How long COVID ruined my life (and why it won't go away)

having another relapse so sick of this I'm Rollin manthpop I'm a tech correspondent Sky News our tech correspondent Roland manthorpe has an exclusive story our analysis breaking down everything um well I was a tech correspondent at Sky News I'm still officially a tech correspondent but um I've been out of work almost constantly for 18 months. I am also a father. I have two children and a wonderful partner. I'm Kirsten and I'm Roland's partner and I have a

long

relationship. Here are all the pills. Now I feel a little better. I want to try to explore this disease.

This problem. Why don't we know more about it? These syndromes have never been properly researched and other people have the same problems I had, many doctors do not. I don't think Long Cove is other people's thing, you know, to be honest, disappointed. I had a cough and it wasn't that bad, you know, I took a day off work, it was a little annoying and all of a sudden I woke up and everything was fine. different, the difference was just enormous, it was like I went from someone who was processing a lot of energy, very busy,

long

days, all the things, to someone who seemed totally gray, who couldn't take on something complicated like an analysis or thought. or something like that. concentration really um somewhat sustained and um and at first I had no energy at all.

I opened the book and the words swam in front of my eyes and I had to say, "I'm so sorry." Can't I, can't I read it to you? You know, even these tiny lines in really big letters are too much for me. It was only once about three months into it that I remember having this moment and thinking, oh my God, I thought. it was going to be better like I really thought this was going to end you know you always can if you need it you think you can always find energy and suddenly you can't yeah if you go to the red zone you completely collapse so you pay for it now probably instead to jump I mean, things are much better now and have been much better, but that basic equation hasn't gone

away

.

I have limited energy. It takes me longer to recharge than I used to can't push myself, yeah, they were probably just pushing me too hard and then I started to realize I was part of a mass disabling event. It is believed that there could be up to half a million people suffering from a covered illness for a long time. In the UK, according to research by campaigners, there are more than 80,000 children in England living with long Covid. In terms of long-term coverage, it has caused devastation. We have two million people living with prolonged greed. Many of them are disabled.

This could devastate our health service. it could devastate our healthcare provision, this could drain our economy, it could leave millions of people out of work, this in itself is a healthcare emergency, I spoke to the GP about it and he advised me to do this gradual exercise , which is where you have to put in a little effort. a little bit more every day and if as soon as you said that I felt bad, I felt like no, every time I push myself even a little bit, like we're talking about a long walk, then I come back and completely collapse just by walking back. from the stores and I've already run out of energy and then when I looked it up, there were a bunch of people who had had chronic fatigue syndrome or me or something, and we were like this is the worst idea, you shouldn't do this, right? do you think?

Do you think it is correct? The rest is really the key. I don't think I can stress enough how important rest is, so you know, more and more we're trying to get on with our lives, right? and ignoring

covid

and ignoring

covid

infections and reinfections, and part and parcel of that is just ignoring it and you know how to get over it. All I can say is that that's really the worst thing you can do. I wanted to know if other people were getting the wrong advice so I went to Victoria 13 and had coverage for 15 months and when I went back to school I couldn't do more than two days a week without having to rest first, I was always doing things that They were easy for a normal person, but I felt like I was just walking.

I felt like I was running a marathon the entire time. How much can you do in a day? Not much if it's a good day. Maybe I can get out, but I'll still need a wheelchair. She was. learning to play the cello, she was helping with her old packet of brownies, she was a guide, she was saving lives, so she broke water in the pool, she gave extra Mandarin lessons at school, really, really busy, so full of

life

, about to spread its wings and then. This is more or less like this and it's one of my young children, she's come around, she's a shell now, do you get any support from the NHS for example?

No, really, our GPS was excellent, other professionals were not, so we have had it. many times she is anxious so her vision goes

away

or she is depressed so she is taking a shower she needs to go for a walk away from others I waited 15 months I think it was C a specialist who was about to go to the long coverage clinic I don't know I want get my hopes up but I really need some help and then when I got there they told me there was no treatment so I got leaflets on how to take care of yourself after Covert 19.

