#so…I like dairy a lot

[aroguexenolith]

Long COVID can also affect your taste and smell.

Some people lose them completely.

Some people start smelling and/or tasting normal foods and drinks as something else, often something disgusting. Imagine never being able to drink coffee because it now smells and tastes like garbage.

The version I’ve ended up with is phantosmia, or olfactory hallucinations if that helps describe it succinctly. I had a coworker who sometimes smelled smoke. For me it varies, but usually smells like garbage and spoiled dairy. Once it was the smell of strong perfume. Another time, it was stinky diapers.

I also can’t smell or taste things intermittently. I can’t smell the odor of spoiled chicken and lots of other things. Sometimes, I’ll bake my favorite cookies or spend two hours making dinner or even just grabbed my favorite soda and it doesn’t really taste like anything. Did I make my milk tea wrong this morning…? No, I just can’t taste it today.

This is all to say…these taste and smell disruptions can make your life horrible. Even in my case, where it’s inconsistent and not life-changing, it takes luster out of life. It’s like sometimes being colorblind and not being able to see the color green.

This kind of Long COVID can crop up suddenly months after the infection (for me it was about two months later), and we won’t know yet if it’ll ever go away.

What I Want You To Know About Long COVID

Well lads, I've been suffering from Long COVID for over a year now. My life is at a complete standstill. I'm 25 years old and I'm too sick to go back to school, I can't work, I had to move back in with my parents and I'm still stuck here.

Here are just a few things I wish people knew about Long COVID, including things I didn't know myself until I got it.

COVID destroys your immune system. Yes, even if you don't have Long COVID. Are you getting sick more often now? When you get sick, does it last longer? There are many studies showing that COVID causes t cell depletion, even in mild COVID cases! T cells are how your body remembers how to fight off infections you've had before so losing those cells? Bad news.

Your initial infection can be mild and you can still get Long COVID. Right from Yale Medicine, "Most people with Long COVID had mild acute COVID." (This is also a good link for a basic Long COVID overview).

There can be a gap of time between when you "get better" from the initial COVID infection to the onset of Long COVID symptoms. Some people get sick with an initial COVID infection and never get better. Some get better and then weeks or months later start developing Long COVID symptoms. Long COVID symptoms can even fluctuate over time, can go away for months and then suddenly come back.

So many people have Long COVID and don't realize it. Do you feel more tired lately but no matter how much you sleep, nothing helps? Is it harder to concentrate at work or school? Can you just not think like you used to? You could have Long COVID and not even know it. Even mild post-COVID symptoms are still Long COVID.

COVID can do anything to your body. Long COVID has over 200 recognized symptoms and can affect basically any part or system of your body. There is no one mechanism or cause of Long COVID which unfortunately also means there's no one cure either.

The effects of COVID are cumulative. Each COVID reinfection increases your chances of developing Long COVID. COVID is also affecting your body in other ways, yes, even if you're otherwise young and healthy! "Repeat COVID-19 infections increase risk of organ failure, death".

Once you have Long COVID, repeat COVID infections will make your symptoms worse. "80% [of Long COVID patients] saw their symptoms worsen [from reinfection]. In 60% of people who were in recovery or remission from Long COVID, reinfection caused a recurrence of Long COVID."

There is a lot more I want to say about Long COVID but I want to keep this post at least somewhat manageable to read. Like how when COVID is contracted during pregnancy, those COVID-exposed fetuses have a 6.3-fold increased risk of motor developmental delays, or that another study found 50% of babies exposed to COVID in utero had developmental delays.

You need to keep caring about COVID, for others around you and also for yourself even if you're "healthy". Everyone is at risk. And don't forget 40-60% of COVID infections are asymptomatic, which is why masking even if you feel fine is crucial. The only way right now to not get Long COVID is to not get COVID in the first place. It's not too late, if you've stopped masking it's never too late to start again! I know it's easy to get distracted by things in your life that seem more real than the possibility of getting sick some time in the future, and the peer pressure to not mask can be intense. But it only feels less real or less important until your entire life is having Long COVID. Trust me.

