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@luckytran@med-mastodon.comKids are losing 'huge chunks' of their childhood to long COVID. Too many are being told it's 'all in their head.' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-16/children-with-long-covid-dismissed-doctors-myth-virus-harmless/103959078
@luckytran have COVID for 17 weeks NOW and not losing my mind ... WILL share with anyone who thinks I AM ??
And this is in Australia, where we escaped the worst of the first 2 years of the pandemic.
@Susan60 @luckytran
That's the worst part, isn't it
In Australia, we let it rip when long covid was already well described
@luckytran @inthehands This basically happened to me, in the 90's. Obviously not COVID, but it was sequela to some kind of infection. During junior high I got sick with some week-or-two long something (moderate fever, no energy. maybe a flu, maybe something else), and for a number of years afterwards I had chronic fatigue syndrome and stomach problems. It took me 6 years to get through high school because of it, but, very fortunately, eventually it cleared up, and I've had normal health since.
@luckytran @inthehands After a few years I'd gotten a diagnosis for both the chronic fatigue syndrome and the hard-to-pin-down and the cause-or-mechanism-never-really-understood stomach problems ("pseudo obstructional disorder") and that made things a lot lot smoother with the school administration. Before that "you're making it up to stay home" or "it's all in your head" was the unspoken response.
@aubilenon @luckytran
I remember you talking about this.
My grandfather had a similar experience as an adult: sudden onset of what we would now call chronic fatigue when my mom was elementary-aged meant he had to leave his job, his career, and ultimately the town where they lived. It stayed with him the rest of his life.
@aubilenon @luckytran
All this recent research about COVID sequelae has made me think often of him, and also of you, and our college classmate who was hit with chronic fatigue after graduation — hoping one day there’s a cure, but also just glad more and more of the medical world is starting to believe in this and take it seriously.
@luckytran Part of the tragedy of that article:
People resorting to unsupported, expensive, and potentially dangerous interventions because they or children they care for have Long COVID.
The quacks promoting those things to people with few actual options have no shame.