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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-23/long-covid-cases-mount-amid-omicron-wave/101650436>
'Tackling difficult walking tracks in the bush with a heavy pack was a big part
of Greta Cunningham's life before long COVID transformed her days.
Like many Australians, the 44-year-old public servant contracted COVID for the
first time early in 2022, and she was lucky to experience fairly mild symptoms
when she fell ill.
But eight months on, it's taken Ms Cunningham dozens of specialist
appointments, significantly reduced work hours and a lot of determination to
achieve a 45-minute walk.
"I just never really recovered," she said.
"I started to get better and then the symptoms morphed into what I now know is
long COVID.
"It was a pretty terrifying time as I collected more and more symptoms and
didn't know what was going on."
Among those symptoms was cognitive dysfunction, often dubbed brain fog, extreme
fatigue and the loss of taste and smell — which have since returned.
Those symptoms prevented Ms Cunningham from being able to work, and she had to
use up all her sick leave and dip into savings to get by. She has only
recently been able to return to work, slowly building her hours back up.
The resident of the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood said after realising
how limited official support was, she had "cobbled" together her own rehab team
which included a physio and an occupational therapist.
"I couldn't do anything for many, many months, or very little," she said.
She said her team and online programs designed for people with long COVID
helped her understand how slow and gradual her recovery needed to be'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
