Housekeeping - Not the Christmas News I Wanted To Get (Patreon)

I've been somewhat transparent with my long COVID struggles. I say somewhat because the reality is that I've really been struggling with repeated bouts of exhaustion that haven't gone away. As a card-carrying member of GenX, I was raised to shut up and suck it up, and I have fully embraced medical stoicism. 

Unless you took most of November off, you know that I took a doctor-mandated two-week mental health break, which, ironically, may have helped save my life - but not the way you think.

About a month after we came back, I started displaying some symptoms of Hepatitis A. If a trip to Mexico, complete with some sketchy beach food, had not happened in the last 30 days, I would have written it off as just being sick. I made an appointment with my GP, who is amazing, to get a Hepatitis test to rule out the less than 1% chance I ate something too sketchy.

While there, I discussed my bouts of fatigue that won't go away and, yes, as it's apparent on TikTok, the weight gain. Here's the news I didn't want to hear.

In 2019, my doctor noticed a very faint heart murmur. It was so faint that the cardiologist that I followed up with was stunned that she could detect it with just a stethoscope. I had ultrasounds for three years in a row with no signs of any change, and the last one in 2021 showed some slight improvement. Based on that, my cardiologist said I would only need an ultrasound every three years.

As part of my physical, my doctor checked my heart. The murmur is worse, much worse, and likely involves more than my mitral valve. How worse? It would be best if you had an ultrasound ASAP, and you're likely going to need valve replacement surgery. In her assessment, this is part of long COVID.

The symptoms fit, and my wife, Dr. Mrs. Malcontent, did her own listen, and well - she teared up. So ya.

What does all this mean for you?

In the short term, nothing. I'll keep doing SITREPS and continue to try to find the energy to do TikTok videos. If I need surgery, it will be a long recovery. Let me rephrase that, no matter what, at some point, I'm going to need surgery and doing it before I start retaining fluid or lose my breath going up one flight of stairs instead of three is better than waiting until I'm in crisis. Hopefully, American health insurance agrees with that assessment.

I really wanted to restart the podcast in January, and right now, I just don't know. And platitudes of watch your health isn't the response I'm looking for. The work isn't tough on my heart, the blood isn't getting to where it needs to go so I'm chronically tired. That's the problem. I also feel a massive sense of responsibility to get the podcast going again because we're almost the only news source still focusing on the Russia-Ukraine War in detail. Forty-two million people need me - and they need you.

What can you do?

Please stick around. Ukraine needs you, Zarina and Marina are still on the payroll even though the podcast is on hold. And well, I need you. 

For the immediate term, today is Dr. Mrs. Malcontent's birthday - and I need to take some more time enjoying sunrises because it's my understanding they need a total power down to replace heart valves followed by a reboot procedure. I'm allergic to pain - and going offline.