Last thing I want to make sure to share for #LongCovidAwarenessDay is this podcast interview with Emily Dupree, the absolute legend / regular person who founded Clean Air Club and inspired dozens of similar lending library projects, providing free air filters and far-uvc lights for arts events. Her clarity about clean air and mask requirements as access issues is 👌🏻
Tag: long covid awareness day
Not just a lingering cough, but also a lingering cough
The long covid resource I have shared with the most people irl might be surprising… It’s how to stop a chronic dry cough (PDF).
I think we’re finally done with the mistaken idea that long covid is just a lingering cough. But also, often people have a lingering cough! And it can be rough– i have had PEM as a result of coughing.
So I’m sharing the method I got from my respiratory physiotherapist– of course talk to a doc first.
Long covid oracle, March 2020
Shout out to Jennifer Brea, co-founder of MEAction, who started raising awareness of long covid on March 14, 2020.
This is one of the data points that convinced me disability activists can see the past and present so clearly it counts as seeing the future.
How to realize you need to pace
I’m forever grateful to MEAction for their Stop Rest Pace campaign that started early in the pandemic. It’s the reason I stopped trying to push through my fatigue, and realized I might have long covid. Their resources on recognizing PEM and learning to pace are honestly worth a read for everyone during these times.
And the guide they made for doctors in collab with the Mayo clinic is so smart.
How to Be Sick
A book that helped me adjust to long covid life is How To Be Sick, by Toni Bernhard, who is a Buddhist with ME/CFS. It’s not a “heal yourself with meditation” book, it is a “techniques for handling suffering” book.
I had heard sick and disabled people say everyone who receives a life-changing diagnosis should be provided a doula or guide for the transition, and this book served a little bit of that for me. Passing it on.
Long Covid Awareness Day 2024
It’s heartening to see more people talking about the ever-growing long covid disaster, and also it has been getting hard to endure all the awareness raising that aims to scare people as much as possible by using my health conditions as an example.
It’s important, keep it up! But for #LongCovidAwarenessDay I want to lift up things that have made long covid easier for me to bear. Sending so much love today to fellow long haulers and to all the spoonies, especially people with ME ❤️