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My Covid-19 Story

IntroductionMyself

Almost a year since the first lock down which shocked the world, and we are faced with our third National Lockdown here in England.

Last night after listening to Boris tell the nation that we are going back into lock down until at least 15th February I felt my heart crush and I felt so sad. This was not so much for me but for so many others who are faced with this horrendous disease who end up in hospital. I felt sad for all the poor NHS Teams who are yet again faced with so many people dying and their own anxiety and difficulties coping at the front line.

I have listened to so many conspiracy theories and picket lines at the hospitals that it really saddens me. So many people out there are being so selfish living in their own little world with not a care about anyone else.

Well……. Congratulations, thanks to you we are back in lock down.

You can blame the government all you want but the disease is real, and people are getting sick and dying.

I, therefore, decided to share my own COVID-19 experience with you to hopefully help you understand the enormity that is REAL!

Build Up

Back at the end of March 2020 my Mother caught this disease. She is 73 years of age and suffers with a heart condition so is technically in the vulnerable category. She spent about 6 months in and out of hospital where the NHS were superb at a time her family could not be there. This was so difficult for her just as much as the rest of us at a time when she just wanted to give up and hated life.

However, almost 10 months later and she is doing very well and ensuring that she is getting her walks in, changing her eating habits, and generally trying to look after her health.Family

During April 2020, the rest of my family came down with it with my Brother aged 51 and my Sister-in-Law suffering the worst of it. My sister-in-law also has asthma and this seemed to have a serious effect on her health.

Whilst the NHS were battling this disease I decided to go online with health and fitness tips to do my part to keep people fit and healthy.

My Turn

I live out in the leafy suburbs of Buckinghamshire. Aged 53 and what I consider to be fit and healthy believed that I would not get this disease.

I have done everything I can to abide by all the guidelines and was incredibly grateful to have gone on holiday in 2019 when we were allowed too. This was such a great relief and thoroughly enjoyable although the rules changed, and we had to quarantine when we returned.

To be honest, I thought due to doing everything that I could to protect myself

Wearing my mask,

Washing my hands as soon as I get indoors

No mixing with other households

Washing shopping and deliveries

Keeping windows open to allow in the fresh air and get rid of germs

Cleaning my house thoroughly regularly

I believed that I probably would not get the infection as I was fine most of the year……. Until December 21st, 2020.

Everything changed!Damon & I

To be honest with you I am the type of person who believes that “sickness is a weakness” and that “we are what we eat” so never thought that I would get ill especially when most of the time I have not gone anywhere.

My first experience was when I finished working from home around 4pm which was totally unusual as I was so tired, felt super cold and I had awful back ache. I generally just thought I was coming down with a cold. That evening I just got worse, felt awful and went off my food.

I called my mother on the Tuesday as I do every day just to ensure she is fine. I explained how awful I was feeling and that I could not get warm. She noticed that I had a cough and kept on losing my voice. I explained all the symptoms which also now included difficulty breathing. (Apologies to anyone following my “Christmas Fitmas Challenge” as I did one exercise and felt like I had run a Marathon).

As Mothers do, she went through her symptoms and said that I could have Covid-19. I mentioned that that was ridiculous as I had not caught it up until now. Anyway, she suggested that I should contact the NHS website and just get a test done. As I never had any temperature, I just believed I had a cold but at 4pm as both my symptoms and that of boyfriends were getting progressively worse, I decided to go onto the NHS website.

For anyone who is not familiar with the website it is full of lots of great information. There is a questionnaire to complete and by the end they recommended that I have a home test sent out.

The following day by 9am the 2 x tests were received, and we duly completed and put into the special Parcel Force Box as instructed, by the last post before Christmas which was 5pm.

One thing that was on my mind was that I did not want to feel ill over Christmas and to be honest by day 4 I started to feel better in that all my chills and aches had disappeared.

Day 5 to 14

The following 9 days were quite different, and the cough got worse with difficulty breathing into my lungs. The fatigue was awful, and I just felt like I was tired all the time. I lost my appetite but tried to force myself to eat at least once per day. Then came the stomach aches which felt like somebody was stabbing me in the belly and into my kidneys and I was now suffering with diarrhoea. I also got an awful pain around my ears which hurt to even touch.

Throughout this time, I still tried to exercise although it certainly was not the same but helped me to feel a little better.

My partner had similar symptoms although he started with the stomach aches for the first few days and then got it back again a lot later just as he thought he was getting better.

Covid-19

Due to the Christmas period our test came back positive for Covid-19 on the 27th December which was a big shock for me. I can honestly say that I was speechless as I did not believe it and just thought I had a bad cold.

The track and trace system were amazing and helped us to work out how we managed to catch this disease with dates. We have put it down to the night of the 18th
December where we went out for dinner to a restaurant. This was the last day before Buckinghamshire went into Tier 4.

Currently 1 in 50 people are contracting this disease and the hospitals are starting to become full again putting the NHS Teams under increasing pressure yet again.

Physical FitnessIE Fitness

My physical fitness has suffered hugely but I am now on the road to recovery 16 days later. Whilst I still have a few coughs and my lungs are still feeling it a little I feel a thousand times better than I did.

