Nothing for Granted
The world is terrible. That doesn't mean you have to be
Future Spellcasting
On Tuesday 3/17 at 7pm I will be in conversation with writer Natalie Richards at Cover to Cover Children’s Books in Upper Arlington, OH, for the launch of her new YA novel, Two Perfect Lies. Free and open to the public.
Nothing for Granted
I’ve learned to be strategic. I tried taking it with meals. I tried before bed on an empty stomach. I tried before a work Zoom meeting (a nightmare). I tried to take it after dinner; by the time I was done cleaning up the kitchen, I could lie down if I felt ill, I thought.
Nope. The med works fast, nearly instantaneously. I was sick before the first dish hit the sink.
Why am I subjecting myself to this? Because it’s working.
I’m still coming back to me.
I’m on a new, not covered by insurance, medication for Long COVID as part of a pretty aggressive treatment plan from one of the best and only Long COVID clinics in the country—and it is working. For the first time in three years, I don’t have a headache every day. Fatigue continues to be an issue but I do have more energy.
And in the most surprising and frankly, cool result: memories are flooding back to me. Memories from childhood, moments I haven’t thought about for years, that I did not even realize I had forgotten. They are back with startlingly detail, like I’m Dorothy Gale stepping from the black and white of her tornado-ruined house into Technicolor.
It took becoming more well for me to realize how ill I’ve been, and for how long. The last three years have been a nightmare in which I was not myself, in the fog of what was actually brain damage.
I’m still coming back to me. It’s a slow process, but my doctors have stressed the damage stops now. It’s time to heal and protect my future. I’m willing to endure some short-term nausea to safeguard my long-term, and I’m happy to report the side effects are lessening.
I used to think because I was born disabled, I wouldn’t get more disabled. I had had my disabled luck already. Nope. Not true for me and not true for anyone. I am learning to take nothing for granted.
A few weeks ago a prize-winning American writer lamented publicly online about a form rejection he had received. I won’t name him, but he has been married six times.