m truly afraid of having another. Believe me, I’m being very, very careful when I’m up and about on days when these symptoms start showing up.

Also, there is no pattern I can establish as to when the next episode is going to happen, nor how long it will last. Sometimes I feel fine for 2 or 3 weeks in between Long Covid episodes, and sometimes one will return within 2 or 3 days of the last one. And sometimes they last for only a couple of days, while at least one has lasted for TEN days!

If you have had Covid at some point and have any random symptoms such as described above, you might want to talk to your doctor to see if you are actually experiencing Long Covid. Not everyone has these episodes, but many do. As for myself, I feel infinitely better knowing what the heck is going on, and finding ways to cope with it, with the fervent wish that it will soon disappear forever!

At least it wasn’t Rapid-Speed Senility shoving me over the edge! 😂

Hope this info has been helpful to some of you, but mainly, I hope most of you never have to deal with either Covid OR the Long Covid after-effects.