Lectionary Year A Week 1 arrives predictably with Advent this year. Three years ago, in November 2019, I may not have noticed the words ‘that day and hour no one knows’. I was listening to friends complaining about a frustrating viral cold that meant cancelling long anticipated events. I now look upon that cold as an insignificant blip in my averagely good health.
Within weeks the world would know about Covid-19. A few months after, I contracted this ‘new ‘flu’ that would change many lives in the brief time of one lectionary cycle. We have lost more than 150,000 people through this illness, many over 60 years old. 1.2 million have the lasting effects, according to UK official figures. Post Covid Syndrome or Long Covid is a new disease. It is an unexpected consequence of the pandemic and the novel virus we do not fully understand.
Long Covid is a hidden disability. Like the man in William Hughes Mearns’s poem, Antigonish, its sufferers find they experience symptoms that are not there when officials want proof. The diagnosis is an absence of any medical condition to explain the symptoms. The inconsistency of symptoms makes any assessment for disability almost impossible. The lack of a pathway to manage your life with this illness is an uncertainty that can make recovery harder. This syndrome can haunt; how I wish it would go away!
Those with Long Covid may appear ‘normal’ but within the hour they may seem as frail as someone 40 years older. People strong enough to easily carry a full bag of gardening compost may be unable to lift a quarter of the bag minutes later. Intelligent people who can discuss complex concepts, suddenly are mentally exhausted, drift off or forget simple words. These symptoms can mean that Long Covid may restrict their social life and visits away from home.
The isolation of Long Covid can result in frustration a
