In the spring of 2022, Chris Quill was in his late 30s and at the peak of his life. He exercised up to four times a week and was an active father to two young sons.
Four years later, the Canberra-based disability support teacher is surprised if he does not wake up in pain.
The 42-year-old, who lives in Kambah with his wife, Tessa, and their children, is one of thousands of Australians struggling with long COVID.
Chris first caught COVID-19 in late 2022 while teaching at Caroline Chisholm School in south Tuggeranong. Six weeks later, he noticed that as time went on, his symptoms were getting worse and worse.
"I remember going to the hospital and then trying to walk back, and I collapsed because my legs gave out," he recalls.
"There was a cognitive element to it as well. I couldn't stay awake for more than half an hour. There was massive body pain and massive headaches that went on for years."
Long COVID is characterised by myriad of complex symptoms, including, but not limited to, severe fatigue, migraines, joint pain, brain fog, chest pain and heart palpitations.
For Chris, the extreme tiredness meant struggling with his speech and frequently falling asleep mid-conversation with friends and family.
"At the time, my boys were aged four and one, so I missed out on years of early development, which was really difficult, as you can imagine," he says.
"I was a very different person, I kind of shut off from everyone."
Making the physical toll even harder was the struggle to get medical professionals to take his health seriously. Chris says he was told "many, many times" by "many, many doctors" that it was "all in my head".
"It was so misunderstood and stigmatised, and I felt completely cut off from any reasonable support," he says.
More than two years later, Chris was referred to a rheumatologist based in the ACT who diagnosed him with severe fibromyalgia. His symptoms have begun to slowly improve as of the end of last year, allowing him to return to work three days a week.
However, the shadow of the illness remains a daily reality for Chris and his family.
"My wife has been with me the whole time, and even now she's very, very trepidatious when it comes to me going to the gym once a week, or suggesting we go for a drive," he says. "I still get utterly [exhausted]... and she notices. It still affects everything."
There is no concrete data on how many Australians are affected by long COVID, nor is there a single approved treatment for the illness.
Dr Mulu Woldegiorgis, an ANU epidemiologist researching long COVID, estimates that around 22 per cent of people who contract the virus report experiencing long-term symptoms.
"Other than giving an estimate, I don't think we have accurate numbers of people with long COVID, given the limitations we have with the accurate number of people with COVID," she points out.
For Chris, the opportunity to connect with health professionals who acknowledge his symptoms as well as other long-COVID sufferers has made a world of difference as he embarks on the long road to recovery.
"If anyone knows anybody with these conditions, just a bit of contact can mean the difference between hope and despair," he says.
