Health

by

Fatigue and Hair Cuts

Just saw a video of someone with long COVID describing how hard it is to get their hair cut. Bright lights, loud music, hair dryers, people; it can be exhausting.

My strategy starts with my hairstyle. It allows me to only need to go to the salon 4-5 times a year. I have bangs that I rough cut, not aiming for that perfect straight line. Having my mistakes fixed every few months seems to work. I have my stylist cut it as short as it can go and still be able to pull it back. I don’t have the energy to blow dry and style my hair before work. The back of my hair can grow for months before it noticeably needs to be cut.

I try to make morning appointments, even better if it’s a weekday; less customers and less stylists at their chairs. Finding a ‘one stylist salon’ would be great but it’s difficult and likely expensive. I also have a person I like that caters to my quirks. Like wanting an extra towel under my neck at the sink and knowing that I want to sit up if there is a reason for waiting at the sink (conditioner, getting more towels from the dryer). Most stylists seem good about chatting or not chatting depending on their clients’ mood, and mine is certainly good at that.

The rest of the day’s schedule is kept as light as possible; a short trip to the store on my way home or a couple hours of work at most.

Almost no effort put into getting ready for the appointment. Comfortable clothes, no make up, but do make sure to brush my hair really well to limit any knots they need to work out. If you do not need any processing, you can wash your hair before/after as needed if the hair bowl thing is uncomfortable for you.

Do you have any energy saving tips and tricks?

by

ME/CFS and Long COVID Fatigue – Activity Scale

I was looking about online for some information for some of my patients having fatigue issues after COVID and came across a site that had an interesting scale on it. Thought to share in case anyone else found it useful. I added some links at the bottom to store for myself and in case anyone was interested in more information.

I think I am at 50 because I have been going up to level 60 for a couple of weeks and my symptoms have started to flair up. Maybe somewhere in the middle. You are supposed to ask yourself: what activity level am I able to sustain without increasing symptoms?

rating_scaleDownload

Click to access rating_scale.pdf

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pmrj.12684

http://www.cfsselfhelp.org/pacing-tutorial

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VfENjAiOBKryT-dIOFyU8CyEAAKVR5xk9WyvlZF-u4M/edit

Patient and Caregiver Resources
My Experience with Pfizer COVID Vaccine Hx Post Lyme
by

My Experience with Pfizer COVID Vaccine Hx Post Lyme

I felt an almost obligation to post something about my vaccine experience. Many people, especially if they have certain health issues, are worried about getting the vaccine. I was. The community in particular has lost a lot of trust in the CDC, IDSA, and the medical establishment in general. I have been fairly lucky. I have had some caring doctors/ARNPs/PAs that really did listen but once my heart and my thyroid tested normal, there was nothing else they could do. After I was treated by a LLMD/PA, most of the doctors I have seen seem to accept a general chronic fatigue type status and move on to the other normal blood work monitoring, testing, and advice. The only time a doctor was dismissive of Lyme Disease, in front of me, was when I was at a marketing lunch with a pain management doctor and asked if he ever treated patients with Lyme Disease. Of course, no one in Florida has Lyme.

This post is not to talk you into anything. It is to provide a little information and a viewpoint. Some of the Lyme community posts about the flu vaccine make people think suffering and death is the most likely outcome. I still have internal debates about the flu vaccine for multiple reasons, most are not Lyme Disease related. I don’t have the loudest voice. I am not trying to sell you anything. I am just trying to balance a little of what is on social media. Not everyone with a Lyme struggle thinks the same way.

I decided to get the vaccine for several reasons

  • I am not in any acute stage of illness
  • I work with COVID-19 positive patients
  • I do NOT want any of the possible long term consequences of having COVID
  • I do not want to get sick or carry the virus to give to others (still mask after, research is ongoing about being a carrier)
  • I have had 2 flu shots (last 2 years), since being treated 7 years ago for Lyme, with no side effects
  • To get things back to relative normal and to decrease the number of mutations, the more people that can be and are vaccinated, the better
  • I do not have any known medication or vaccine allergies.
  • The vaccine’s efficacy rate is phenomenal

How it went:

The location I was able to get an appointment at was set up for healthcare workers that do not work in hospitals. I selected an appointment time and showed up. They had a massive amount of volunteers and paid staff there to help move people through the process. The only waiting I did was the 15 minute recommended observation time to make sure you do not have an allergic reaction. This was not a drive through site so I had to park and get out. They did have wheelchairs and people on stand by to help anyone who might need assistance.

