Week 7: post-COVID
I’m over COVID and actually feeling fantastic! Could it be that rapa helped me recover faster and feel better doing it? I’m not sure. I am fully vaccinated (4 shots) and COVID hit me like a piano falling from a second story window, but I sure did recover quickly. AgeTron, maybe it was just as you said above!
For the sake of good data, here’s how it went down for me. On my second day after exposure I took 5 mg of rapamycin, my largest dose so far. I didn’t think I’d contracted COVID, as I’d gone what, 3 years without getting it. Twenty-four hours later I started feeling very congested in my throat and sinuses. That was the third day after exposure.
If Day 0 of having COVID was the first day I felt symptoms (the third day after exposure in my case), I got progressively worse on Day 1 and Day 2. I began Paxlovid and Azithromycin (an antibiotic, a so-called Z-pack) on Day 2 after receiving an instant positive on a rapid test.
Day 2 and Day 3 were both pretty crummy for me. On Day 4 I began to feel significantly better. I felt so much better I took a COVID test on Day 4 and it was negative. On Day 5 I felt so much better. On Day 6 I took a second COVID test, as the CDC recommends two negative tests 48 hours apart as the sign that you’re truly over it, no longer contagious, and don’t have to wear a mask.
On Day 7 and Day 8 I was able to function normally, but did get tired easily, probably from sitting on my rear end for nearly a week straight. On both nights I slept hard, long, and wonderfully deep.
Today would be Day 9, I feel like a million bucks.
Apart from some fatigue early on, my primary symptom was a super-terrible, awful, and really quite excruciatingly painful sore throat, especially in one particular spot.
I now have insight into why my throat was so sore.
The Canker Sore from Hell
That’s right, in the middle of COVID, on 5mg of rapamycin, my body decided it would be an awesome time to develop a canker sore right on the back of my throat.
Allow me to share that I have never had a canker sore on my throat or tonsil ever, not in nearly 50 years of life in all of the illnesses that I can remember.
This is now my second canker sore since starting rapamycin. I do have a tendency to get canker sores; but usually while on vacation (not sure why) and even then perhaps one a year. I convinced my doctor to give me 4 or 5 some silver nitrate sticks about 10 years ago for these, and I still am using the edges of a few of them to chemically cauterize the sores to stop the pain and speed their healing.
I always get them inside my lip. Before rapamycin I would say 99% of my lifetime canker sores have been inside the lip, with the 1% being a fudge factor for something I may have forgotten.
In my Week One of rapa, on 1mg no less, I got a canker sore on the inside of my cheek. Then on Week Seven of rapa, on 5mg, I got this canker sore on I think what would technically be my tonsil, although I’m wondering if there was a second one on the same side just down my throat behind my tongue.
I now wonder how much of my sore throat pain was actually COVID and how much was this really uncomfortable canker sore. The effect was that it was extremely painful to swallow. It was worst at night when I would awaken to throat pain as many as 10-15 times a night early in COVID.
Clear Effects of Rapa Dosage
Reflecting on these first seven weeks with Rapamycin there are three very clear effects on my health and two maybe effects.
The first clear effect is that my gums continue to be really really healthy. I truly thought I had healthy gums before, but the color is less red/pink than ever, and my occasional once-a-week-ish flossing continues to have zero blood of any kind from any tooth which is unprecedented in my entire adult life.
This makes me wonder what other tissues in my body are immediately responding to rapamycin in positive directions. I’m astounded at how quickly this has occurred.
The second clear effect is that my shoulder pain continues to be gone. This was my highest hope for rapamycin. It also began some weeks ago, in truly rapid fashion. As with the first effect above, I wonder what other pain-areas might be benefitting from rapamycin.
The third clear effect is somewhat negative: the canker sores. They appear to be here to stay. I don’t know how cool I will be with a sore-a-month, or even every other month. But then again, if the sore is the price (maybe the only price?) to pay for rapid and positive health changes throughout my body… well that may be a price I’m willing to pay. Yes, I can actually say it is a price I’d pay.
