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How long COVID ruined my life, from crushing fatigue to brain fog

 

To get one thing clear at the start: I've never done a triathlon. I've never climbed a mountain or swum the Channel. I've never been on a hiking holiday.

Why am I telling you this? Because normally articles about long COVID start by describing the physical feats that sufferers are no longer able to perform.

Look, the writers say. Once, these people were so healthy they ran ultra-marathons in their spare time. Now they can barely make it to the shops.

It's not wrong exactly, but to me it always struck a false note, because when long COVID is leeching my energy, it's not the big things I miss, it's everything else.

Energy to read or watch a show on TV. Energy to make plans and see them through, or be spontaneous. Energy to spend time peacefully with people you love. Energy to feel anything that isn't crushing fatigue.

I recently met a teenager called Victoria, who came down with long COVID fifteen months ago, shortly before her twelfth birthday. In a tiny voice she said: "I didn't get to be 12. I didn't get to be 13 either. I just hope I get to be 14.”

How long COVID ruined my life, from crushing fatigue to brain fog
Image: 13-year-old Victoria Priest has been suffering with long COVID for 15 months
Image: 13-year-old Victoria Priest has been suffering with long COVID for 15 months

What do you miss the most? I asked her. Victoria gave a miserable shrug. "Life," she replied.

Long COVID is an incredibly diverse condition and in many ways my experience was very different to Victoria's - yet with that one word she summed it up perfectly.

How long COVID ruined my life, from crushing fatigue to brain fog