look, I try not to overshare, but there's something that I need people to understand so I'm writing it and my reason is "I'm a bard and a succubus, what did you expect?
" (in return, I'll use capital letters and punctuation and stuff)
I and a lot of others disabled by long covid repeat the same line over and over: mask up and do what you can to prevent spread.
But... I don't think people quite get the reality of disability via long covid and me/cfs. I'm not missing a limb or a sensory organ. Physically, my body exists in its entirety. The underlying systems, though? absolutely shot. I went from being able to heavily exhert myself over 8~10h per day to not being able to stand more than 5 minutes before needing multiple hours of lay-down rest. What's more, me/cfs means over-exherting myself *decreases* my max stamina unlike a healthy mammalian body.
Simply put, this means I can't have sex. 5 minutes of exhertion could set my already shot systems back a month or more. 10+ minutes could set me back half a year. (Of course, this also means I can't do any other sort of activity that involves anything physical and that includes talking which I get to do 1 hour of per week.)
Oh, what's that? Partner literally in bed, both of us wanting to do things? Too bad. Frustrated from not being able to have sex for over a year despite multiple chances to do so? Too bad. Want to at least give myself some relief? How many months of recovery am I willing to throw away?
No matter how pent up I get, no matter how many chances and willing partners I have, I can't do anything about it unless I'm willing to further destroy what little function I have left.
By not making and taking other precautions, that's the hell that you attempt to kick people into. On purpose.
#Disability #Covid #LongCovid #MECFS
p.s. Just to super clarify, there is no way for me to efficiency my way out of this reality. I could be an absolute pillow princess and do 0% of the work and that would still cause my body damage after 5 minutes, probably sooner.