Thank you for giving your best in this most traumatic of advent endeavours. Merry Christmas!

I'd have given you the point for any repeated animal in a teacup! Alas!!

There's still time to pull it back from the brink of oblivion! I believe in you!!

At least its scarf is blue! Some consistency there...

This just made me giggle a lot.

We get by better a lot of others in this situation. Long Covid comes in many forms with over 200 known symptoms, there won't be a single cure. I hope that some form of treatments can be found before too long that will help.

#LongCovid #longcovidawarenessday
#longcovidawareness

He forces himself to go for a 10-15 minute walk every day for his mental wellbeing, even if that too causes him to crash afterwards (this is called PEM - post-exertional malaise). Getting used to this being our new way of life - for now - is really hard for both of us.

He hasn't driven in over a year. Just having a phone conversation with a close friend or even me can leave him "crashing" for a couple of hours after.

We still go to gigs, but mostly stick to seated venues, as standing for long periods is out. (His favourite venue reserves a seat for him every time he goes.)

Now Alex is barely managing to work (from home) a few hours a week. Brain fog and neurological issues mean that simple things suddenly take way longer due to the cognitive load.

There is no cure or treatment. Currently, government budget cuts are seeing Long Covid clinics and research being defunded because "the pandemic is over".

Eventually, he was diagnosed with Long Covid and referred to UCH (University College Hospital, London) where there are various studies going on to understand this illness and what to do about it.

It was only after the second time we both got Covid a year later that we started to wonder if this was Long Covid. The periods of complete exhaustion got longer and longer. His daily walks got shorter and shorter.

But various symptoms kept popping up for him over the following months, like his existing IBS flaring up, or being really tired so that he'd spend a week or two feeling exhausted, then be OK again for a while.

My partner, Alex, and I both caught Covid the first time in July 2022, both relatively mild infections. I got better. We thought he did too.

Funding cuts mean people with LC across the country are being left with no support at all, as LC clinics are shut down. People are often surprised to hear that LC is more than just feeling a bit tired and breathless now and then. For millions of people, #Covid is not over.

On this #covid19dayofreflection, as well as remembering those who lost their lives to Covid, let's also think of those suffering with #LongCovid. LC is a life-changing illness with no cure and nowhere near enough research being funded to find them.

Thank you for your fearless leadership through this most difficult of advent times!

Can we be sure you weren't right to start with and this is just Santa's last-ditch attempt to free himself from the evil tots' clutches???

But that's definitely an angel!

Who wants to come and watch me and my friends playing taiko drums?! Next Saturday afternoon in Highgate - £10 for charity!! Here is the ticket link:
www.trybooking.com/uk/events/la...

Hello! I'm amymergirl on instagram and twitter and now just figuring out what's going on over here.