When the doctor doesn't listen - Coda Story

She loved musical theater, especially the shows “Wicked,” “Billy Eliot” and “Into the Woods.” She was plotting out a series of 1920s mystery novels set in the villages of Dartmoor, an upland expanse of bogs and rivers and rocky hills in southwest England where Maeve and her mother had once lived.

Core symptoms include profound exhaustion, a pattern of relapses after minimal exertion known as post-exertional malaise, brain fog, poor sleep and heart rate irregularities that lead to dizziness or nausea when in a standing position.

As I reported last year for Coda, for example, doctors unable to continue working because of long Covid have been dismayed that their medical colleagues often tell them their cognitive impairment and repeated relapses are physical expressions of pandemic-related trauma.

They witness the same phenomenon and see something completely different: A global tsunami of mass hysteria leading to paralysis, gait disorders, memory loss, inability to remain upright without feeling sick, repeated flu-like relapses and a list of other complaints.

It goes without saying that stress, anxiety and related factors can have negative health impacts and exacerbate underlying ailments and that psychological support and lifestyle adaptations can help alleviate distress, including among people with chronic conditions.

“Over time, she became unable to cook, wash up, change her bedlinen, clean her room, apply for and renew her welfare benefit entitlements, make or attend appointments or go outdoors without assistance,” wrote Boothby in her inquest statement.