I know this is a complicated issue, many people can't afford to stay home when sick even if they want to because of their jobs, there are disgusting policies trying to ban wearing masks, but please if you can. Keep masking. Masking works, masking saves lives.

This post got a bit longer than I wanted so below the cut is a non-exhaustive list of my Long COVID symptoms and some of my experiences as one of the "healthy young people" who got "unlucky". cw brief mention of suicidal ideation.

Welcome to the Thunderdome that is my body with Long COVID. Keep in mind these are just my experiences and symptoms, Long COVID can cause any range of symptoms at varying severities.

Dysautonomia: Exercise intolerance, Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM), fatigue, and heat intolerance. What do those things mean? Here's some specific examples. Absolutely terrible circulation I am so cold all the time but also, if I get a little too warm I will pass out. Eating hot food makes my heart rate spike, I sweat, my body feels heavy. Blood pooling and pins and needles in my feet when I walk. Don't even think about exercising past walking, it's impossible. I used to work out an hour a day 4 times a week and now walking up one flight of stairs makes my heart pound and I can't breathe. Can't take even just warm showers anymore or I will pass out. Heat rashes from being in the sun for 10 minutes.

Digestive issues: Honestly too many to name but: constant bloating, extreme nausea, constipation, slow motility, lack of appetite, just so much cramping and pain. I lost 18 pounds from Long COVID, as someone who was already considered underweight their entire life, and almost had to get a shunt put into my chest to deliver nutrients because I was nearly completely unable to eat. For the first 6 months of Long COVID, if I could manage 600 calories a day, that was a good day.

Histamine intolerance: Oh boy. My worst symptoms, I don't even know where to start with it. If you know Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) it's very similar. I can only eat 19 foods. If i eat a single bite of something not on that list, it's 48 hours of absolute hell. Coughing, migraines, itchy eyes, such extreme nausea I cannot even describe it, panic/feeling of doom, racing heart rate, derealization, rash, uncontrollable muscle tremors. I only learned about histamine intolerance 5 months into having Long COVID so before that, I was experiencing these symptoms nearly every single day. Terrifying isn't even a strong enough word to describe how it felt to experience all this and have no idea what it was, how to stop it, or if it would ever stop. Really dark times.

Neurological issues: More of that derealization. Inability to concentrate. Anxiety. OCD-like symptoms such as thoughts getting "stuck" in my head, repeating 24/7 completely unable to stop them, genuinely felt like my brain had cracked open and I had lost my mind. Constant dizziness like I'm on a boat.

Sleep issues: I sleep like garbage. I have insomnia, I wake up dozens of times every night and every single time I sleep I have intensely vivid dreams. I can't sleep longer than 7 hours total no matter how exhausted I am. It is exhausting. I'm exhausted, I'm so so tired.

And finally. Just. Really intense suicidal ideation. My body, my health, my entire life has been stolen from me because someone else decided my life was worth less to them than wearing a mask or staying home if they feel sick. Before I got Long COVID, I was preparing to go to South Korea to teach English, then on to a PhD in neurolinguistics, I was supposed to meet my long distance partner and had already booked plane tickets when I got sick. All of that has been destroyed.

Most of us with Long COVID are stuck in a cycle of being extremely sick, then if you're lucky you'll slowly get better over months, just to get reinfected and go right back where you started or worse. Honestly, I'm not scared of dying from COVID. I'm scared of living for a long time, suffering from Long COVID the entire time. This isn't living.

I don't know how to end this now. I'm still fighting, I'm trying experimental treatments, I'm not giving up yet. I hope everyone reading this stays healthy and well.

[naamahdarling]

Accidentally ate a sugar free pudding cup. Took IBS meds immediately but fear it may not be enough to prevent whatever is about to happen.

Anything with alcohol sugars, artificial sweeteners, and added "prebiotic" fiber should be in plain bright orange packaging with huge warnings. That shit is fucking diabolical.

