Before I started working at The Sick Times as your friendly neighborhood engagement editor, I let every medical professional I met bulldoze me.
In 2021, I was lying on an operating table, waiting for the colonoscopy that would hopefully prove what my latest doctor suspected: that my 2020 SARS-CoV-2 infection had provoked an autoimmune response, triggering pernicious anemia. My B12 levels were “dangerously low,” which was causing all kinds of problems, including what my doctor referred to as an “extra beefy tongue.” (Easily my most graphically bizarre Long COVID symptom.)
As he was leaning over me to put on the oxygen mask, the anesthesiologist — who’d already rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically through the pre-op nurses starting my IV and chatting with me about Long COVID — leaned in close to me and whispered, “‘Post-viral illness’ has always been a dozen hysterical women with too much time on their hands.”
Next thing I knew, I was waking up to a nurse setting a juice box and a package of honey-flavored Teddy Grahams on my tray table in the recovery room. It was almost like I’d imagined what that anesthesiologist had said to me, which he of course knew would be the case.
And anyway, I’d been so beaten down by the healthcare system at that point, my Long COVID symptoms perpetually disparaged and even mocked by doctors, I was just happy to wake up and find out that something was demonstrably wrong with me. (My immune system was, in fact, attacking my stomach cells, preventing them from producing intrinsic factor, which meant I couldn’t absorb B12 in dietary form. Ha! Take that, beefy tongue!)
These days, I would never let a doctor menace me like that anesthesiologist did. In fact, I wouldn’t even stick around to hear what any doctor even had to say if they tried to belittle me or my Long COVID symptoms. I’d be out of their office faster than you can say myalgic encephalomyelitis, even if it meant rolling myself off an operating table with my full butt on display. Because I have adopted The Sick Times motto as my own personal healthcare mantra: No denial. No minimizing. No gaslighting.
We apply it, every day, to the way we cover the Long COVID crisis; and now, I apply it to the way I walk through the world.
I have adopted The Sick Times motto as my own personal healthcare mantra: No denial. No minimizing. No gaslighting.
It’s easy for me to stand up for myself in healthcare settings now because I spend every day translating the clear-eyed, comprehensive reporting we publish into (hopefully) easy-to-digest social media graphics. Because I read and reread every essay we publish, pulling on the most sharable, empowering threads to stitch together what you see on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook. Because I listen to all of our podcasts, which go even deeper on our already exhaustive reporting. Because I marvel at the way op-eds develop from the kernel of an idea into fully persuasive pieces of writing.
Because I participate in Sick Times editorial meetings and observe the way Betsy, Miles, and Melanie handle every pitch, every email, every tip, every single story that is shared with us by people with Long COVID with an immense amount of respect and care.
The other reason I would never let a doctor menace me is because of you, fellow chronically ill and/or disabled readers. I have the best job at The Sick Times. Everyone else spends so much time behind the scenes, making sure every word, piece of punctuation, and soundbite is published in the best interest of those most affected by the ongoing Long COVID crisis. I’m the one who gets to make our work colorful — and run out into the world, waving it around like a parade flag. (Just kidding. I have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). I walk it out into the world, and then sit down and drink some electrolytes.)
And then I get to spend my days chatting with all of you. With your kindness and your courage and your unflinching belief in sick folks’ stories. Your engagement with our work powers me up like a dandelion reaching its weedy face out of a crack in concrete to bask in the sun. Your bravery on our community’s behalf makes me brave on my own behalf. I have walked out of more abusive medical situations than you can imagine since I started working here, with your comments filling my mind and heart, guiding my steps and making me strong.
Just this week, I sat through our virtual Pride event with tears rolling down my cheeks for over an hour. I’ve worked in queer media for two decades. I’ve attended and hosted more Pride events than I can count. But I’ve never felt as affirmed as I did in that queer space, surrounded by coworkers, readers, and friends reveling in disabled joy. I even fired off a message to my interim doctor during one of the heavier metal drag performances, telling him I wanted a three-month refill of my medications because making me come into the office every 30 days was simply him profiting off my chronically ill body!
I know that what we do at The Sick Times matters just as much to you as it does to me. Who else is out here investigating pandemic-fueled injustices, challenging powerful government and medical institutions, combing through the latest research, and translating COVID-19 data into easy-to-understand weekly updates? Without AI, paywalls, or corporate influence?
No one, that’s who.
Just us real humans building real community at The Sick Times.
That’s why I’m asking you to join our summer sustainability fundraiser. We have two weeks to sign up 200 new Supporters, and we’re already 1/8th of the way there. Any amount you can pledge to donate monthly makes a huge difference in our vital work. We want to continue platforming the kind of Long COVID stories that change the world for good — will you help us grow?
Warmly,
Heather Hogan
The Sick Times engagement editor
More commentary articles
- Editor’s letter: Fight Long COVID denial by becoming a Supporter of The Sick Times
- I worked in homeless services for years. It didn’t help me find accessible housing when I got Long COVID.
- The U.K.’s plan for ME has failed us. Members of parliament must step up.
- Work until you disappear: Long COVID ensnared me in an exploitative health system
