Long COVID – Page 2 – Carolyn Ristau

In This Moment

I have been sick for 14 months or 402 days or 578,880 minutes. It is a long journey. It is a hard journey. Yet, unlike too many other chronic diseases, there is an assumption that the disease will end one day and I will return to my pre-disease “normal.” For me, it did not endContinue reading “In This Moment”

Day of Rest

Disappointment and success go hand-in-hand as I transition a writing day into a day of rest.

Hope 2

I ignored, or rather, I was distracted at the time of my one-year anniversary of Long COVID (start: November 2023). It was a long and hard year where I spent an immense amount of energy focused on interpreting, diagnosis, and understanding my health on a daily basis. I have learned much about the body, theContinue reading “Hope 2”

Movement for the Soul

Walking and dancing are fundamental to my being. As long as I can walk, I will be ok. But once a foot injury is added to the mix, I struggle.

Listening to Your Body

Whether you have Long COVID, post-election malaise, or other physical or emotional challenges, the multi-step technique of listening to your body can be a helpful self-care tool. In this post, I share my experiences of when I’ve used it well and when I haven’t.

Women’s Health Matters

I chose to have surgery while having Long COVID because I grew up in the tail end of the dark ages of women’s health…and we may be headed back there.

Planning Ahead

Planning ahead has been one of my primary tools for anxiety management for years. It continues to help me through Long COVID.

Self-Soothing

Returning to the comforting familiarity of Disney movies is soothing to my anxiety.

Managing Anxiety

Last week, I shared how anxiety increases the severity of my Long COVID symptoms and how sometimes medical practitioners mischaracterize the relationship between anxiety and Long COVID. My current primary source of anxiety is my upcoming surgery. Like when I had a virus in August (2024), my anxiety is due partly to knowing too littleContinue reading “Managing Anxiety”

Anxiety and Long COVID 2

Medical professionals can overemphasize anxiety in Long COVID cases, when the best help for the anxiety is to address the root cause — the Long COVID.