For Ruth, the PEM is the hardest symptom to deal with.
Transcript
So I do get post exertional malaise and anything like driving half an hour to an appointment and coming back can leave me in bed for two days. So I kind of have to really gauge how I use my energy … Well, the hardest symptoms, I would say, the fatigue because it’s relentless. For me to talk to you today I knew I had to have this, so I rested the last two days, not engaged in a lot of conversation or anything because I knew that it was going to affect me right … the fatigue is just relentless and when I do any kind of activity is like my battery is just depleting and a nap or sleep, don’t actually replenish it, it just, it just stays the same. So when I got to, have another activity to do, it could be making dinner, it could be having a shower, it just depletes it. And then I basically have a couple of days during the week where I just cannot do anything other than eat and, maybe take a shower, like take care of hygiene. There’s those times where if there’s no food I probably wouldn’t eat, because that’s just how bad it is.
More from: Ruth
More content
- Mental Health Support – RuthRuth finds that working with a psychologist who understands chronic illness helps her accept her life as it is now.
- Symptoms of Long COVID – RuthFor Ruth, the PEM is the hardest symptom to deal with.
- Recovery and Thoughts About the Future – RuthRuth explains why she tries to live in the present.
- Coping Strategies and Self Care – RuthRuth was reluctant to get a mobility scooter but now thinks it's great.
- Loss of Income and Need for Financial Support – RuthRuth now has long-term disability support but getting it was a long and complex process.
- Helpers and Caregivers Living With Long COVID – RuthRuth finds it hard that she is now the one who needs help.
- Impacts on Partners and Households – RuthRuth regrets that she can no longer contribute to her house and home as she used to.
- Psychosocial Impacts – RuthRuth no longer trusts her body.
- Impacts on Self and Daily Life – RuthRuth says long COVID is the hardest thing she has ever had to deal with in her life.
- Impacts on Self and Daily Life – RuthRuth is glad to be regaining her ability to read and listen to music.