Covid rant

[Orvillain]

Dude...I can relate a lot. We are really, really similar!

First off, huge respect for coming to terms with alcohol. I always had a problem abusing alcohol ever since I started drinking as a 13 year old. I battled myself for many, many years about how much I drank, how often I drank, and all of the associated feelings of guilt and shame and anger and everything. I tried moderating and switching what I drank, trying to set rules for myself, everything, and I continued to drink way too much. Even though it hadn't cost me anything like my marriage or job or drivers license, it was still an issue.

About five years ago I quit drinking. It took a couple times to make it stick, but I quit cold turkey and haven't looked back. I'm very glad that is in my rear view mirror now. There's really no upside or benefit at least for me in drinking. What helped was the Reddit r/stopdrinking and the book "This Naked Mind" which explains everything about alcohol addiction and how to reverse it.

One thing I found is that for me at least (and I know a lot of others too), I was not able to moderate drinking after quitting for a while. I quit for several months and then had a beer, within a week I was right back to my usually 4-6 drinks a day and sometimes more. Quitting completely made the decision super easy (I just don't drink).


So, everything else. I just turned 40 a couple months ago, and physically I've felt like crap a lot like you are describing.

I used to go to sleep somewhere between 11pm to midnight and then wake up at 6am. Even with little kids that I had to get up with through the night, that was fine. But starting late last year, I would get tired at around 8pm and sometimes go to bed and sleep until 6am. I would be exhausted a lot of the time and then just lay down and sleep. Even yesterday, I fell asleep at about 7pm for 30 minutes for no reason. A lot of nights I used to stay up and play guitar, but much of the time I have no energy and just go lay in bed after the kids go to sleep and I'm out within 15 minutes.

I've always been overweight, but that weight keeps creeping on. When I hit 10 years old, I went from skinny to chubby, and got up to 185 pounds at 5'6" in high school. In college I cleaned up my diet a lot and went on supplements and got down to 135 pounds (skinny but no muscle). Over the years that crept up to 150, then 165, then 190, then 200, and now up to 215. I've got more muscle than I did when I was young but I'm easily 50-60 pounds overfat. A few times in my 20's and early 30's I could lose up to 25 pounds by dieting, but I haven't lost any real weight in close to a decade even though I constantly watch what I eat and try different diets. And now I'm starting to get those nagging pains. A lot of lower back pain, pain in my knees especially going up and down stairs, etc.

While I don't exercise in a gym, I play hockey 1-2 nights per week and have for over 15 years. My ability to perform on the ice has greatly diminished the last couple of years. I was never very good, but I've definitely gotten a lot worse. Our league rates players to make sure you're playing at the right level...I was rated a 3.0 or just a bit higher a few years ago, which is kind of an average adult player (1 means you have no idea how to skate or play at all, 5 means you are former pro or D1 college). That slipped to a 2.9, 2.8, 2.7, and now like a 2.6. I can't skate as fast, don't have the endurance, and because I'm tired on the ice my overall game is a lot worse. I had to drop from the medium pace league to a slower/older level which was depressing.

Last thing, I've battled anxiety issues most of my life. Sometimes I have to use medication for it to back it off, sometimes it doesn't bother me for months at a time. I would say now it's okay, but there's been a few times where I basically stopped eating and functioning because it was so bad. CBT and mindfulness helped me to manage it for the most part, but I do need meds sometimes.


Now, pulling this all back to Covid. I don't know. I had Covid twice...first time was early 2021 where my whole family got it and we all had a mild cold basically for a couple days. Second time was fall of last year and that hit me harder, but wasn't devastating by any stretch. My fatigue got a lot worse late last year, but not sure if it's related or not. I never had the really bad symptoms, and haven't been sick at all for many months.


I really don't know what the solution is. A lot of it looks like "aging" on the surface, but I know a lot of people and most of them don't just fall off a cliff in terms of quality of life at the age of 40. I've been watching some videos on people eating a carnivore diet the last couple days and think I may give that a shot. I've done just about everything else and I'm so sick of struggling with food like I have for 25 years. A lot of people describe similar problems where it seems their health is just going to hell at a relatively young age and they just said "fuck it" and ate like two steaks a day and lost 100 pounds in a year and felt great and no longer even think about food.

I just got a Costco membership and I think I'm going to get some roasts and other meats and try it for a couple weeks. All I know is I just turned 40 and I don't want to just feel more and more like crap every single year until I die. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it is broke, do something different. Right?

Really sorry to hear all that dude. Y'know what, the carnivore diet is interesting to me too. I've done keto a few times, and I did genuinely feel more alert, more alive. I might jump on that with you and we can compare notes!

 

[Gearzilla]

Really sorry to hear all that dude. Y'know what, the carnivore diet is interesting to me too. I've done keto a few times, and I did genuinely feel more alert, more alive. I might jump on that with you and we can compare notes!

Have you ever had your cholesterol assessed?

 

[Orvillain]

Have you ever had your cholesterol assessed?

Yeah, last year I did a whole ton of investigations into my health, I brushed over it a bit in my original post, but I did several holter monitor tests and ultrasounds on my heart to make sure I'm all good there. Seems like I'm mostly okay. There was nothing alarming in my blood tests. I even did blood sugar tests for a while to check for pre-diabetes or full on diabeetus, nothing there either.

 

[Gearzilla]

Yeah, last year I did a whole ton of investigations into my health, I brushed over it a bit in my original post, but I did several holter monitor tests and ultrasounds on my heart to make sure I'm all good there. Seems like I'm mostly okay. There was nothing alarming in my blood tests. I even did blood sugar tests for a while to check for pre-diabetes or full on diabeetus, nothing there either.

