Speaker: Charlotte Hultquist
What has long COVID taken from you?
Charlotte Hultquist: Long COVID, it was just the three year anniversary last week of having it and it took everything important, almost the things it didn't take, it changed and ruined. I feel like um it took my health in so many ways, but it also it made things go into my charts in the medical system from all of the misunderstanding, misdiagnosis, all the stuff that was there in the early days when I didn't test negative on any of the PC R tests. And then before Long COVID was known, they put things in my chart like conversion disorder and um notes about how I'm anxious about my health. And so now, even when I have problems that are clearly long COVID and um all the neurological brain damage from CO that's been proven by some specialists and that I'm getting treated um with physical and occupational therapy even so if I have a new symptom emerge, like when my tongue was completely paralyzed for a few hours, a couple months ago, when I go to the emergency room, people see those things in my chart and they to say that I'm acting up that I have to stop coming to the emergency room. Um, even with my tongue paralyzed and I couldn't swallow because of the neurological stuff. Things like that. COVID took my ability to get good health care. COVID took financial stability as a single mom of five little kids. COVID took away my ability to work. Um, I kept losing jobs as soon as I got them because of all the unpredictable health problems. And, um, we spent a summer in absolute poverty and we still can't really find our way out of it. Um, I could have been a really smart and capable single mom before, but it doesn't matter when COVID destroys your body and then destroys your finances. And this year I can't buy presents for my kids. I gave away our dog because we couldn't afford him. Um, COVID took so many things and it took a lot of my relationships, the ones I have, like with my kids, it ruined relationships because now my kids, they've seen me faint and have heart problems and brain problems. They've seen me stagger around COVID, took away my ability to walk for a very long time and sometimes that problem comes back and, um, it took my memory function and a lot of other like the ability to read. And so my kids have seen that and they are angry at me. They don't trust me. They, they act out and just, and, and I understand it, but so much anger at me because as they say, I'm not a real mom because they can't trust me because I'm broken down and my body doesn't work and they, they just, um, yeah, it's sad when COVID, COVID ruins your relationship with your kids when they've been really badly abused before that. And you're the one who got them out of that and you were the one who was, who was the dependable one. And, um, yeah, COVID probably took more than that, but those are the big ones.
