We need to talk about Long Covid a ๐งต #LongCovidAwarenessDay #LongCovidAwareness
In January 2021 my partner caught covid. It was a little under 2 weeks before his 43rd Birthday. This was a month or so after the first vaccination was rolled out but he was not in the age bracket for it so hadnโt had one. /1
BC (before covid) He was a fit 42-year-old who ran 5k every morning before he went to work. He had taken up running during the lockdowns with a couple of our neighbours. The three middle aged men we called them ! /2
Sure he had some aches and pains โ he is a mobile mechanic so it was expected and nothing out of the ordinary. /3
He drew heavy criticism from some for the way in which he had caught covid. He was helping take care of an elderly gent who a few months previously had lost his wife. He got an emergency call from careline and went round to find him unable to breath properly. /4
He was wearing a mask & gloves, however he needed to take sats while he waited for paramedics to turn up. He took one glove off to get an accurate read on his pulse. It was a split decision that would end up costing him but he did it selflessly as his priority was his friend /5
The minute he knew he had come into close contact with someone who had tested Covid+ he isolated in our living room, but we held out hope he would avoid it. We put up a camp bed, and I handed him his meals through a hatchway /6
It should be noted that 20 or so years previously he had Sarcoidosis of the lungs but had not had any issues with it. It should also be noted that he had years before been diagnosed with sleep apnoea. He booked a drive through test which inevitably came back positive. /7
He spent the next two weeks incl his birthday by himself in a living room. Our son sat in the doorway of his bedroom eating while I sat in the hallway eating and my partner in the living room so we could have some sort of a resemblance of normality /8
The first symptom he got was bizarre. His taste and sense of smell was generally unaffected with one exception. He could taste nothing when it was paired with chicken. If it was by itself no issue but mixed in with a chicken dish and it was tasteless /9
He had no cough and no high fever he just couldnโt taste anything if it was with chicken. We tested this theory we had. He ate a teaspoon of pesto and tasted it fine but when it was mixed into a chicken pesto dish it was bland. /10
Then came the most frightening of symptoms. Part way through his isolating he stood up from the sofa one day to go to the bathroom. Upon standing and moving his chest tightened and he was struggling to breathe. Within moments this passed, we hoped it was temporary /11
After the isolation period was over and he was Covid- he resumed his daily activities. It was a relief for us as his is the only household income we have. But the relief was short-lived. /12
Day one out of isolation and he gets up at the usual time to go for his 5k run. He made it barely 5 metres down the road before he collapsed. Chest tight unable to draw breath. But he hadnโt been running for 2 weeks so he presumed he was just out of practice /13
He came home went to work that day and tried to carry on as normal. Half way through the day he was hit by a brick wall of extreme tiredness โ we put this down to his body recovering from the infection / 14
As the days went by it became apparent that the breathlessness was not improving and nor was the tiredness in fact if anything it was getting worse. He went to his GP. He was sent for an Xray on his lungs. We anxiously waited the results. /15
The results came in & he was told he had permanent scarring on his lungs and that 2/3rd of his lungs were damaged. Covid had flared up the Sarcoidosis & there was nothing anyone could do about it. /16
He was told he was at serious risk of death should he catch it again and put forward as a priority for the vaccination /17
He was referred to a LC Clinic, he under went numerous meetings all done via online to help with his breathing and coping with his fatigue. The LC Rehab clinic was concerned so sent him for further tests. /18
He has now been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue, Severe Raynaudโs, A grade one heart block (there is a delay in the feedback of the heart) all on top of the lung damage. He suffers from brain fog, memory loss, high blood pressure to name just a few things /19
A month or so ago he was discharged from the LC clinic they have sated there is nothing they can now do to help him further. He had hope to be one of those chosen to undergo a trial of acupuncture but he was not /20
I have to hand it to him he is a fighter. After a brief period of being low, depressed even and demoralised that he could no longer run he took up hiking. In the summer of 2022 he climbed Snowden, last year he did Scafell Pike /21
He continues to go to work daily, a job that requires a huge amount of physical effort. His days however have been cut short due to his CFS and due to the flare ups of RA. He still cannot run and he never will be able to. /22
He comes home completely drained, his sleep is affected his memory is shot. It got so bad at one point he would forget to go to a job he had booked in. /23
The day he collapsed & could not breath was one of the most frightening times of my life (second only to when our son was born not breathing). I thought he was going to die, I truly thought I was going to lose my soul mate, my best friend and partner of at the time 16 years. /24
It all seems terribly cruel. Itโs no exaggeration to say that I have seen my partner emotionally and physically decline rapidly and through sheer stubbornness fight back against it. He does what he can and that is enough, he carries on regardless โ terribly British /25
There was a time when he felt โless of a man, less of a father and less of a partnerโ as a result of it. I disagreed then and I told him so and I disagree now. I could not be more proud of him. But I understood why he felt that way. /26
To have things that people take for granted stripped away from you so quickly is an awful thing to experience. Something I can relate to albeit for differing reasons. We picked up the pieces and we adjusted and we get by. /27
He is just one of hundreds of thousands struck down with Long Covid. This is just one Personal account of it. The toll it takes on a person is not just physical it is psychological as well. /28
We need to talk about LC not just for those living with it but for the loved ones and friends of those who also indirectly live with it /29
I have realised I have made a typo he did Snowden in the Summer of 2021 and Scafell Pike in 2022 ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
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