<
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/04/long-covid-symptoms-invisible-disability-chronic-illness/673773/>
"Charlie McCone has been struggling with the symptoms of long COVID since he
was first infected, in March 2020. Most of the time, he is stuck on his couch
or in his bed, unable to stand for more than 10 minutes without fatigue,
shortness of breath, and other symptoms flaring up. But when I spoke with him
on the phone, he seemed cogent and lively. “I can appear completely fine for
two hours a day,” he said. No one sees him in the other 22. He can leave the
house to go to medical appointments, but normally struggles to walk around the
block. He can work at his computer for an hour a day. “It’s hell, but I have no
choice,” he said. Like many long-haulers, McCone is duct-taping himself
together to live a life—and few see the tape.
McCone knows 12 people in his pre-pandemic circles who now also have long
COVID, most of whom confided in him only because “I’ve posted about this for
three years, multiple times a week, on Instagram, and they’ve seen me as a
resource,” he said. Some are unwilling to go public, because they fear the
stigma and disbelief that have dogged long COVID. “People see very little
benefit in talking about this condition publicly,” he told me. “They’ll try to
hide it for as long as possible.”
I’ve heard similar sentiments from many of the dozens of long-haulers I’ve
talked with, and the hundreds more I’ve heard from, since first reporting on
long COVID in June 2020. Almost every aspect of long COVID serves to mask its
reality from public view. Its bewilderingly diverse symptoms are hard to see
and measure. At its worst, it can leave people bed- or housebound, disconnected
from the world. And although milder cases allow patients to appear normal on
some days, they extract their price later, in private. For these reasons, many
people don’t realize just how sick millions of Americans are—and the
invisibility created by long COVID’s symptoms is being quickly compounded by
our attitude toward them."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: April 20, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-81722157
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
