2025-09-19 –, Main stage
Last year, Covid ate my brain. This talk is a distillation of some of the things that have helped me so far as I gradually reassembled myself and got back to work again.
As I discovered to my cost last summer, Covid never really went away. I'd caught it before but this time was different. Instead of a swift recovery I faced months of grinding exhaustion and brain fog so severe that my life became very limited. I began to wonder if I would ever be able to use my mind in the same way again. Ultimately I was one of the lucky ones and made a nearly full recovery but what happened along the way forever shaped how I approach my health and work.
During this talk I'll dig into some of the latest studies about Covid and its lasting effects on our bodies and brains. I'll explain what helped me as I gradually expanded the envelope of what I could do as I recovered. I'll also look at common pitfalls and some surprising statistics about where new Long Covid cases are coming from.
I hope this talk could help people who've been through a similar experience to feel less alone. It may also be relevant if you work alongside or manage someone with Long Covid - some of the strategies that I used were only possible because of my wonderful manager. Unfortunately there are still too many people entering this world of chronic illness every year. I want to reach out to them with some solidarity and science.
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I'm a software engineer, video editor, developer advocate and General Tech Person based in Leeds. In my spare time I love playing board-games, eating cheesecake and automating things around the house with my Raspberry Pi.