"three critical factors […] to identification and successful treatment of my symptoms":

"Patient’s perspective
For me as a patient it was initially difficult to find proper medical care. I felt that knowledge on post-COVID symptoms was lacking, both for the GP and the doctors in the local hospital. When tests and examinations showed no aberrations they even told me ‘congratulations, you are healthy’. Looking back, I can identify three critical factors that ultimately led to identification and successful treatment of my symptoms. The first factor is perseverance, since I continued seeking medical care as long as I had symptoms, which was only possible because my symptoms were not completely debilitating. The second factor is my biomedical background that allowed me to identify potential causes in the medical literature myself, which ultimately I did. […] The third factor is that because of my work I had access to doctors in academic and international hospitals, which were motivated to identify the unknown causes of my symptoms. While I have suffered from these symptoms for over a year, I realise full well that I was privileged by my biomedical background and access to academic medical care, which is something that many patients have to do without. As a patient, this health inequality concerns me, and is something that I hope will be addressed in the future."

@longcovid

https://casereports.bmj.com/content/18/6/e265008

#Health #covid #PostCovid #LongCovid #PatientsPerspective #perseverance