The day after both the first and the second vaccine, my arm was sore. I did some gentle ROM of my arm to loosen things up and get the juices flowing and that helped a great deal. I did not have any of the other listed side effects. The young nursing student that gave me one of the shots said that she had every side effect on the list. She said that with a smile and was happy to have gotten it. I was a little tired for a couple days after the second vaccine. I had a busy week and the received the vaccine on a Friday. I was not able to distinguish between my normal run out of spoons fatigue and any sort of vaccine reaction. I rested over the weekend and was back to baseline.

Please be careful of what sources you use to make your decisions. Please do not share posts that may have disinformation.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-disinformation-campaign-aims-to-undermine-confidence-in-pfizer-other-covid-19-vaccines-u-s-officials-say-11615129200

If you have any thoughts or questions please leave a comment!!!

by

Thoughts on My Accidental Joining of Wall Street V Main Street This Week

Over the past year, I have been using the stock market crash and subsequent volatility to make small investments. I have been able to pay my mortgage a couple of times thanks to cruise line stocks. As the market settled, I cashed out 50% of my holdings to keep long term. One of the stocks I decided I would park some money in was Black Berry ($BB). They have had some good news over the past month and the stock went up some. Last week it it made a huge jump over 2 days. I checked the news to see what the deal was and the only thing that I could find was that there were people investing in some stocks in hope of a short squeeze (hedge fund managers making bets that the stock would go down and when it doesn’t, they have to buy shares at a higher price and buying a lot of shares makes the price go even higher – my rough understanding). As I was researching the news, I placed a trailing stop on 50% of my BB shares so if it started dropping, those shares would sell. They did sell after a 16% drop from the high but my original position had gone up over 400% so, I have enough to pay some bills if I do not re-invest (the taxes will be high because I had held them < 1 year).

Bubbling anger history

In 2008 government bailed out financial institutions during the sub prime mortgage crisis. Too big to fail was bailed out and given much more support than individuals/families that were allowed to fail. I started to write a description but it’s worth a book so here is my experience during this time for ground level – where it started: I was saving to buy a home and would occasionally tour neighborhoods. After several months, it became apparent that I was not able to save faster than prices were going up and was getting priced out of neighborhoods. One of the first homes I went to tour, was in a neighborhood that had a lot of foreclosures. For homes that were only 1-2 years old, they were tore up. There was some anger in there and the homes were not worth what they were asking. The relator that had been involved in selling those, had given me a tour. She, later, took me on to tour another home. After the tour she took aside one of my friends that went with us and said that I was not buying a big enough home, that I should be looking at one more expensive. She asked me once, “well don’t you expect that you’ll get raises?”

Story from 2019 that recently resurfaced regarding the IRS. Rich are less likely to be audited because it is too hard and expensive.

The use of stock buy backs to boost prices and help share holders instead of using Republican tax breaks to help workers. Trickle down is a joke but when they are using turned up umbrellas, it is cruel.

More recently, in corona news, there was CNBC doing its job of letting hedge fund and investor bros come on and talk up/down whatever they are trying to manipulate. Here is a link to the almost 30 minute “interview” of Bill Ackman who made 2 BILLION from short positions (they were disclosed March 3 per site). If you have the patience, watch the ticker (including volatility index) on screen as he talks. Stocks were already declining and I would bet most people who had the ability to buy shorts, did to some degree when COVID hit but this brings up another point, there are algorithms and computers controlling huge volumes of trade and are able to act more quickly than a human can. If somebody says boo on TV, a particular stock could lose 200% before a human is able to hear and then react to the news.

There are a lot of sources of anger going back decades. There is enough of it that some supported Trump looking for solutions, and some are looking for answers in visions such as found with Bernie Saunders.

Coming Together

The remarkable thing about what was happening this week is that I saw multiple generations and multiple political leanings coming to together with a focus of their anger. Behind all of it may have been some heavy weight suits or new money, but I am speaking more to the online social media participants. For at least a moment, people stopped pointing fingers at each other and united against those that are happy to screw over anyone and everyone that does not have enough money and power to do anything for them.

