<
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/07/chronic-fatigue-long-covid-symptoms/674834/>
"Alexis Misko’s health has improved enough that, once a month, she can leave
her house for a few hours. First, she needs to build up her energy by lying in
a dark room for the better part of two days, doing little more than listening
to audiobooks. Then she needs a driver, a quiet destination where she can lie
down, and days of rest to recover afterward. The brief outdoor joy “never quite
feels like enough,” she told me, but it’s so much more than what she managed in
her first year of long COVID, when she couldn’t sit upright for more than an
hour or stand for more than 10 minutes. Now, at least, she can watch TV on the
same day she takes a shower.
In her previous life, she pulled all-nighters in graduate school and rough
shifts at her hospital as an occupational therapist; she went for long runs and
sagged after long flights. None of that compares with what she has endured
since getting COVID-19 almost three years ago. The fatigue she now feels is
“like a complete depletion of the essence of who you are, of your life force,”
she told me in an email.
Fatigue is among the most common and most disabling of long COVID’s symptoms,
and a signature of similar chronic illnesses such as myalgic encephalomyelitis
(also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS). But in these diseases,
fatigue is so distinct from everyday weariness that most of the people I have
talked with were unprepared for how severe, multifaceted, and persistent it can
be."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: July 27, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-86727898
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
