An Irish woman receiving treatment for Long COVID in France said she feels 'lucky in her misfortune' to have found her doctor.
Patricia (45) caught COVID at the beginning of the pandemic and was bedridden for two months.
She was also admitted to A&E five times during that time.
Patricia told Lunchtime Live awareness of the illness needs to be raised, especially in Ireland.
"Yesterday was actually my four-year anniversary and I was in a documentary in France recently," she said.
"It's just really to keep raising awareness because there's not enough awareness being raised.
"Here we are four years on and there's so many people and so many Irish people.
"We're 65 million people throughout the world diagnosed with Long COVID and we still don't have a cure".
Patricia is seen in her classroom. Image: SuppliedPatricia said she has been able to go back to work as a teacher, something she wasn't able to do for the first two years.
"It's a chronic illness, it's known as an invisible disability, I've managed to go back to work nine hours a week," she said
"I lost my lungs [capacity], my vocal chords - basically all my organs were touched by COVID.
"I lost 34% of my lung capacity overnight, so it took me over two years [to recover].
"In France thankfully I had access to physiotherapy, respiratory physiotherapy and speech and language physiotherapy which helped me strengthen up my vocal cord.
"It's still very fragile".
'Validation'
Patricia said she is receiving treatment from a Long COVID specialist, Dr Jérome Larché.
"I do feel very lucky in my misfortune," she said.
"Even though at the start [I] had to fight and go and look and put everything in place for myself.
"When I was about nine months in I met this doctor, Dr Larché, and from then on getting that validation.
"He did a lot of tests to rule out anything else... and that's what's very important for patients as well - to have this validation and not for people to be judging them".
Patricia said it all came together when she got to France.
"Some didn't listen to me and some did and I'm still with the doctors that listened to me," she said.
"I've had great support... they wanted to learn as well.
"Officially at nine months when I met Dr Larché, when I started listing off my symptoms, he started saying, 'Have you not got this, have you not got that?'
"I was like, 'Oh my God he's the first one that actually knows that we can have multiple symptoms'".
An oxygen machine used by Patricia. Image: SuppliedPatricia said her treatment is getting 'bigger and bigger' as it goes on.
"My illness is chronic and I would say the effects have even worsened," she said.
"I have two oxygen machines at home; I have to sleep with oxygen because I have chronic hypoxia which means that I'm in this saturation all the time.
"My oxygen can go up normal then it'll drop down, I'm yo-yoing.
"This is because I have microthrombosis which are micro clots".
Patricia said normal scans may not show the clots because they're very small and deep.
She said she has to decide what to prioritise as if she goes to work she can't go out with her children afterwards owing to tiredness.
The HSE says there is no single treatment for Long COVID but there are things to help manage symptoms.
More information can be found here
