I wasn't massively worried about catching covid, I was fit, healthy and often went years without having a single day off work. I had no issues with having the vaccine but due to high demand it wasn't available where I lived. I just wasn't prepared to travel 20 miles by public transport to get it. It was a case of "I'll get it when it's available".
In July 2021 I was struck down with headaches and fatigue. The lateral flow tests (provided by work that were not that good) were negative. I simply assumed that I had a migraine as I was a life long sufferer. I also didn't have many of the common covid symptoms such as loss of taste, coughs or a high temperature.
After a week I'd started to recover, after 2 weeks I'd describe myself as 80% recovered. But then I stayed at that same level for days, weeks, months. Headaches, fatigue and sore throats that were constantly reoccurring. Eventually I had to travel a 30 mile round trip and pay for a private blood test to confirm what I suspected, I did actually get covid. I did get vaccinated but by that point it was too late.
Long covid was horrendous because of the nature of the illness. I could have a sore throat so bad on Friday night I couldn't swallow food. Only to be perfectly fine the following morning. I could go out and socialise then suddenly feel bad again after a single beer. The near continuous low level headaches were particularly worrying. Then I'd have 2 or 3 days where I believed I was getting better only to go back to square one. The nature of the illness left me in a strange no mans land. I wasn't so ill I couldn't attend work but at the same time it was a struggle. I had a brand new illness that I had no way of knowing when I would ever recover.
WORK DIDN'T CARE
I didn't want to be off work sick long term because I would be bored out of my mind at home. Especially after all of the months spent in lockdown. At the same time I couldn't have lots of individual days off on my worst days due to the way work measures absenteeism. Bradford Factor - Wikipedia
Since I did a physically demanding job and didn't "look ill" I constantly had to keep reminding people about my condition that led to additional stress.
DOCTORS DIDN'T CARE
Phoning up the doctors was like having a conversation with an automated voice recording. "Rest, drink water, take standard painkillers". All the stuff I could read in a 20 second search on google. I got sick of explaining that you can only take standard painkillers for a certain number of days stated on the instructions. Eventually I just gave up and suffered in silence.
FRIENDS DIDN'T CARE
As with work not "looking ill" people just assume that nothing is wrong with you. While I tried to get out and socialise as much as possible after lockdown. I was frequently cancelling plans due to feeling fine Saturday morning and feeling terrible just 8 hours later. Or going out and having to leave early with everyone demanding that I stay out.
Sitting in home on Saturday night during lockdown knowing that everyone else is in the same boat was a lot easier that sitting at home knowing that everyone else is out enjoying themselves.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Typically it was regularly flooded with conspiracy theories, anti lockdown and anti vaccination garbage.
Whenever I mentioned my experience with long covid all of these people stuck their heads in the sand and didn't even reply.
One of the biggest regrets of my adult life is not getting vaccinated sooner. Thankfully after 6 long months the symptoms went away and I could enjoy life again at the start of 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment