Reflection
Call it a #CovidVersary or #TraumaVersary, the @wearebodypolitic community is calling it #1year1virus and thatâs exactly what March 10, 2021 is for me. Itâs my 365th day of daily #covid_19 symptoms and itâll be a reminder to me, for the rest of my life, of a day that changed me in ways that I may never be able to fully articulate.
While the public longs for their prior normals, temporarily put on hold as a result of the pandemic (although some so selfishly refused *and still refuse* to honor whatâs best for all of humanity), they forget about those who are grieving loved ones lost to Covid, and ignorantly forgetting about the millions like me who not only had to put their prior normals on hold, but may never get their prior normals back as a result of the organ damage and long-term complications of being a Covid survivor and a Long Covid patient.
And so, from where Iâm sitting, my #1Year1Virus anniversary is about chronic illness in general. Iâve shared more about my Covid fight - physical and mental health - than is normal or comfortable for a person in their lifetime, and I donât need to revisit the details of the traumas and losses again. You all *know* Iâm now partially blind, have 4+ migraines per day every day, have colitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, post exertional malaise, cognitive disorders, seizures, tremors, survivorâs remorse, depression...and on and on. From Covid. You know it all.
But what this anniversary is really about for me is the MULTI-MILLIONS globally that have already, are currently, or will soon have their #1Year1Virus anniversary. And the multi-millions more that are on 10, 20, and 30 years of other chronic, under-recognized and under-supported illnesses that this human family has practically gone out of their way to ignore and sweep under the rug.
What Iâve learnt this past year is that 1 person can do a lot for themselves. They can know their worth, and value and power. They can speak until people listen and find power they never knew existed. But 1 person needs 100s more to move mountains.
Iâve learnt we that need each other. Thatâs my take away this year. I and we need each other. And we need to stop pretending that we donât.