Today I want to take a pause and think about gratitude. There are a lot of thanks to give and my words can’t capture it all, but I’ll give it a shot.
To my wife, Sabine and kids, Luisa and Mateo. You saw and endured the most with me. You helped me when I couldn’t help myself. You sacrificed your time and energy not just for me but for each other. You covered the housework, became the bread winner of the family, managed vacations and outings, appointments, masked in the house during reinfections, cancelled birthday parties again and again and again. I am forever grateful.
To my family and friends. You called, wrote emails and sent chat messages. You checked in with me, provided comedy when I needed it, and moral support when I needed that. To my Mom in particular, thank you for all the regular check ins, video conversations and constant support and cheerleading.
To my peers and friends in the Body Politic COVID-19 support group. You folks are awesome! You just get it, and you’ve helped me so much on this journey, from support to ideas and just plain sanity checking. To all the first wavers, battling 3-years on now, you laid the groundwork for this support, and have worked tirelessly on advocacy and support on behalf of all of us. Thank you.
To my employer, Elastic, and all my colleagues. You made sure I never had to worry about my job, and about the work that we had started together. You can’t know how much this helped me rest and relax, especially in the first phases of my illness.
To all of the (good) doctors, therapists and medical professionals. You have a very tough job these days! You listen, you help make decisions, and you provide direction even when there are so few options. Your dedication to providing care for your patients is seen by us.
To each of you that made it this far, thank you for reading my story and carrying it with you. It means a great deal to me to be able to express myself and all that I’ve endured. I am amongst tens of millions of peers suffering from Long COVID, and by spreading our message, we hope that we can boost support for lobbying for more research, thinking of those that have yet to recover, and not forgetting that this worldwide COVID story is far from over.
Stay tuned, this story isn’t over yet. I’ll be writing more to catch up on the last few months, and into the future as my story develops. I hope to also write some posts with resources and what guidance I can give for those suffering from this illness and with similar symptom sets.
