It’s been so nice to be home these past couple weeks, but I’m challenging myself in a different way.
As you might have read in some of my previous posts, I think I’ve narrowed down my mysterious health symptoms to something like mild, nonclinical POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome—and no, not “Plain Old Telephone System” like my dad keeps thinking I’m saying). Basically, it’s a fancy medical way of saying that when I stand up, my heart has to work harder than it should to keep blood pumping to my brain. Leads to a racing heart, exhaustion, brain fog, and all sorts of fun stuff! Including, unfortunately, difficulty garnering the emotional and cognitive energy to write that new series.
Well, a while back, I talked about one of the biggest things POTS patients need to do, which is drink LOTS of water with electrolytes to increase their blood volume. And how drinking plain water has always been hard for me to do because it makes me sick (because of the electrolyte depletion, not the taste; I actually love the taste of plain water and think wistfully of the good old days now). Well, thanks to the electrolytes, I’m happy to say I’ve been able to drink a lot more and tolerate it, and I think it’s helping. On my trip, I felt better than I had any right to, considering how exhausting the travel was for me otherwise.
Now that I’m back, I’m onto the second big thing: recumbent cardio to recondition my heart and strength training to build up the muscles in my lower body and abdomen (stronger muscles = better blood pumping, whodathunk?). I’ve got a smart watch for the first time, I signed up for a gym membership, and I’m following the official Levine/CHOP protocol to the letter. So it should be safe, but they warn in the protocol that you feel worse (sometimes far worse) before you feel better, and I’m into week two and really starting to feel it. I was pretty much a zombie for most of yesterday.[1]
I’ve never been a super athlete or anything, but before 2025, I was always on the slightly-fitter-than-average side, so this whole year and a half of exhaustion and slow deconditioning and having to earn it all back now is frustrating but…I’m also hopeful, cheerful, and determined to get my life back. I’m just so glad to have answers (I think) and that all signs so far point to this being fixable. If there’s anything I’ve ever been good at, it’s been self-improvement projects, and I’m more determined to see this one through than ever before.
Footnote
[1] And, for once in my life, I think I’m feeling worse in my follicular phase than my luteal; my theory is that the estrogen relaxes my blood vessels and progesterone tightens them (and in case you’re not following, relaxing is bad and tightening is good for POTS).
Writing/release update
It’s not all been bad! I have been able to make some writing progress. I really, really hope I’ll be able to finish the second book of the new series by the end of the month. 🤞
That being said, I’ll be extending the beta reading period for book one past October 1 to November 1. I might even extend it to the end of the year, but we’ll start there.
Also, I’m thinking of a frame story that will start with book one that I’ll need new beta readers to test out, so I might be sending out a call in the next month or two. Keep a look out!
Speaking of frame stories—I can’t believe I’m trying this again, but I’ve just put a very silly alternate ending for the Blood of the Covenants series in my Reader Library, frame story and all. It’s a thank-you for my newsletter readers; you can sign up here if you’d like to read it.
