Okay I actually suspect I’m in my 11th Covid case now. Woke up today doing a remarkable attempt of all-ways emptying my digestive tract, more critically the creatine dose I was taking is now quite inadequate – the postexertionary fatigue symptom is still young enough to get empowered and I was carrying a high revolving balance on it anyway. So topsoil’s done for the year, gonna sow some grass seed to grow in the fall rain to anchor it and resume next year.

Oh you know what, I bet some of why it’s been so slow going down creatine scoops lately is since I started maul smashing I’ve had such an energy hit for muscle building and baseline use of the new stuff it’s taking up most of the energy budget the recovery of aerobic generation was giving back.

Which means that if I calculate it out there’s a chance I’ll end up past “Slim” and into the “Thin” state, but with really built muscles, which is about where Hollywood leading men are these days.

…which is exactly the A-1 grade of bullshit we’ve come to expect here at Casa Kontextmaschine, so fuck it, sure. Sure.

…

…Karafuto. I guess Karafuto is “Casa Kontextmaschine”.

You know, in that after the brain Covid I had to relearn my basic controls both as a person and as a body from scratch (and some of the gameplay mechanics that I still knew on an intact, intellectual level were different) that was kinda an honest-to-God born-again experience, huh?

Iron hunger retreating, at 4 pills every half-day sometimes I miss a dose and don’t even notice for an hour. Going down to 3 (or at least 4/3) before too long.

Yeah, I guess at this point catching Covid is the most important thing that happened in my entire life.

Because of long covid now Taylor Lorenz can never win a culture fight against anyone outside her circle with a minimum of awareness and I think that’s beautiful

I’m unironically a bit glad it wrecked me so bad because basically no one can try to pull rank mawkward on me now

So on top of the specific muscle weakness from my post-exertional symptom after mulching the other day (itself atop all the soreness) I also spent yesterday effectively two creatine scoops down in general, and it was interesting to see a bit of the effects I hadn’t really thought of as energy deficit related – fingers growing fumbly as I did delicate work, some brain fog and limits on mental complexity – showing back up

Today I’m like one scoop down but I was expecting to cut back a scoop in a week or so so fine.

Oh, no, that 10th case was definitely real (if of origin only presumed to be a new externally introduced infection), and it’s still churning through the echo symptoms – had dumbly fingers yesterday, now I’m getting the kind of lateral instability I know comes from errors accumulating along the “brain decides where to place foot, leg muscles place it there” chain – but all really weak and trivial.

OK, wildfire smoke definitely hitting Portland now. I think ‘cause I’m running off so much anaerobic energy that interference with my oxygen uptake might not be as bad for me, but I should expect the nocturnal decline to hit harder as what aerobic I have now (in truth I probably never dipped below 65% the whole time, even in the first case, just that was enough to open up a deficit margin) isn’t even there to take up so much slack

Huh, last week I had had mild memory and mental issues and even anosmia in a way that would normally make me suspect Covid echoes, but the 9th case had been too recent.

But since then I have classic finger clumsiness and my iron hunger went from a little under to a little over 3 pills twice daily, so imma call it.

I mean I suppose echo waves could represent some rallying of virus residual in the body, though my first two definitely followed the acute symptoms of my 2nd and 3rd infections.

This might even be why going down from 5 to 4 scoops took 2-4 weeks longer than I expected, which goes to show how faint the echoes are there now.

Ok, think I’ll be ready to go down to 4 scoops creatine/day either at the midpoint or end of this month. I was at 4 two cases ago but echoes took me up to 6 and then on the day I was about to go back to 4, back to the top of 5. So nice to regain my place, and since the echoes seem to get weaker each time (except case 7, which was the hardest since 3) I don’t expect another would cost me even a full scoop now.

kontextmaschine:

Oh, I now realize that 8th case “fatigue doesn’t clear” symptom might be that “post-exertional malaise” they talk about. Fortunately it showed up so late in the game it only really mattered for 3 weeks and then 2 more on the 9th-case echo

Okay spoke too soon, went to a bar on Thursday and the #14 bus (I live in Foster-Powell, I assume even any stalkers who haven’t messaged me Karafuto’s address yet have already picked that up) just didn’t show up when Google Maps told me coming and going so I walked 50 mins total and was a little too worn to go out Friday, even today I’m noticing that it crossed with the blood pressure symptoms and keeping upright and on the move that long so strained my ability to keep the upper body pumped full that standing up is mildly a drag today

Fuckin Nethack-ass disease

fatsexybitch:

kontextmaschine:

There is one specific symptom it is useful for: difficulties in processing blood sugar into ATP energy, where it helps by replacing with energy derived from breaking down stored fat. Over my (9 now, I think) cases I’ve encountered other fatigue symptoms, including one that was really an iron deficiency and one I suspect was “post-exertional malaise”, the creatine did nothing for them.

Creatine is pretty safe though, your body makes some naturally all the time, if you took a bucketload on the reg it might gratuitously let you burn too much fat doing exercise and then starve in a famine.

I would say it’s worth trying once – take say 4 scoops, it’ll take effect within 20 minutes, if that clears it up yay, take it every day and it’ll burn fat to keep you on until the symptom clears, if it makes you feel a bit better but not totally try some more until you find your level, if that’s not it sorry but maybe suggest it to other people with fatigue.

Honestly when I first read about you using creatine for fatigue I was like “such a dude bro solution, doubt it will work” but then I read some articles on long covid and CFS that showed the energy limitations are heavily tied to a lack of anaerobic energy production and was like “weird”

But it’s one of the most studied supplements on the market and a proven safety record even in really high doses, and long-term high dose usage over years hasn’t shown any negative impacts.

