today’s PEM brought to you (me) courtesy of yesterday’s this.

recent scribbles, inspired by a meeting w a dysautonomia specialist for which i waited 5 months. had to turn the lemons into something if not sweeter at least brighter.

#pots #dysautonomia #graphicmedicine
#longcovid

My first ProCreate experiment was an attempt to answer my nerve block doctor’s question about whether the “fatigue” part of my ME/CFS was similar to the way his body felt during a recent bout of 24 hr food poisoning. (Yeah. Really.) I came up with this.

#longcovid #mecfs #procreate

I used to write full novel drafts by hand. Long Covid has severely limited my capacity to read or write by hand. So I turned to a different form of markmaking and began learning to draw. After the nerve blocks, I began struggling more with drawing, esp with perspective and depth.

I spent NYE in the ER. I left 10 hrs later more dehydrated than I arrived (did you know there’s a fluids shortage?). It was brutal, but I’m okay, and I made an erasure poem out of my medication guide.

text in comments if image is hard to read

Just a girl, standing in front of a neurologist, asking for a needle to the neck*

*stellate ganglion block
**two needles, one on each side of the neck, which will send radio waves to a cluster of nerves to reset my autonomic nervous system

Portrait of a person walking for 10 minutes for the first time in two months, post stellate ganglion block.

#longcovid

Home library in progress.

What if…I start posting a fish fact of the day. (Marine life and bookish content, a classic combo, amirite?)

Manta rays never stop swimming - not even to sleep. If they do, they’ll suffocate and die. The spots on their bellies are like fingerprints - no two are the same.

#ocean #marinebiology

Ocean thought of the day - in Richard Powers’ new novel PLAYGROUND, an elderly marine biologist is surprised to learn that manta rays are capable of play & enjoy divers’ bubbles…Powers must not be a diver. No expert be surprised by that! It’s one of the great wonders of manta interactions.

Maybe becoming a Tarot person over here? Today’s card, The Fool.

I’ve been wearing my new favorite hat around LA in hopes of finding my people. Hasn’t worked yet IRL so figured I’d give it a digital shot. Grace Paley fans hit me up!

#fiction

If only there were some way of knowing what she wants from me.