Why People Go Mad: Part Three
(There is a certain irony to the cheerful section below, because it has taken me a month to write it; before I knew it, the renewed vigour and energy of the second trimester disappeared and third-trimester exhaustion and brain fog took its place. My apologies to all subscribers and especially the paid ones for whom I remain inestimably grateful for that – anyway, she’s back now.)
To all things there is a season. In week sixteen, near the start of my second trimester I began to feel better. The nausea didn’t go away totally until week twenty-two, but some of my energy returned and the fog lifted. This doesn’t happen for everyone but it did for me, and it brought other good things with it. I had been, to the shame of my ancestors, mildly allergic to capsaicin, and now I am not. There is still no sign of my usually early hayfever; I’ve been bitten by mosquitos without a reaction to the bites; my skin looks fantastic. I’m looking forward to seeing if the condition that has defined and partly immiserated my life for the last decade plus has also been treated by the baby’s spell-infused stem cells – if it has, I will like them even more than I already do.
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