That's what my sneaking suspicion was. I recall having heard expressions like "after a long battle with illness", but your point makes a lot of sense.
Actually, I realise there's no mention of losing in that expression, which was made clear to me after finding this article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-brody-fleet/long-term-i...
after searching Google for the above phrase.
That's what my sneaking suspicion was. I recall having heard expressions like "after a long battle with illness", but your point makes a lot of sense.
Actually, I realise there's no mention of losing in that expression, which was made clear to me after finding this article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-brody-fleet/long-term-i...
after searching Google for the above phrase.