I have been "spiked"

a plot line for those interested in writing their own story rather than accepting a bit part in another's

Here is a plot for a science fiction novel. It’s a conceptual model, a narrative, perhaps a metaphor or an analogy. Please, anyone who reads this, don’t get hung up on details. The story could be true. That’s good enough.

I am the hero of this story and I am unvaxxed.

However, I have “been spiked”. Something called the spike protein has entered my body and is causing havoc. Note that I say “something called”. Remember this is a story. We can call the characters anything we like, and I am calling this alien that has invaded my body “the spike protein”, because most of the literature out there, medical or otherwise, is calling it “the spike protein”. I don’t want to stretch the reader’s imagination too far.

So here is the plot I could submit to a publisher to see if I can get an advance on publication. Heaven knows, I need the money if I am to save my own life.

1. I, the hero of this story, am a 71-72 year old unvaxxed woman, overweight and with fibromyalgia, and apparently, not very likeable. And I have “been spiked”.

2. Think of the spike in the same way you would think of malaria, or a tape worm, only its worse. Its in your body and it is going just about anywhere it wants to go (wherever there is an ACE2 receptor). It causes havoc wherever it lands. Think of it like it is a serious parasite that has escaped all the body’s normal defences and can go where it likes and pretty much damage anything it likes.

3. I, the hero of this story, am not yet ready to be told I am old, so it is OK for doctors to let me die from this. It’s not OK. The abandonment of me to my fate is not OK. Maybe I even value the few-ish years I have left more than a younger person does. Had you thought of that? Maybe I am not ready to throw those precious years away. They matter. I matter. My life matters.

4. I am spiked and the spike is travelling through my body doing untold harm. In fact it is getting close to making life unbearable with many symptoms, some apparently minor like hair falling out, ringing ears, damaged vocal chords, flaking and sometimes peeling skin, loss of sense of smell - all minor right? But then there is the racing pulse brought on by any movement, and the nerve pain in my legs, shoulders and arms that stops me sleeping or exercising and that does not go away when I rest. Persistent, unbearable pain. For others there is brain fog and extreme fatigue, fatigue such that they cannot even feed or wash themselves, for one year, two years and more!

5. I, the hero of this story, know how it is affecting others because I have joined lots of facebook groups for long covid sufferers. If you doubt any of this, get onto some of those groups - some have over 100,000 members - and start reading the stories of suffering. If your compassion button is not pushed, then don’t read on. You are not worthy of the precious time it is taking me to write this.

6. I do not intend to explain or research how I got spiked. If you have not yet been spiked, of if you are a doctor who cares, you need to work this out, but I do not. I am already spiked. Who cares if I caught a virus, or breathed in a chemtrail, or was weakened by WiFi, or am at fault because I am old and fat, and not very likeable. Doesn’t matter to me. I am spiked. If you are unvaxxed and it matters to you, you do the research to find out how an unvaxxed person gets spiked. But spare me your denial. I’m not interested. Please leave me and my story alone. I have my life to save.

7. Now that the spike is in my body, my immune system is apparently unable to get rid of it. I have numerous persistent symptoms that are common amongst many of the spiked and that apparently came on after I was hospitalised with something called “covid”. Note my language again, “something called “covid””. It doesn’t seem to make any difference how mild your case of “ something called “covid””, you are spiked and the spike keeps marching through your body. Eventually your health is compromised in some way. And sooner or later you put 2 and 2 together and realise you have “what is called long-covid”.

8. Whilst lots of people seem to lack the natural immunity necessary to get rid of the spike, some do seem to resist being spiked altogether and some do recover, or at least seem to. What is the difference between those who resist or recover and those who don’t? Maybe it is nothing to do with the immune system. Maybe it is something they are already eating or some supplement they are already taking that is disabling the spike? Men eat peanut butter which is high in resveratrol, which has been shown to trouble the spike. Perhaps that is why men suffer less from long covid? A Facebook friend was already taking cinnamon for something or other. Maybe that is the variable?

9. In Australia there is zero medical support that a pensioner with long covid can afford. My bulk billing doctor is lovely, but what GP has the time these days to do the study necessary to stay on top of this? And I cannot afford specialists, even if there were any specialists who have any idea what to do about long covid. And where I am living there is either no hospital out-patient care or they are booked up for 12 months in advance. So much for early treatment. And so much for medicine for the poor. There is none for long covid.

10. So I, the hero of this story, have to do my own research and self medicate. I am treating my long covid with food and tablets I can buy from the supermarket or health food shop. And they cost more than I can afford long term. I have taken out a Centrelink advance on my pension (which I have to pay back) to pay for for them, while I try to stop the rapid decline in my health and refine my approach down to something I can afford.

11. One serious difficulty with trying to disable the spike, is that there are lots of potential theories, and lots of foodstuffs that have been shown to disable it in a petrie dish, but there seems to be no way of measuring their success in the human body. There seems to be no way of measuring the proliferation of the spike through the body, and of measuring whether its deadly march is being slowed by anything. So all we can do is watch symptoms and hope like hell we take whatever we are taking for long enough to get rid of the spike out of our bodies for good. If we just knock it back a little bit, then it will proliferate again over time (just like a parasite) and we are back where we started from.

12. You can read here for plot details on the time I, the hero of this story, spent in hospital. Cruelty is an understatement. The experience has ensured this hero will die rather than put myself under the “care” of my local hospital, and particularly two of their night nurses, ever again.

    The vagus nerve and the bug

13. And you can read here for expansion of the spike protein idea and its treatment. You will see there is enough genuine medical research out there to make it a viable plot line.

    Managing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein of long covid (version 3 updated 28/09/2022)

14. Eventually, when I, as the hero of this story, can no longer afford to buy the supplements I am taking, detailed at the end of the article above, I will have to retreat to foodstuffs that I can buy in bulk. This could include green tea, cinnamon, turmeric, dandelion tea and coffee, peanut butter (yes, it could help and at least is filling food), pomegranate juice and garlic, even apricot kernels. Who knows? Any one of them could be the magic ingredient that disables the spike.

I haven’t composed the ending of this story yet. I rather like the idea of peanut butter being the magic food (or at least a magic food) because it is the least likely to be considered healthy. But it could be as simple as green tea. Who will run a study to see how many high level strong green tea drinkers get sick with covid or long covid?

I need more real world evidence before I can compose a valid ending for this story, where the hero of this story, that’s me, gets well… or doesn’t. Who knows how this story will end? Maybe someone out there somewhere has the answer… [long sigh]