2 years on and you’d think that Long-COVID would be sorted. I certainly did!
All was going pretty well until early October 2023 where the body decided it had other ideas. The usual symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, irritability, lung infection, fatigue, rashes, stutter, mental health, did I mention fatigue?
I hit 2 years to the day on 21 October and it felt like I had regressed 18 months. Fair to say that did little for my mood and general state of mind.
Up to that point I had still been using antihistamines which had been working ok. I am not entirely sure what changed but with Long-COVID who actually does?
A professional colleague made a suggestion to me to try nicotine patches. Huh?
It would seem that smokers on average fared better than non smokers during covid. Who would have thought?!! There is science to this which I do not feel competent enough to explain. Suffice to say the articles talk favourably of outcomes although some countries like France, back in 2020, have fundamentally changed how nicotine patches can be purchased.
It would seem there are not enough nicotine patches available to support both smokers endeavoring to quit and Long-COVID sufferers to get well. Should one get priority over the other? Well, both have a pretty big impact on quality of life, cost to society, etc so in my opinion, no. Then again, I am biased.
I popped into my local pharmacy to try it out for myself but alas, I am not a smoker and the pharmacist seemed more reserved than errr a reserved thing. Something about not being prepared to give a dosage to a nonsmoker etc. I should have told him I am a 20 a day bloke!
Anyways, nicotine patches are actually easy to get hold of so I started taking the 7mm version a week ago.
Holy Toledo!
On day two I was getting more rashes I cared to know about and I am sure you care to read about. I will share though that these rashes were the same ones I had been getting for the last 2 years.
On day three being a Saturday, I got up early for a row, came home did chores, spent the day doing various physical activities, and come evening still had energy. I hadn’t felt like that for a while.
If that wasn’t enough, my clarity of thought was the biggest winner. I did not have to put any energy into managing silly negative thoughts or feel like I was fighting any demons. I could listen to people without having to check in with myself to make sure I wasn’t owning their ‘stuff’ or to remind myself to be ‘present’ to their conversation. Basically, I was functioning like I was pre covid – September 2021!
Day four started with a walk / run in the bush in the Coromandel. This again was followed by a productive day with enough energy to do what I wanted to do.
I have no idea how long this will last if it lasts at all. What I do know is that I am thoroughly enjoying things right now.
