I Wrote This At 4am Sick With Covid [repack]

Cortisol is a natural anti-inflammatory hormone. Your body lowers its cortisol production at night to prepare you for sleep. When cortisol drops, your immune system ramps up its fight against the virus, releasing a flood of proteins called cytokines. This immune battle is what causes your fever to spike and your body aches to intensify. Post-Nasal Drip

And that is what this article is. A hand reaching out from another dark room, in another time zone, on another continent.

Instead, your mind latches onto the big things. i wrote this at 4am sick with covid

We are in the tunnel. It sucks in here. It’s humid and weird and lonely. But the sun will come up eventually. The fever will break. The taste will return to your tongue.

I wrote this at 4 AM because I couldn't sleep, but I also couldn't not create. There is a sickness of the soul that runs parallel to the sickness of the body. We feel that if we don't document the suffering, it didn't happen. We feel that if we aren't "working on something," we are failing. Cortisol is a natural anti-inflammatory hormone

There’s a raw honesty that comes with this level of exhaustion. You stop pretending to have it all together. You realize that the "grind" can wait, the "hustle" is irrelevant, and the only thing that actually matters is the next breath. The Light at the End of the Hallway

Try honey in tea, throat lozenges, or gargling with warm salt water. This immune battle is what causes your fever

The digital clock on my bedside table reads 4:09 AM. The glow from my phone screen is blinding, casting a harsh blue light over a messy pile of discarded tissues, an empty mug of honey-lemon tea, and a half-spent blister pack of acetaminophen.