Should You Read The Comments And Should You Do Literature Searches on Medical Journals??

 If you speak to the average person, who is much more sensible than I, they’ll usually say no. DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!! DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS. I however, am a bit of a masochist and also usually get annoyed, rather than upset. 

I decided to read mine on TikTok today, where I post about lots of things ranging from reactions, the odd Duet (I’m learning, OK?), my Long Covid journey, my cats and anything that springs to mind. I quite enjoy it, mostly because somewhere out in the TikTok void I could well be annoying some millennial 😁. I have no children of my own, so I do my best to wind up my siblings’ kids. And random teenagers on social media. If you care to, you can find me as PerfectlyImperfect7505. I’ve actually started a YouTube channel with my actual name (zero uploads as yet), but I bet if you search “PerfectlyImperfect” I’ll pop up. 

So, on the most recent Long Covid post, someone decided to “helpfully” state that my condition has been defined by the GMC as “somatic”. Somatic is the fancy way of saying “all your tests are normal, we don’t know what’s wrong with you”. It’s also used to gaslight people into believing that everything going on is all in their head, which is what I’ve been told since childhood. People with ME, CFS, amongst other conditions, are frequently psychologised by this. 

I decided to respond (after I blocked the gaslighting twerp), pointing out that Long Covid is known to be a multi-system inflammatory condition, proved in biomedical research: The reason that tests don’t pick it up is because the basic tests the NHS agree to run don’t show up what’s wrong. Seriously. Search stories on social media support groups, Twitter. People are being told they’re fine, but go overseas, enter research trials, pay to go private and find out that there are things quite seriously wrong with me. The lack of testing on me is not something for this post, but I do know I have a Covid-related Long QT cardiac rhythm and “neurological issues” (the polite way of saying neurological damage, which they didn’t need a scan to tell them). Basically, I told TikTok to take their gaslighting, psychologising of our condition and shove it. 

As for the searching of medical journals? I was looking for something else when I found there IS a study that confirms my Long QT was likely caused by Covid. I was also on a medication which would increase the likelihood (but not now) - while it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, I had many ECGs before I had covid, while on that medication, with no Long QT - it only appeared since Covid. 

Sometimes it’s nice to get back to people who comment, particularly the sweet ones. I’ll leave the ones who bang on about your beauty, your eyes, send you DMs (I mostly ignore them) and so on. 

For the person who sarcastically suggested getting into politics: I tried. My political party are quiet on supporting me. Also, I’m currently too sick, so I stick with activism and advocacy. 

Peace out, everyone.