Long Covid: Week 18

Belated update. Week 18, but written about mid-week 19. Words and sentences feel hard to grab out of my brain at the moment. When tired, I seem to have developed mild dyslexia. Letters sometimes add themselves up in the wrong order. I don't know the name for thinking of one word and saying another, but there's that too. I'm measuring the recovery of my mind in crosswords. Those quick crossword books. Finding answers to clues. Dragging dusty words from the clogged-up corners of my memory. Now I'm measuring it in reading too. One novel a week ago, now more. This week Nell Stevens's Bleaker Island; Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing of Esme Lennox; Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman. The words must be coming back. Steps are coming back too: up to 5,000 now in day. Of course, there are the lingering symptoms: nerve pain, tinnitus, inflamed (I think) ribs and abdomen, burning sensations, thudding, pulsing head, acid reflux. Fatigue, too, is a constant now. A phone call, trying to concentrate for an hour is exhausting. Coordination. I've just spilt a cup of roiboos tea. Although, anyone who knows me will tell you that this occurrence is nothing to do with Covid. That's my old clumsy self.