So I decided to try it. I’ve got Fibro and (likely) long covid, and started off w really low doses (like 1/3 the ‘recommended’ dose on the package) and started upping weekly and had great results.

I don’t need my lunchtime nap anymore, and I’ve still got energy at the end of the workday for little chores around the house. I haven’t had a bad brain fog day for nearly 3 months. I usually spend weekends working for 20-30 mins on chores and resting for about the same time. Now I can work for a few hours before a short 20-30min rest, and I don’t suffer the rebound (PEM) in the following day.

I’m still only taking ~4 scoops per day so I’m not seeing any weight loss or gain, but i was pre-diabetic when I started (managing w diet and exercise) and now my blood sugar is way more stable with no food or exercise changes, just a slight increase in baseline activity. I have noticed some reduction in my largest fat deposits, but I think I’m probably losing fat/gaining muscle equally.

I ran out on Tuesday this week and didn’t have time to go to the store, and the difference in fatigue and reduction in endurance was immediate, but no other difference. I haven’t noticed any side effects or w/d symptoms, so I’d rate it safe for self experimentation, fwiw. (Obviously, I am NOT a Dr and YMMV)

Mostly, I’m a little peeved you solved chronic fatigue with bodybuilders powder.

The one thing I’m concerned about is that insofar as it DOES give you more energy that DOES come from breaking down fat, and it took a while for me to first notice my reserves being depleted but that is a finite resource.

In my case this one Covid symptom is receding at a rate such that if I keep this treatment up I expect to end up stylishly slim, but for a chronic, permanent thing I couldn’t maintain it indefinitely, I’d become emaciated.

(I’m also not sure I can store new fat until it fully clears, scheduled a year or so on, I suspect my blood sugar’s just getting converted to nonsense molecules and pissed out, if that’s different for you maybe it’s more sustainable? This seems like exactly the thing a nutritionist might be helpful for.)

There is one specific symptom it is useful for: difficulties in processing blood sugar into ATP energy, where it helps by replacing with energy derived from breaking down stored fat. Over my (9 now, I think) cases I’ve encountered other fatigue symptoms, including one that was really an iron deficiency and one I suspect was “post-exertional malaise”, the creatine did nothing for them.

Creatine is pretty safe though, your body makes some naturally all the time, if you took a bucketload on the reg it might gratuitously let you burn too much fat doing exercise and then starve in a famine.

I would say it’s worth trying once – take say 4 scoops, it’ll take effect within 20 minutes, if that clears it up yay, take it every day and it’ll burn fat to keep you on until the symptom clears, if it makes you feel a bit better but not totally try some more until you find your level, if that’s not it sorry but maybe suggest it to other people with fatigue.

Oh, I now realize that 8th case “fatigue doesn’t clear” symptom might be that “post-exertional malaise” they talk about. Fortunately it showed up so late in the game it only really mattered for 3 weeks and then 2 more on the 9th-case echo

Ah, okay, if I stagger the timing right its feasible to take iron from a “3 pills every 12 hours” level down to 3/2 days with less drain starting to show up at time for next dose than when I started 3/3, but it’s gonna be just easier to keep it synced with Badger’s meals until it drops to 2/2.

Alright, it was a month ago when I was about to downshift to 4 scoops/day creatine when I got another echo that sent me back to fully 5 and now here I am waking up and taking a shit before any, which is an energetic sign, so hopefully next month this time I’ll be ready.

I estimate my body keeps a level of about 2 scoops naturally, so I’m doing anaerobic energy (and thus weight loss) at a demand of 7 daily, and this represents an amount equal to the paired segments using 5 and 2 scoops (which is to say the ones taking 3 and just now 0), the one using 6 and 1 (taking 4, and taking 0 after demand has further declined to only some of natural production), and the one using 4 and 3 (taking 2 and 1)

This is to say this and next month together represent fully one fourth of the “final stretch” weight loss; if descending through these phases takes 2 months each it should be complete in around a year.

Of course phases might take longer, and I might see further cases and echoes in that time (probably even less than 1 full scoop worth), which I guess will determine how twinky I come out.

So the iron-hunger I originally figured out because the first few days I just threw more creatine at it but it continued to drag me down and I was in the supermarket going by the butcher counter and I was like “haven’t had any red meat in a while! [gears grinding] Wait a second, do I have anemia?”

So I grabbed some iron from the vitamin aisle and sure enough, that cleared it.

Iron Deficiency Symptoms: Is iron deficiency an after effect of COVID infection? Experts answer, shed light on the signs, sources and supple

sounds right

If there was a new effect from this last 9th case I can’t tell, of course that means it still could be something not immediately obvious like I think testosterone production was something like the 4th-6th (and something else was for the others?)

It goes:

1. Brain – motor control, movement-in-space conceptualization, self-identity, social function, memory
2. Aerobic energy generation – generation of ATP from blood sugar somehow inhibited? This is what I take creatine to fill in for.
3. Blood pressure. In the first case made me faint a few times, now makes me weak a while after standing up and means that iron (below) takes effect slower if I’m sitting down
4. (or 5?) Possible increase in testosterone production, as seen in steroid-like increases in muscle gain in response to exercise, poss. personality and skin? effects
5. (???)
6. (???)
7. Iron hunger – require daily iron supplements to stave off an anemia-like fatigue in which blood (vessels?) suddenly feels so heavy major arteries can be located in the body by feel
8. fatigue duration boost – muscles take much longer to recover – intense use normally recuperated in hours or even minutes may take days to recover function, repeated low-level strain once ignorable will accumulate into incapacitating fatigue
9. ???