"Long Covid - Hoping for better days ahead"

I was a young, fit, healthy mother who worked in a busy role as well as balancing homelife.  In March 2020, I contracted Covid. I was never tested for the virus. I believed at the time I would get over the ‘flu’ symptoms that had been portrayed to the public at the time & therefore I worked throughout the initial virus. 

Within 3 weeks of feeling I may be recovering, I was struck down & bedbound with fatigue, breathlessness, chest pain, heart palpitations & cognitive issues. I found getting from room to room a challenge in itself. I didn’t know what was happening to me as I just expected to get back to normal. I had to take numerous visits to A&E, when my test results were normal I was sent home to continue living like this - so ill & no answers as to why.  I then paid privately to seek further advice & tried certain medications that unfortunately didn’t help me as consultants were not specialised in the field of a new virus & how it had impacted the body. 

With ongoing symptoms on top of the original ones, I now suffer from more problems, such as migraines, swallowing issues & nerve pain throughout my body.  The most difficult symptom I struggle with is PEM, I try to push myself to do the smallest chore & within 36-48 hours, I am floored & unable to move, my body is like lead.  I find when people see me in the hour I’ve ‘showed up’ to participate in normal life, they believe I look fine so therefore I am fine! They never see the energy it has taken for me to get ready to meet them & how much my battery is draining as I try to concentrate on their conversations or taking in those surroundings, never mind the after effects of PEM & being in bed again. I have to prioritise if one visit, chat or chore is more important than an hour doing something else.  

It had been a pretty isolating time for me in 2020 until I met other longhaulers who understood exactly how I felt & what I was going through.  I never thought I would have to rely on my family to have to help care for me the way they do now. I still find it so hard to say yes when they offer to do anything - as that was never the person I was & still feel reluctant to be perceived as a burden on anyone. I know they wouldn’t feel like that but I do!  

This has not only affected myself & spouse but my young children can still find it tough to comprehend why their mum can not follow through with plans or play with them at any time like I was always able to. Life is no longer spontaneous!! 

I do hope for better days ahead & getting back to my old life at some point in the future. I just wish to be ‘fixed’ or ‘cured’ so perhaps in time that shall happen.