I have been unemployed for a year from my job as a software engineer. I think I'd had covid before but I had an infection in 2024 that felt different and my performance dropped since then and I had to quit my gym lifestyle. Then I lost my job. I don't really have the brain capacity to compete in the terrible job market. So now, after a year I finally have a job but its in a bar. Most of my symptoms affect mental function so this seems easier to execute in theory but also they are all triggered excercise. I feel like this job has the potential to give me a lot of PEM.
My current level of physical functioning is improving since I started taking tons of probiotics. I've gone from getting really sick constantly from any excercise to being able to do actual weightlifting workouts about twice a week as long as I spread out all my physical movement with excessive rest. Unfortunatley, I'm pretty sure the most likely shift pattern I will get for this job will be Thursday, Friday, Saturday. 2 days in a row of that kind of mild physical activity I could handle with some serious strategising (and that's me being very optimistic) but I don't think I could do a third day.
I can't just be unemployed forever, so I have to make some effort to try and do this job. I'm really hoping having routine and the motivation to increase my movement will help me get the ball rolling with the next stage of recovery, but I'm afraid I'm gonna crash and burn at the beginning without strategies.
Things I haven't tried that I'm thinking of trying include:
- Consistently taking antihistamines
- Turmeric supplements
- Eating all organic low histamine diet (how useful do you think it is for it to be organic? it will be a tight squeeze on a bar wage)
- Dialing in a protocol to make myself fall as deeply asleep as quickly as possible after work.
- NAC and guanfacine
- Quitting caffeine
- Bringing like runners energy gels to work for emergenices because I tend to always get better when i eat.
- On that, bringing all my own food to work instead of eating things they give me (though, there's no microwave)
Does anyone have experience with trying to keep up work that involves mild physical activity when they experience PEM? Again, I'm no longer at the can't walk down the street phase but two days of long walking will definitely make my brain start to shut down and that seems like what will happen here - after my first shift I spent a lot of the next day lying in a dark room until the evening when things always feel better. Do you have any tips?