I mean I had coffee 18 months ago. Here's another one, how to conserve energy, it's sleep hygiene, the information sheet from the GP, I was quite frustrated because he said the doctor is very nice, they really listen to me but they have nothing to offer, let's get back to the point starting, I suppose, and I have done it. So many, so many treatments, well here are all the pills I've taken for a long time covered and let me tell you none of them have worked. Rollins tries to recover and find things where this series of magic beans is quite homemade.

Kind of like possibilities: It's a hyperbaric chamber and they're basically going to suck out all the pressure or depressurize it to help get more oxygen into my blood and into my brain because the idea is that with prolonged coverage you're not getting enough. oxygen to your brain which is part of the problem thanks to be clear, self-medication can be dangerous and you should not do anything without proper medical advice the agenda covered has long been led by patients has not been led by doctors or scientists, You know, they were the ones who told us what this is and what they were suffering from and they are also very desperate and impatient and irritated and they can't understand why medicine and medical research is advancing at such a glacial pace and I am very motivated to do what which I would call n equals do-it-yourself experiments on themselves, sometimes in very dangerous ways.

I hear the treatment of animals as if it was obviously new, you know, what was covered was new and in one year we had three, four even incredible vaccines. It seems like we're starting from scratch rather than starting with an existing knowledge base, so I'm on the bandwagon. I'm going to see a man who can understand why I was a perfectly fit young adult. He was in his early 30s. I had never had any health problem in my

life

and I was working as a very busy junior doctor of science in Esther hospital. I took a dose of chickenpox from one of my patients and what happened was the chickenpox went away, but I didn't recover.

I have this very typical set of symptoms, which is activity-induced fatigue, brain fog, problems with short-term memory concentration, so it was the whole range of symptoms from my long covid and at the time the doctors considered to Emmy as hysterical nonsense. profession because what really catches my attention when listening to you is that you had your illness at the end of the 70s and 40 years later I have had something quite identical and in the period of time almost nothing has happened, we know almost nothing more about these diseases, okay, so this is the graph illustrating the disparity of research funding for mecfs here compared to a number of long-term medical conditions, if the bar for CFS were as high as the bar for rheumatoid arthritis, could we have a treatment for a long time?

We hope that we could have effective treatments for this condition. What we have had is a period of tremendous lost opportunity due to lack of interest and lack of funding. All I would say is kind of in defense of the medical research community. give us a break because covid moved quickly and because of necessity and the heat of battle, we went from square one to vaccines and an incredible amount of knowledge in nine to 12 months, um long, covid is incredibly complex. um, multisystem, multiorgan, um and we're trying to move forward and understand it, but it might take a little bit longer.

I think all the right things are being done. I feel like I'm really starting to understand why now. there's no treatment for people like me, which is great, you know, yes, curiosity is satisfied, but it also brings home the kind of cold, hard reality that unless research increases massively, it probably won't there will be a treatment for Me because I mean, I don't know years, decades, so, you know, I really think all I can do is focus on managing my symptoms. I think what made the biggest difference for a Roland was that he had support and Especially and from a health coach through his work, he was someone who listened to you and believed that you helped you think about how to do things while you recover. , how to pace things properly so as not to take on too much and that was how it was. crucial when I heard I was getting a health coach.

I have to be honest, I rolled my eyes because I was like, uh, you know, I'm an adult, I think I can. organizing my own time I mean how hard can it be um but I couldn't I couldn't because I just want to do that a little bit more I can hear the battle the fight the push and pull um what we are What I'm going to do is help you be open to that experience, be aware of it and help you move on and improve your functioning, accept the situation and work with it, look at me closely, you know it's a bit boring, be careful. all the time, but Pace actually works, instead, optimism, it's totally terrible, there are so many things we can help people with long-term coverage, um, understand it from the point of view of helping with the management of these, you know, crucial key symptoms around me.

I see people who are very, very slowly, you know, getting back on the bike, getting back to running the marathon and getting their old lives back, well, basically, they couldn't be 12. I couldn't, I really won't be 13. I can't get it back and en It's sad, but at the same time I know that it helped me a lot in the future because I will be able to do other things and I know that it may be difficult, but I can overcome this. What I have realized is that I am not better. and I may never be better, but if I take care of myself and do all the right things and manage my energy then I can work and enjoy things and I can live and I have a lot to live for, right?

Thats not all. I wanted to, but that is something that is very important for everyone to know, not just those who suffer for a long time, but everyone because we need help. Bless you.