 Home - RRV information, symptoms and treatment What aggravates it
Other problems
Family issues
Social and Economic Costs
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PERSONAL What aggravates the disease?
There are many things that can happen that can increase the severity of an attack or
bring on another attack. Generally, chronic attacks have some periodic pattern.
- Stress will increase the severity of the symptoms or bring on another attack during the
chronic stage. Some of the main stress factors are:
- Death of Family or Friends.
- Another illness in addition to the EPA which was caused by RRV.
- Stress at Work
- Stress at Home
- Financial worries
- Disturbed sleep
- Frustration is another stress factor. However, it is almost a daily feeling for
most sufferers. They are frustrated with the :
- constant pain
- constant tiredness
- constant laying in bed
- constant night sweats (if they experience these)
- in many cases the inability to hold anything in the hand, due to swelling and pain, not
even a cup or cutlery
- in many cases needing to rely on others to do almost everything for you. This is
aggravated if the person or persons looking after you makes you feel, you are too lazy to
help yourself, acting, or bludging.
- Anxiety about peoples attitudes. An expectation that you will not be believed.
- Steps use so many joints and muscles. One learns to manage one flight of steps without
any major problems after the initial acute stage of the illness. However, for many
(particularly long term sufferers) walking up or down any more than two flights of steps
even when not experiencing any symptoms can bring on another attack within minutes or
hours. When experiencing any symptoms it is always best to use lifts or esculators
for any more than one floor.
- Trying to do too much when you start to recover.
- Stop taking the medication or vitamen supplements too soon when starting to feel better.
Other problems for sufferers
- One of the major problems for sufferers is that you look so well and feel so rotten.
Most of the symptoms cannot be seen by others.
- Trying to find out where to get information when you realise the medical profession do
not have a great deal of knowledge on the subject.
- Trying to get members of the medical profession to believe you still are experiencing the chronic stage of the disease years later. You are likely to be considered a malingerer.
- Feeling alone because no one understands your problems.
- Fear of losing your job.
- Actually losing your job is a reality for some sufferers.
- In the chronic stage, trying to hide the fact that you are having another attack
from family, friends and workmates.
- Embarrassment due to fatigue, inability to work, depression.
- Trying to hide that you are suffering from tiredness or chronic fatigue.
- Feeling resentful or angry because you cannot just lay down when you need to.
- Feeling guilty when you have to use a lift when everyone tells you it is good exercise
to walk down the stairs.
- Feeling angry and resentful when you have to ask a family member for help and they show
anger or resentment or accuse you of not trying to help yourself. The
truth of the matter is that you have probably put off asking for as long as you could
stand it because you already feel a burden to them.
- Knowing you are frustrating other when experiencing short term memory loss.
- Avoidance of social activities as you do not want to feel like a wet blanket.
- Feeling you would rather be dead than cope any longer with the excruciating pain any
longer. Fortunately, at the time you have those feelings, you are too exhausted to
do anything about it.
- Once a Doctor has shown disbelief that you could still be experiencing symptoms from
your infection of Ross River Virus years later, then you cease to tell him/her about
them and find alternative sources of treatment.
- Finding a reliable source for treatment when you can no longer rely on your Doctor. [Most Doctors appear to believe that the illness does not last long (and most of the literature is certainly telling them that is the case).] Quite often these additional sources are away from the medical profession.
- Self-treatment is becoming very common and the internet and health food stores are major areas for advice.
- Most suffers of severe symptoms will try anything and everything in an attempt to reduce their symptoms.
FAMILY
Problems for the family
Having a member or members of the family become a victim of Ross River Family
creates major problems for families and it is not surprising that in is even splitting
families up. Listed below are some of the problems facing families.
- There is no way of knowing how long or how debilitating the illness will be.
- There is the need to provide constant attention to the sufferer as well as cope with
normal family activities.
- Feeling of anger or resentment towards the sufferer when they need your attention when
you need to be doing something else or giving someone else attention.
- If the person is not a mild case, then it is likely to lead to disturbed sleep night
after night for months.
- Feelings of anger against the victim, and guilt because you have been angry.
- Thinking the sufferer is being lazy, acting, a hypochondriac.
- Feeling resentful that the sufferer just lays around while you have to do everything.
- If the person affected is an income earner, then there are financial worries.
- The frustration when you think things are improving, they have another attack and you
are back to square one.
- The anger at the knowledge that families are suffering for years and no one appears to
be doing anything.
- The knowledge that other members of the family could also become affected and they would
have to go through the same process again.
- Feelings of anger against doctors, health authorities, government and researchers for
not solving the problems.
- For those with long term sufferers, feelings of anger when most of the literature and
doctors state is lasts no more than about a year or two and your family goes on suffering
for years.
- Having to go without due to the financial costs of the illness to the family. These costs can be extremely high eg. my costs in the chronic stage range from $A150 - $A25 per week. The cost vary depending on whether experiencing a reocurrence or attempting to maintain health to extend the time between attacks. This is an enormous drain on family finances.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC COSTS
Many of the victims of Ross River Virus are off work for weeks or months at a time.
- This is a huge cost to employers as both a output and financial cost.
- Many employers cannot afford to maintain these people on their payrole.
- Unemployed suffereres have to go on sickness benefits and are then a cost to the
community.
- The cost of medication is a huge drain on our health system.
- Some people are admitted to hospital which is another drain on the health system.
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