‘Feeling a shift’ – a rehab professional’s battle against Long COVID
Last month, assistant neuropsychologist Alarna shared her story of living with Long COVID, and her role as a rehab professional attempting to rehab herself. Here, she updates on her journey to recovery
The road to recovery as I have now dubbed it has been painstakingly long, however in my sleepiness I found my life now moves to a new rhythm, there was a point that I let go of the frustration of not being energised and began to embrace the slower pace.
I continue to work shorter days at work but at last I have found that when I am awake, I am fully awake, alert, and productive. My speech, inside my head, has sped up to what I would call a reasonable speed (lol) and cognitively I am no longer feeling as though my processing speed is reduced.
It did not seem right to have written a part one to this journey and not returned to provide an update. My hope being that someone else who has experienced long Covid will know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. As it stands it does not seem there is a common thread among those suffering and I believe the latest statistics are that over a million people in the UK alone have been diagnosed with long term symptoms.
I am about to make a controversial statement because I am naturally an optimist and someone who refuses for pain or suffering to be a waste, but I feel that this has in some ways been a positive experience for me as it has forced me to really take a look at my lifestyle, my habits, the excuses I would give in my head for being a workaholic, and how detrimental this had become. There is nothing wrong with giving of your time, energy, focus and resources as long as it is not to your own detriment.
When I began to look at this experience as a turning point and opportunity for positive change, I became extremely grateful, not only to have survived but also for this very unique opportunity.
I am still not back to my baseline but in comparison to a few short weeks ago, major progress has been made. I thought I would include a few things below that I have incorporated into my routine and found very useful
- Consciously remaining in the present moment – it can become easy to look back and be sad about what is no longer the same, or to look to the future and become anxious about what may or may not happen. Being grounded in the present allows you to appreciate and feel each moment for what it is and embrace every part of the journey.
- Setting aside one hour per day purely to do something relaxing, whether it be reading, singing, praying, drawing, or sitting in the garden while listening to music
- I bought a new journal to write absolutely anything that came to my mind – good, bad, or ugly which released it and helped me stay peaceful (p.s. for my fellow psychologists this makes for good analysis after the fact)
- Spending time with loved ones just laughing, even if at nothing in particular
- Taking a break from social media, to quiet the ‘noise’
- Staying away from negativity
- Positive affirmations/ confessions e.g. ‘this is temporary, I am well’ ‘every experience has at least one positive’ etc.
- Being honest with myself about how I am feeling
- Being disciplined with my health goals
- SMILING through it all
Once again, a very big thank you to my supervisor at Renovo Dr Anita Rose, Director Dorothy Lain, and my colleagues Margreet, Ana, and Chris who are so encouraging, kind, and supportive, even making it their mission to help me reach my rehab goals.
I challenge everyone reading this to take any negative situation that they are experiencing and pick three key lessons or something positive that has happened as a result, I guarantee you will find something if you search for it.
Stay positive, stay healthy and take care of yourself.
A rehab professional rehabbing herself.
