Carrie 2
1 year since diagnosis
Age at interview: 57
Carrie is a health care professional who has been living with long-COVID for almost a year. Her main symptoms include fatigue and elevated heart rate, particularly when she tries to be active. Carrie is seeing a physiotherapist who has taught her how to pace herself so that she is able to work part time, spend time with her husband, and care for her father. However, she does often feel guilty that she is unable to do as much as before, particularly when it comes to helping out her colleagues during times of stress during the pandemic. She is grateful that she has a strong support system both at work and home to help be able to still participate at work and activities at home. She hopes that people will believe this illness is real and that there would be more funding for research to help find a way for people to get better and also resources for those who do not get better. She also wishes that public health did more for those living with chronic illnesses to be able to participate in society.
More content
- Advice to Policy Makers – Carrie 2Carrie 2 is a family doctor. She explains why accommodation for chronic illness is so important.
- Advice to Policy Makers – Carrie 2Carrie 2 can't understand why others are so opposed to wearing masks in public.
- Support From Employers, Colleagues, and Worker’s Compensation Boards – Carrie 2Carrie 2 appreciates the fact that her colleagues offered very specific forms of support.
- Support From Family, Friends, Communities – Carrie 2Carrie 2 can't socialize in the ways she used to and appreciates people's understanding.
- Impacts on Work and Career – Carrie 2Carrie 2 is a family physician who worries that she is letting people down. She recalls a conversation with her physiotherapist who encouraged her to dramatically reduce her workload.
- Advice to Healthcare Providers – Carrie 2Carrie 2 is a doctor. She explains why it's important to draw on the lessons learned from caring for people with other post-viral chronic illnesses.
- Lessons Learned and Positive Life Changes – Carrie 2Carrie 2 finds that living with long COVID has deepened her understanding of how to care for chronically-ill patients.
- Lessons Learned and Positive Life Changes – Carrie 2Carrie 2 says learning to set boundaries has been a gift to herself.
- Helpers and Caregivers Living With Long COVID – Carrie 2Carrie 2 continues to care for her father but says "I'm not the daughter I wish I could be."
- Impacts on Friendships – Carrie 2Carrie 2 worries that people will stop asking her to do things because she often has to change or cancel arrangements.