[jkateel]

what’s a good supply of cheap protein that isn’t eggs

Tofu

Top it with black salt, it’ll taste damn close to eggs

Key with tofu is it absorbs what you put in it. So squeeze the water out and start adding whatever spices you like. Use broth to rehydrate it. Let it soak in and then cook with it.

Freezing firm tofu twice (freeze, defrost, freeze, defrost) can give you a “meaty” texture. I use it to make fried tofu bites, and I’ve had people not be able to tell its tofu.

just some ideas in a world that feels like it’s going mad

[moeblob]

having a stressful time at work but i think it's very important to point out the other day i was asking a guy for help and he's like aight gotcha and then we go to this freezer room and he, from somewhere beyond a mound of boxes, just goes "you like anime right?"

sir this is the FIRST TIME we have spoken how did you clock that.

(he claims i had the vibes of someone who liked it then i was like oh like the woman in the deli wearing a jujutsu- and before i can finish the series name he says "no not her, she just liked the shirt. she's never watched anime". . . oh. i see. you have already had this debate with her then. okay.)

EDIT UPDATE:

So I got clocked AGAIN as a weeb by a coworker because I saw part of her outfit and was like "oh, Attack on Titan?" and while I then said I've never watched it she said that's fair then "do you know anything about vtubers?" and I just. Are you kidding me. I mean yeah but like. Why is your safe question with me "do you know about vtubers".

WHAT AURA DO I BRING TO A GROCERY STORE TO BE CALLED OUT LIKE THIS?

[deepinthedirt]

Something inconsequential that I believe in a lot: a vegan/vegetarian recipe should not have anything like "vegan milk" "vegan sausage" in the ingredients. If I wanted a vegan version of biscuits and gravy using those items I'd take a regular recipe and make the substitutions myself. If I'm looking up a vegan recipe it better have some weird fucking plants being used in the most creative and convoluted ways in it. Not a product I buy at the store.

[wizardnuke]

does anyone know if we have to roll that rock up the hill again tomorrow

[dyna-myght]

Still thinking of when my best friends fiancé assumed I’m lactose intolerant because I buy almond milk??? Like sorry??? I’d rather buy the milk substitute bc actual milk goes bad after like a week now and I don’t drink milk enough in the first place to warrant even buying half a gallon??

[echoesofadream]

i dont trust any big scale production of animal products but i think free range organic eggs is the best i can do cause i dont know anyone with hens that can sell me eggs on a regular basis. That would be good though if i could get in contact with a small hen farm. Also are eggs bad for you im only doing this if its good for my body nothing else

[winter-hoof]

This weekend in Grand Rapids was such a good early birthday celebration, it felt so magical :)

[shittycollagen]

people who do not have food allergies or intolerances are just out here having a whole different perspective on the restaurant industry huh

[greasydumbfuck]

late night metafrankposting because i have to go back to college tomorrow and it might make me sick

[stonergyaru]

I hate when you eat something that’s not as good as you’d hope and now you’ve wasted like 400kcal for what?????

[steelycunt]

dairy milk fingers currently discounted in sainsburys because i have a nectar card however unfortunately im at a point where i finish a whole tray in one sitting so i bought two this afternoon instead and have already made it through one </3

[ghoulhusband]

ok because i’m on the train and i just bought some what do you think the best post apocalyptic rugelach filling would be. (if you don’t know what rugelach is, click that wikipedia link, or the truncated version is it’s a filled small pastry originally from jewish communities in poland but now it’s made all over the world and people put all sorts of fillings in them. the filling can be jam, nuts with spices, flavored pastry cream, or even savory fillings. the kind i just bought are chocolate, in case you’re wondering.)

[catwif3]

acting all betrayed when i KNOW i am slightly lactose intolerant and one of the few things that can get me are plain whole milk or half and half esp uncooked. and then get a thai iced tea. and experience the Quencies

[its-spooky-bitch]

I don’t give a fuck I’m going flexitarian. Meat only when I go out to eat.