For more than three years I’ve been suffering with a debilitating, chronic illness most people call Long Covid. ⁣⁣
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It's been the greatest challenge of my life, and the past year has been brutal, the past few months especially. Like always, I’ve been trying to deal with my pain through data: making sense of my symptoms by counting and categorizing and visualizing. Sometimes data has helped me find solace. Other times, it's made me feel even more depressed. ⁣⁣
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🔗 The New York Times agreed to publish my story. This is a gift link to access the piece. I hope you read it. ⁣⁣🔗
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I’m extraordinarily proud of this piece. But I’m most excited about what I hope it’ll lead to: more awareness, more understanding, and more funding for this global healthcare crisis. ⁣⁣
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Millions of us are silently suffering with Long Covid. I also hope this piece will shine a small light on their stories. ⁣⁣
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Since the piece got out I’ve received thousands of messages from fellow sufferers with chronic conditions who said they finally feel seen and they shared this with their families to help them understand what it’s like on a daily basis. Health care can be so dry... But design can make people see what you are going through, empathize, connect, reach out.

A week after, we were able to publish the piece on the printed Sunday Opinion supplement, depicting the full calendar of my daily symptoms together with a full version of the text.

Some might think Covid is over, but Long Covid is not.

And unfortunately, there is no treatment for it, and many of us are left suffering, and we feel mostly not understood by our friends, and even by our loved ones.

As for me, I don't know what my future holds… but I can hope.

I hope I will be able to take walks again, travel without restrictions, snowboard, see my friends for a meal out, or simply enjoy a day in the sun without limitations, symptoms and fear.