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I love your rant. Your comparison to other professions is spot on.
I feel the medical profession has been exposed. Oz behind the curtain. In terms of public health, the CDC, and everyday doctors’ unwillingness to educate themselves about LC. It’s a joke, and the bottom line is money. The economy. Not you, and certainly not your wellbeing.
I’m lucky to be in a Post Covid Syndrome clinic at a major hospital in NYC. My LC doctor has openly told me that very, very little is known about the second phase of a covid viral infection (ie Long Covid.) Anyone who tells you they have an answer is wrong. Beware of snake oil salesmen out there, too. It will be at least a decade until what is happening to us will start to be understood.
For now, doctors must:
- Believe their patients. The stories I hear of LC sufferers being dismissed as “anxious” breaks my heart.
- Treat the symptoms. No, there is no drug for LC or treatment protocol. Right now, we must be treated on a by-symptom basis.
- Refer us to specialists. I was referred to a cardiologist, neurologist, and brain neurologist.
This is a sh*tshow, and the CDC’s latest advice on isolation only reinforces the public’s misunderstanding of COVID/LC as no big deal. Probably just anxious people who feel tired, won’t happen to big strong me. This is dangerous misinformation. As most of us here know, one Covid infection can rob you of your entire ability to live your life.
What happens a few years from now, after multiple infections? I recently read each covid infection, no matter how “mild”, with or without long covid, lessens a person’s IQ by an average of 6 points. That’s a lot. Now multiply that by the number of repeat infections. We are going to be in the midst of a mass cognitive disabling event very soon.
That’s just the brain. Now, apply that cumulative damage math to other organs affected by long covid. To the latent viruses that Covid infections reawaken. Some of those viruses cause terrible diseases, and yes, even cancer.
It’s time to take Covid and Long Covid seriously. Especially if you’re young. I’m 54 and grateful I had five decades of life without this hellscape.
Replies to "I love your rant. Your comparison to other professions is spot on. I feel the medical..."
What a great post.
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I am lucky enough to have avoided the brain fog issue; arguably, my limitations in other areas have given me more bandwidth to be creative. Having said that, without this constant low-grade worry of "what if theyre missing something" and "when will this clear up" does take a fair bit of daily energy. I had health anxiety before this whole thing began... this has not been a fun time.
Between the medical community being woefully unprepared to deal with a realm health emergency and cross-aisle politicians whose best interests are served by ignoring the issue in an election year (we "beat" COVID after all,) I do not see much hope for treatments. A fair number of LC sufferers are functional, if miserable, so why fix what isn't broken enough to matter>
I -believe- my body is slowly winning its fight. I have no permanent nerve damage that they can tell, my symptoms are lessening and fading, and (as strange as it sounds) my anxiety is coming back; it disappeared during the worst of this because, I suspect, my body just didn't have the energy to be anxious. Whether I fight it off or not, though, someone (perhaps us) needs to hold the medical community responsible. They've overcharged and underdelivered for long enough.