Like an estimated 20 million Americans , I have an incurable post-acute infection syndrome that goes by the name of long Covid. Some people refer to the long Covid experience as a “journey.” I wish they would stop. I’m pinned down by it, stuck with it. I feel like I’m getting nowhere.

Sugarcoating my bitter pill, a chronic disease, by calling it a “journey” might sweeten it for you, but not for me. Among “you” I include medical professionals, writers, and editors. Between 2007 and 2015 the BMJ ran a series of articles written by chronic disease sufferers called “Patient Journeys” about a slew of disorders from restless leg syndrome to much worse. According to University of Pennsylvania linguist Mark Liberman , the word’s usage in the biomedical literature rose slowly and steadily fr

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