The first primary target was GME. Hedge funders had shorted over 100% of shares. Seems lEgIt.

I trade the most with one of the more traditional brokers but I had a stock on Robinhood. A friend referred me and you get a free stock. I have had the account for about a year. When the crazy was really rolling, I decided to sell the one share. I used that to buy crypto currency. When you transfer money to Robinhood, they let use the money immediately, even though it can take up to a week for funds to be transferred from your bank account. They have stopped that feature for all of the suspect stocks and for crypto. They did also stop all trading of the volatile list at one point. I think part of their policy decisions have been based of their lack of available capital and server space. Like a website that suddenly goes viral and crashes. They are looking to go public soon and so may have been trying to keep financials a certain way. They may have also had pressure from some of their business partners would would be friendly to the hedge fund bros that are getting squeezed.

It will be an interesting week ahead as regulators and law makers decide on how much retail investors should be regulated while hedge funds due as they please. Does it matter who is doing the manipulating? I’ll be watching to see of there is a continued sort of class consciousness that has different political sides uniting against the real obstacles, instead of reacting to being told to hate each other.

Good luck, stay safe.

I am not giving any financial or investment advice in this post and have no expertise to do so.

Edit: Additional Thought: People with money and power seem to get away with all sorts of illegal things and that is if it has been made illegal. They also have influence over what laws are written and how how they are written. I once heard someone remark about how someone who committed a white collar crime should be cut a break and forgiven because the financial crime they committed was not violent and did not harm anyone. Sure, because screwing middle class and poor people out of money does not do harm??? It is too bad that financial crimes can not be found and prosecuted as easily as someone carrying some drugs and a pipe whose taillight is out.

by

I’m all about that space, bout that space

This song is so stuck in my head.

Sorry if it gets stuck in yours.  Especially if you follow me across other platforms.

 

 

@ktyjdawn

#neverfitin #coronavirus

♬ All About That Bass – Im The One

Falling Through the Cracks: To Florida Leaders
by

Falling Through the Cracks: To Florida Leaders

In parking lots across Florida, there are those who are waiting.  They are waiting for the promised check, the direct deposit, the life line that was promised amidst this horrible pandemic.  They understand that this is a new thing.  That it might take a little time.  They are waiting.  As they wait, they begin to notice that there are more people joining this open space waiting room.  Weeks have passed and still they wait.

It began with one car.  Days went by and I noticed that the car was there every night.  When a second car showed up, I decided to approach and ask if everything was okay.  The people in both cars were kind enough to talk to me.  I was a stranger.  On first meeting, my understanding was that one was just waiting for the stimulus and one had recently lost their job.  They were both okay and hopeful.  One declined any offer of help and had everything under control, they just needed that stimulus deposit and everything would be back to normal.  One did ask for some cold water if possible. It is Florida, it has been getting into the 90’s and a car, even in the shade, can be very unpleasant after a short time.  I took the ask.

A couple of weeks later and they are getting tired of hoping and waiting.  Flashes of frustration, anger, sadness and disbelief enter the conversations.  The stimulus check has still not appeared in the bank account.  A bank account the federal government has used for direct deposits for years.  The unemployment application is still “pending”.  They both have plans waiting to execute.  All they need are the checks that they have been told are coming.  As the weeks have passed, more cars, trucks, and trailers have joined the back lot impromptu camping ground.  They are teaching each other tricks.  Park in this area. Get a cup of ice from this store so you can have cold water through the day.

I gave up my keychain pepper spray.  You need to at least crack your window for some air movement when you sleep.

They still hope.

This is all new.  I do not expect massive new programs or program expansions to be flawless overnight.  Neither do they.  What they need is the money or a way to expedite the process.  Direction on what to do next.  They are spending their days looking for answers on the news, on social media, during press conferences.  At least one has reached out to their representatives. But the the only answer has been to wait.  How long can they wait?  The crack they have fallen into only seems to get deeper with every day.

(To be clear, this is not about party.  I have not talked politics in the waiting room.  If I had to guess from their comments, I would say one is Republican, and I have no idea about the other)

The Old Guard