Diabetes, rare diseases, cancer, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, respiratory disorders . . . People with chronic diseases are the most sensitive group during the current pandemic. However, in addition to the high risk of more severe coronavirus, there is the psychological significance and the way they deal with it.
Anyone with a health problem that requires more attention and frequent hospital visits knows that life is not the same, has another rhythm, another color and a day-to-day life where stress is the constant co-pilot you have to learn to manage. It was difficult, now with the presence of coronavirus, everything has become much more complicated.
- Fear.
- Fatigue.
- Frustration.
- Anxiety? Many emotions combine in the minds of these chronic patients accustomed to seeing the hospital waiting rooms as their second home.
- Are very young or not.
- Some very active and others with greater limitations.
- All.
- Almost without exception.
- Face opposition feelings that are difficult to define.
For many, however, containment is not new. The fact that life is seen through a window was already known, but part of what they are witnessing is that while the rest of the world timidly returns to normal, they are forced to remain in their shelters because they are the most at-risk population. . The one with which the coronavirus is usually more aggressive.
People with chronic diseases have a history that goes beyond their medical problems, their life history also knows the resistance, knows how to face difficult times, assume their own vulnerability and physical fragility, putting strength and courage, the desire to continue living in spite of everything.
As a result, many of them face the pandemic with the skills acquired over the years, face days of fear and distress when health fails and weeks are spent in a hospital bed, although it is true that the presence of a pandemic is a factor. of difficulty added to their lives and from which they must protect themselves, many of these patients have assumed this fact more normally than the rest of the population.
People with chronic diseases live with a sense of permanent risk, their lifestyle often has limitations, risks they must know to detect and avoid in everyday life, in one way or another the pandemic has introduced them into a world that is already known. but where they have to protect themselves a little more than the rest of the population.
When we talk about this population group that is more at risk of complications if they contract coronavirus, we are not talking only about older people, we must not forget that this sector of the population is much larger and more diverse than we think. .
Today’s pandemic has acted as a formidable social equalizer: containment means we spend every day on the privacy of our homes to protect ourselves and reduce the rate of coronavirus infection.
Children, adults, the elderly, healthy people, patients with chronic diseases . . . We all live in anguish and discover that we can be vulnerable to disease.
However, in this period we understand that a part of our population suffers from much greater anxiety than ours, we perceive the needs of the most vulnerable, who might need a little more of our daily help (pharmacy, shopping?). Right now, and with the opening process coming up, we must also help them, because their lives will remain very limited.
Although many of us return timidly to normal by going to work, playing sports or meeting friends at home, people with chronic diseases are always at risk and their mobility will remain limited.
In this new era in which a pandemic has transformed our reality, we have learned the great privilege of being healthy and, in turn, we also understand the strength that exists in those who live with a disease on a daily basis, who continue to suffer relapses, hospitalizations, treatments and constant hospital visits.
We admire and respect them. Today we understand your struggle more than ever, now we also know what it means to live without a vaccine against the disease, without a definitive drug that allows us to return to normal, that normality that the rest of us enjoy every day. without being aware of it, we will reflect on that.