Thread by @UnwantedGuest3

Two years ago today that I contracted a mild case of #CV19, before vaccines, before masks, before lockdowns. My life has been turned upside since by #longcovid with waves of frightening, debilitating symptoms, desperation and deterioration in mental and physical health 1/12

From March 9th 2020 my health went downhill - constant crushing chest compression and pain, a constant feeling of suffocation (covid strangle), joint and muscle pain, fever, dizziness, cognitive impairment, ruinous insomnia, terrible gastro-intestinal issues (nausea, reflux) 2/12

The worst being the claustrophobic chest compression (like an anvil on my chest) and inability to breathe properly, or get a proper lungful of air for every second of every day, 24/7, for close to a year. Fuck me I will never forget how that felt. It’s traumatising. 3/12

With this illness I opened a door into a dark room and discovered a community of people who have suffered decades of this, maimed by “harmless” viruses, barely able to come up for air, neglected by medical science. #pwme #chronicillness #cfs 4/12

But these people are strong, and they know stuff and they have been a brilliant source of knowledge and inspiration and solidarity. The #stoprestpace approach has rescued me from relapse on countless occasions. Thank you to all #chronicillness sufferers for your empathy 5/12

#longcovid has left me with a shitty legacy. I now have constant whining tinnitus, a hiatal hernia, food intolerances, dysautonomia, suspected inflammatory bowel disease, arthritic joint pain, insomnia, post exertional malaise and chronic fatigue. I’m a 70yo in a 49yo body. 6/12

And you may be thinking yeah but he didn’t work out, didn’t eat the right things, didn’t look after himself. Studies show #longcovid doesn’t discriminate. I was (relatively) young, very fit and active, very healthy, ate healthily, no co-morbidities. It still fucked me up. 7/12

For many people the “pandemic is over”. But 10-30% of people infected with covid today are about to realise that there is a zombie state between the spectrum of “mild” illness and death called #longcovid. 8/12

This is a state where every day is a bastard struggle to think about anything other than where your next breath is coming from, whether you can put the rubbish out without it sending you to bed for the rest of the week, whether the memory loss / cognitive damage is permanent 9/12

What this illness has taught me however is that there is always hope. Hope in the form of research into diagnostics, bio-markers and therapeutics that will give everyone with chronic illness a way out #fundlongcovidresearch 10/12

And hope that recent improvements in my own health are signs of a new Spring (and not just false flags before the next relapse). 11/12

No #longcovid sufferer is looking for pity. That’s the last thing we want. We want answers. We want research. And we want to inform others of the risks that can come even from a “mild” infection. There are steps you can take to minimise risk of #longcovid. Take care out there.