In 2023, I went through ABVD treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and I thought getting through cancer would mean I could finally start getting my life back. Instead, I am still so sick that some days I cannot walk, I cannot lift things, and I am in pain 100% of the time. My muscles feel like they are tearing off the bones, my skin hurts, my hands and body shake when I get more tired, and I cannot think straight most of the time. I have been to the Cleveland Clinic, to rheumatology, neurology, psychology, and psychiatry, and I am still waiting for answers while my life keeps imploding.

What I am living through is not rare, and that is exactly the problem. So many people with long COVID, dysautonomia, and chronic fatigue symptoms are too sick to work but get stuck in a system that still acts like if a condition is hard to measure, it must not be real. When half the medical community believes these conditions are real and half does not, patients are the ones left without income, without support, and without any margin for survival. People should not have to beat cancer, lose their ability to function, and then also fight just to prove they are sick enough to deserve help.

I am calling on federal disability decision makers to make disability benefits accessible for people disabled by long COVID and related post-viral conditions. That means clear guidance for evaluators, fair review of fluctuating symptoms like fatigue, pain, cognitive issues, and mobility limits, and a process that does not punish people because their illness is poorly understood. If someone cannot work, cannot reliably walk, cannot think clearly, and is in constant pain, the system should not force them into poverty while they wait for medicine to catch up.

If you have ever been told your suffering is invisible because it does not fit neatly in a box, please stand with me. Sign this petition and help push for disability support that treats long COVID patients like human beings, not paperwork problems.