Any imaging related to your lungs?

 

[Orvillain]

Actually there was a funny moment, coz the consultant said my cholesterol was better than his! And then he points at these two peaks in the monitor data for my heart-rate and he goes "What happened here?" and I think for a minute and go.... ahhh the first one was when I was changing the bed sheets and the second one was when I was shagging the wife.

He laughed and said my heart-rate went higher changing the bed sheets than when we were porking.

 

[Orvillain]

Any imaging related to your lungs?

Only an X-Ray. But nothing came up there either.

At the time they were more trying to look at my oesphagus, but the lungs were in there too.

 

[fretworn]

It’s not just a cold.

Actually, it’s a flu virus if you wanna get technical and be accurate

Yet people trying to play doctor here … lol

 

[Gearzilla]

Actually, it’s a flu virus if you wanna get technical and be accurate

Yet people trying to play doctor here … lol

Other than being a virus, not so much.

…meaning Covid is not a form of influenza.

 

[Frodebro]

It’s a cold … next!

All the hysteria is warrantless 4 yrs later.

The countermeasures applied by goobers were/are far worse than the virus. Damned pernicious power grabbers.

Reportedly 1 million Americans died during Covid; while there are entirely whole countries in Africa that never lost anyone to sarscov2 … Think about that.

Interestingly, in 2020 the excessive mortality rate globally did not deviate from the numbers seen in previous years. Even more interestingly, the county I live in (the largest in Washington state) reported absolutely no cases of influenza for that year. As if every ailment brought to the doctors was diagnosed as something else…

 

[fretworn]

Interestingly, in 2020 the excessive mortality rate globally did not deviate from the numbers seen in previous years. Even more interestingly, the county I live in (the largest in Washington state) reported absolutely no cases of influenza for that year. As if every ailment brought to the doctors was diagnosed as something else…

My father-in-law died in 2020 under the Covid restrictions. He had a blood sugar of 700 and definitely didn’t have Covid. He was 88.

But once he was put in hospital, all the sudden he tested positive for Covid. LMAO

We requested multiple and varied test methods afterwards and confirmed he’s never had Covid, but his death was categorized as a “Covid”.

$40,000 bonus blood money in the hospitals pocket for that diagnosis which the attending physician confirmed. ISO9000 level fucking security and bunny suits. Fucking ridiculous.

Here’s my wife, saying goodbye to her father:

I won’t go into all the bullshit they prohibited; the family stopped from seeing/touching their father while he passed was inhumane.

More people die in King County from fentanyl and tranq poisonings every single day… morgues overflow with their bodies.

It’s been the trend for 4 years now.


“Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcomes.“
~ Charles Munger

 

[fretworn]

The virus is real full stop, and has impacted lots of people in various ways.

Yeah, who sang otherwise?

I would argue that the worst of it was done by stupid and evil people out of fear and greed; instead of the virus.

Proper attribution matters in the analysis .



Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer made more profits in 2022 than the value of the entire worlds music catalog to-date. Chew on that for a hot second.

 

[Gearzilla]

Yeah, who sang otherwise?

I would argue that the worst of it was done by stupid and evil people out of fear and greed; instead of the virus.

Proper attribution matters in the analysis .



Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer made more profits in 2022 than the value of the entire worlds music catalog to-date. Chew on that for a hot second.

The topic is getting a bit conflated this morning.

 

[Gearzilla]

Sorry for anyone’s loss or medical hardships.

Hope you’re feeling better Orvillain, and make a quick recovery.

 

[fretworn]

The topic is getting a bit conflated this morning.

No one’s even discussing the original topic any longer.

Is that unusual? Is that a concern?

 

[Gearzilla]

No one’s even discussing the original topic any longer.

Is that unusual? Is that a concern?

No. That’s up to the OP.

 

[Mongillo19]

@Orvillain I know every relationship is different but have you chatted with your wife about all this?

None of my business and maybe you don't want to stress her out but just a thought

 

[Orvillain]

@Orvillain I know every relationship is different but have you chatted with your wife about all this?

None of my business and maybe you don't want to stress her out but just a thought

Yes indeed. She's been beside me the whole time. But I think she feels a bit powerless to do anything to help and I'm not even sure what I'd want her to do.

 

[Mongillo19]

Yes indeed. She's been beside me the whole time. But I think she feels a bit powerless to do anything to help and I'm not even sure what I'd want her to do.

Definitely. Glad to hear you have that support system! Sometimes it's just nice to speak on the topics without expecting a resolution (although that would be ideal lol). It doesn't solve the issue but I find it can sometimes reduce the acute anxiety in the meantime

 

[northern_fox]

There's so many great NA options out there and so many people especially after lockdowns have quit or cut back.

There really are! But do be cautious about straight up switching to those right away because it can be more of a psychological replacement than a long term fix. It can help to wean off though - just be aware of whether you're actually addressing the behaviour by doing so. I drink them all the time now, but only after really finding my sobriety and "forgetting" what the old habits and tastes/associations were. Obviously it isn't true for everyone - but for me personally, I was glad someone advised me to avoid substitutes like that in the beginning and I think it helped me initially by making me address the urges I had.

 

[fretworn]

If you want to not slip, avoid slippery places and situations.

Hell I think orange juice has 1.5 % alcohol pretty regularly. Simple, natural fermentation.

I heard someone say… You only have to change one thing; and that’s everything.