My boyfriend is still suffering with his breathing so is not back to his normal exercise routine, but he is getting also improving. He is 51 years of age and looks after his health and fitness.

There are so many symptoms to this disease, and everyone is hugely different. If you feel like you have a cold, then my advice is to go onto the NHS website and seek advice sooner rather than later.

The quicker you can ascertain your illness the better prepared you will be to stay indoors and stop the spread.

Conclusion

The reason I wanted to share my story was because I thought “it would not happen to me” and I know there are so many of you out there who feel the same. My advice is stay safe and take the necessary precautions to look after you and your family.

In the UK we are now back into a National Lockdown and there are still so many people out there who are still being selfish and not caring about anyone else. I would like to say THANK YOU as because of your stupidity we are back in lock down.

Monday evening with the announcement from Boris I felt incredibly sad, mainly for all those people who are going to contract the disease and end up in hospital or even worse die. The extra pressure on the NHS Teams who go through that pain and emotion as they become those people’s families when they cannot be close to their loved ones.

Whilst the majority people will be like myself and feel a little discomfort for about 2 weeks there is still a large proportion of people who will lose their lives and are doing so at this time.

The positive aspect to this lock down is that we know much more, and we are more prepared. We now have a Vaccine out there which is being distributed to the vulnerable and the front-line workers so that by the time lock down is lifted we will be in a much better place.

My boyfriend’s parents who are in their 80’s have now had the first stage of the vaccine, so the quicker we can roll this out the better.

I will go back to helping you online staying fit and healthy during this lock down from Monday next week.

You will find me on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/imeldashealthhuddle77 which is FREE to join where I will be live to keep you fighting fit ready to kick this virus into touch.

Lets us all do our bit to look after ourselves and more importantly protect the vulnerable until they receive the vaccine.

Life is different and it will be OK to feel sad. I have learnt not to put pressure on yourself ad to give you what you need to feel good. Cuddle up on the sofa or go for a walk-in nature whatever helps you at that time. Do not feel guilty about putting yourself first.

Here is looking forward to a Summer we can all look forward too and where our FREEDOM is released again.

Stop being selfish and look after others as it is the least we can do!

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or concerns below.

 

10 comments

  1. BobKay

    Hello. Good day. I want to say I admire your strength and courage and the way you handled everything. You believe so much that you would not get sick. And even when you did you did not let that stop you. Still yu lived your life to the fullest of it and you own nobody anything. I thank God for the lovely family you have. It’s good to have such good, loving and caring family.because they will be there for you. 

    1. Imelda Easthorpe

      hank you so much,

      I truly appreciate your comments. If I can be of any help please let me know.

      Yes, I have a very loving family and cannot wait to see them in person.

      Stay Safe & Healthy

      All the best

      Imelda

  2. Anthony Hu

    Thank you for sharing your personal experience with us. I thought we were moving out of corona territory gradually. Unfortunately, this guy comes back and it seems that the virus comes back stronger. You and your family experience are helpful for all who are planning to fight against the monster. I myself spend a lot of time on my blog, kcancerdotcom, with COVID-19 associated information. With covid vaccine, we are very close to beat the bad guy and win the war againt the corona virus very soon. Keep the good fight.

    1. Imelda Easthorpe

      Hello Anthony,

      Its lovely to hear about the information sharing you do and I hope t helps a lot of people. Yes, the vaccine makes things a lot more exciting and it is very welcomed.

      All the best

      Regards

      Imelda

  3. Jude

    Hi Imelda, thank you so much for sharing your story with us, it is helpful to read personal stories, and it makes you realise how the virus affects everyone differently. I feel so sorry for England where so many active cases are present at the moment. We are very fortunate here in Australia, but we only realise how quickly things can change swifts.

    I had no idea diarrhea could be a covid symptom, so strange how diarrhea is relevant to respiratory disease.

    Thanks for the heads up and I hope all is back to the old normal rather sooner that rather

    1. Imelda Easthorpe

      Thank you so much Jude,

      Lovely to hear from you in Australia and so pleased your country is doing so well with the number of cases. Whilst we do have a huge population to contend with and it is super cold here there is definitely lots to learn.

      Staysafe 

      Imelda

  4. UncleBolt

    It is a very thoughtful thing to share this amazing and interesting article here, I always enjoy it when I read  about people’s experiences and how they’ve been able to get through times. Reading your covid-19 story is interesting and it is very similar to mine, with a touch of comedy tho. Thanks for sharing

    1. Imelda Easthorpe

      Thank you so much for your lovely comments. I am so pleased this has helped and I hope that you are on the road to recovery. 

      All the best

      Imelda

  5. Clark

    Good to know that you (and your mother, and the rest of your family) is all right now. Great to hear that even old people can survive this. But the dates, I’m confused because most of you got it in 2019? Not 2020?

    As of the time of writing my country has just imposed a (serious) lock-down again due to spike in recent times. Really thankful for it because the numbers have been going up and up without any (serious) lock-down but finally it happened.

    1. Imelda Easthorpe

      Hello Clark,

      Thank you so much for your comments I am so pleased that my story has helped. Most of my family did get in 2020 and I got this disease in the later part which was quite odd.

      Thankfully with the Vaccines now out there soon we can get back to some normality?

      All the best

      Imelda

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