Thread by @SalvMattera

I posted about how there are treatments for Long COVID and a few people responded that the treatments that are out there are completely inaccessible to the average person. Well, here's a short guide on how you can seek treatment:

if your only option is to work with a run of the mill GP, don't emphasize your Long COVID. Emphasize specific symptoms that you have that can respond to various treatments. For example, if you have a racing heart rate, you can emphasize that and many GPs will give you beta blockers

You can build a relationship with your GP and
. convince them to prescribe increasingly exotic things. If what they're giving you isn't working, and they've been seeing you for a long time, and you start to bring them research, they may write a script for something you want

Another tactic you can use is to see a private or concierge doctor for a couple of appointments. They'll generally be far more willing to prescribe things but they cost money and often your insurance (if you have it) won't cover

But you don't have to see them forever. You can get them to write the first prescription, take it for awhile, then go back to your GP and just ask for a refill. Doctors are much more likely to prescribe refills than they are the initial prescription.

A lot of medications that can help Long COVID, such as rapamycin, LDN, and metformin can be gotten through telehealth websites. Costs money, but under $100 per month

I haven't done it personally, but people I trust have told me it's easy to order various prescriptions and have them shipped from India

You can find a Long COVID or ME/CFS clinic that actually prescribes medication. They exist. Not all of them do, so you have to ask. But you can find them.

You can find specialists, particularly immunologists, cardiologists, and neurologists that will take insurance and prescribe treatments that can help Long COVID. Getting in isn't always possible or straightforward, but that is true for any disease

I think a lot of people, especially people who were previously young and healthy before long covid, don't fully appreciate how bad so much of the medical system is, and how bad so many doctors are even apart from long COVID

And if you are fortunate enough to have money, then it's really only a matter of persistence and asking around. Start with private, functional medicine doctors and go from there. Make friends in the community and ask them for suggestions. People know who the good doctors are.

That was the driving motivation behind this. To try to make finding a decent doctor easier helpforlongcovid.com/care-providers

If you know of a decent doctor or anyone else who can help, please add them with a review so that other people can find them.

"I don't have the energy for this. I don't have the money for this. I don't have the time for this." Yeah, absolutely, I totally feel you. It completely sucks. But, unfortunately, that's also true for many major illnesses.

That's why we should try to stop the spread of COVID to save anyone else from having to deal with this

Long COVID can be worse than cancer. It's a major illness. Even when there are approved treatments, I think it's very unrealistic to expect that dealing with it will ever be simple or easy