Long Covid

I'm watching and reading about the after-effects of Covid 19. These involve people who apparently recover well but are left with terrible after-effects that ruin their health and their lives. 

Here are some people I know about: 

One woman (38), a health club instructor, a Zumba, yoga and Pilates teacher, was leading classes 44 hours a week. Now she can't work. Another woman (31), a professional dancer, has contracted a severe form of Guilain-Barre. After 4 months she can walk again but her future is uncertain. A PE teacher (35) is still off work after 5 months, although he has never taken sick leave in 12 years.

The first person I described here is self-employed. The other two are covered by employers' and state health schemes. I hope they all make a good recovery and suffer no long-term ill-effects - or end up on benefits long term. That's no life for anyone. 

But I'd suggest that nobody of any age should take it for granted that they can "ride out" the virus, although that, it seems, is the advice a lot of people are being given. I can understand that: we are overwhelmed by Covid 19. Not just the NHS either. We need people to carry on. But it might not be good for them to do that.

The irony - for me - is that it has taken no time at all to decide that the illness these sick (mostly young) people are suffering from is connected to a virus. 

Anyone who has experienced ME must be reeling when they read this stuff. ME is a condition caused by a virus. If you suffer from it, you may be in for many years of illness. Your job will disappear. Your studies will go on hold. You won't be able to keep any kind of permanent job. You'll be more likely to pick up other illnesses.

You will also find that sometimes people in the NHS don't believe what you tell them about your condition. They'll suggest maybe your condition is psychological in origin. You'll be advised to "pace" yourself. That word "pace" strikes fear in the heart of many ME sufferers: you are urged to get yourself back into circulation by taking "graded exercise". So, on days when you can hardly get out of bed, you're urged to exercise. If you fail to do that, the suggestion is that you really don't want to get better. 

The problem is that a lot of the "yuppy flu" people of the 1990s onwards, the first to show signs of ME, were women.

Women are used to having their illnesses dismissed. Over the years, we've discovered that heart attack is not a "men-only" illness, as we were always told. Women are just as likely to suffer from chronic heart disease but it's only recently we've found out that the symptoms in women are different from those for men - and the treatment may need to be different too. It was (sarcasm alert) so much easier just to ignore female patients with heart disease. 

And let's not even talk about "women's illnesses". A long time ago, I was at school with a girl who had serious symptoms of endometriosis. This is a debilitating and very painful condition. It can take years to get a diagnosis. And even when you do get a diagnosis, you may find it hard to get any kind of treatment. There are 3 endometriosis specialists in the whole of Scotland. 

The girl I'm talking about got no treatment. She missed her Higher exams due to illness. She later had a hysterectomy at the age of 23.

I would like to think those days are over. It's just that I don't think they are. 

I was reading Janey Godley's article in the National today. She says when men try to shout her down, she talks louder. In terms of health, maybe that's what we all need to do because  women's health is crucial to men and their families.