The first maybe effect is that I might get slight headaches right after dosage. I need to watch this more closely. Maybe rapa is doing something to my sinuses, which historically don’t need much encouragement to go south on me. I’ll watch this more closely.
The second maybe effect is that I might feel better and sleep better. I’m not sure about this, as there are so many variables at play.
Future Rapa Dosage Plans
Having experienced so many positive effects over these first weeks, and even the negative effects, I am wondering two things about future dosage.
First I’m wondering if I need as much as 5mg a week. If 1mg gave me a canker sore in week one, and if 1mg, then 2mg, then 3mg were already helping my gums… do I need more?
Second, I’m wondering if I need a weekly dose or if I should go to a longer period. If rapamycin’s half-life is 2.5 days in the average person, my math says a 5mg dose becomes 2.5mg on day three, 1.25 mg on day five, 0.625mg on day eight, 0.3 (let’s say) on day ten, and 0.15 on day thirteen. If higher doses have unique benefits (like crossing the blood brain barrier, some say, or reprogramming your biology more effectively), and if the effectiveness of rapa is tied to the gap of jumping from essentially zero rapa to the full number on your dosage day, then perhaps a 4mg to 7mg dose should be a bi-weekly thing for me.
I haven’t decided which way I will go with this. Because a weekly dose is so convenient for my phychology (it’s Wednesday, it’s time for rapa), I’m leaning towards keeping a weekly dose, but perhaps sticking with 3mg or 4mg dose for a while to see how it affects me.
FYI, I did skip a dose in the middle of COVID. I plan to begin again later this week.
Week 7: My Dog
My sweet dog continues to get 3mg of rapa a week. As I’ve been reflecting on her behavior, I think its primary effect is to make her more responsive. This manifests as being more outwardly sociable, more likely to greet me at the door (rather than lie in a stupor on the couch), more eager to go outside, more eager for treats, more engaged with other dogs and more willing to roughhouse with them.
At times she seems unsure of what to do with herself. Like she’s feeling a burst of energy but doesn’t know what to do with it. At those times I wonder if the feeling is a good one for her. I might compare it to me drinking too much coffee. I might be more responsive to everything but is that a happy feeling?
Those moments are few though. She certainly seems happy to have the energy and inclination to say hello at the door, or to jump up on the ottoman and lay down next to me as I’m writing.
As I wondered for myself about the positive effects rapa is having on my body and may be having, I find myself musing about what effects my dog’s body and physiology may be feeling.
For example, our dog rarely brushes her teeth; never right? I wonder if this is improving her gum health, which for humans is connected to all sorts of good or ill health effects because of the continual low level inflammation or lack of it. I sincerely hope it is helping that!
She’d also showed some signs of arthritis about a year ago when we started giving her “Nutramax Dasuquin” which seemed to help. She’s done some sprinting on rapamycin which had become rare in recent years, so I hope it’s helping her joints as well.
My Partner
For about another month my partner is planning to take only 1mg of rapa a week, which doesn’t seem to have much effect on her. I am eager for her to be done with her anti-fungal toenail thing so she can increase her doses and we can see what effects it may have on her. She has some aches and pains that I would love to see healed.
Other People
On that note, do you find yourself wanting to recommend rapamycin to friends, family, or coworkers, or even acquaintances when you hear of their significant health challenges? I do.
I wish it was a more mainline treatment so I didn’t feel like a ogre suggesting that people attempt off-label self-dosage with organ transplant meds obtained in India because, “like, it could really be good for you.”
Thus far I’ve managed to keep my mouth shut around everyone but my uncle who has some benign tremors. I sent him a link to a rapamycin.news article and he said he’d take a look when he had a minute. I assume he didn’t, since he never mentioned it again.
Ah well, if rapamycin is really as good for us as it seems, it’ll catch on eventually. It does feel good to be on the vanguard, though, doesn’t it?
