Covid - my experience

jinnyj

jinnyj

Senior Jockey
Joined
Jan 8, 2004
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So I had been incredibly careful over the last couple of years living as I do with someone (my mother) who has zero immunity. Every precaution was taken early on and we dutifully had vaccines and boosters. And up until last week had managed to avoid it. I realise that a huge amount of people have had it, some several times including my brother, once quite badly early on, then twice since vaccinated. We know it’s something we have to live with. But I suppose I wasn’t expecting for it to hit me quite as hard as it did. And this isn’t me asking for sympathy, it’s just an honest account of how I have experienced the virus.

There seem to be so many different ways of being affected. I consider myself pretty fit and definitely healthy. I went to the doctors back in the Spring for a blood test and she remarked that they rarely see me. I exercise daily and eat well. So to be so comprehensively wiped out for a week as I have been has really surprised me. Of course I was never in a situation whereby I was going to be hospitalised but it has been an extremely unexpected and unpleasant experience. Many friends who have had it one who are not healthy (cancer sufferers) have experienced mild symptoms no more than a cold so I suppose I flippantly thought I would be the same or better. How wrong could I be. A friend who is a nurse at our health centre has also just got it and despite having it before, she is as bad as I was. I wonder if this latest variant is harsher.

The worst part was the intensity of the muscle aching. I was waking in the night in tears due to the pain and I consider myself pretty tough on pain. Just getting out of bed to go to the bathroom next door was nearly impossible. Now that’s gone, the fatigue is relentless. To start with going up and down stairs had to be planned...once a day was it and that was only by day five. I do have a tv in my room so the tennis and racing were on but I had zero to little interest most of the time.

Anyway it’s Day 8 and I am finally able to check my horses and start eating a bit. My nurse friend tells me there is a doctor who works with her who’s two weeks in and is only 50% back to normal so to take it very slowly.
 
Sorry to hear all that. Follow the advice and don’t rush it however many things simply must be done after a week out. :).
 
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Yes, it's a weird one in that it affects people so differently.

Touch wood, I've managed to escape it so far, as has Mrs O, unless we both had it back at the very start and it went undiagnosed.

First up was Orchidette who, in the February of the initial outbreak, despite displaying symptoms of a very severe cold, was not allowed by her then bosses to go home from school. As per, she had gone into work that morning despite feeling under the weather - she had only ever been off work one day in her entire working career of seven years, for a family funeral - but the depute head said they'd be struggling to cover for her if she took time off. On her way home from work that day she stopped by our house to pick up some things but was back at work the next day and never took any time off. It's entirely possible she had it and was spreading it but her bosses weren't bothered by the spreading word of the outbreak in Europe.

The following week, Mrs O was laid low. She, at the best of times, is not the most patient patient, but decided she needed to stay indoors for a few days. Again, it was like a heavy cold or mild 'flu.

I was fine until I went into hospital following a retinal tear and the night I got home I was going through 'flu symptoms, accompanied by severe stomach cramps and eventually diarrhoea that would leave an industrial muckspreader wondering if it needed a service. I lost a stone in a week. When I phoned the doc she said it was probably Covid but since they weren't testing anyone there was no way of knowing. I just had to isolate for seven days. When I felt better I phoned back to explain what had happened during the week and was told I probably didn't have it after all. Great. I would have been happier if I'd had it, survived it and had acquired some immunity pending the development of the vaccination.

From then until a year ago at Christmas I didn't know anyone who had it. Everybody was playing by the rules. Then my brother's brother-in-law caught it and died, reportedly a particularly harrowing death.

Since then, every one I know has had it, except me and Mrs O. Some have had it a few times.

Symptoms have been varied. The one I refer to on here as "the brother" said he often went into work feeling much worse than he felt with Covid but he isolated for the requisite time. The oldest brother is just getting over it. He says he felt really bad for the first couple of days but also had to go into hospital with a false-alarm heart scare. The doctors couldn't say if it was Covid-related.

Anyway, fingers crossed that I manage to avoid it but the realist in me says I will catch it at some point just as surely as I will pick up a cold or the 'flu at some point. It's what this fvcking government wants: everybody to catch it and let herd immunity take over.

Get well soon, jinnyj.
 
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A friend was laid low in February 2020 by chest infection, everything ached, no energy etc and this a woman who dog walks for a living and never sits still. This was before lockdown and mass testing but she's convinced she had it. Family members have had it but not been ill with it. I have to take tests for work and not had one positive yet. Count myself 'lucky' that because of a health scare a few years ago, I am counted as vulnerable so got the jabs ahead of my age as it were but have been very careful with masks etc in shops and even now still wear one in a shop. I live alone, I can't afford to catch it plus having a very ill brother means cannot not be available in case.
Sorry to hear it has whacked you out Jinnyj, hopefully no long term lasting effects from it.
 
Yeah I was questioning whether I had it in March 2020 as I had a weird sort of flu which didn’t develop. You are likely to get “proper” flu maybe two or three times in your life and I had a right dose the previous May. The March 2020 version felt like I was getting flu in that I had aches and pains although nothing like as severe as I have just had. But I kept questioning my nurse friend about these symptoms as I had Cheltenham tickets. She was adamant that it wasn’t Covid. So I went to Cheltenham and the friend who drove got these exact same symptoms the following few days.

Anyway my mother because she has rheumatoid arthritis has to be super careful due to zero immunity. Flu or even a cold goes to pleurisy. I too was vaccinated very early on as was she although the second booster she had has interfered badly with her rheumatic drugs prompting the docs to put her back on steroids. So I did everything possible to keep her safe and even recently have avoided gatherings as the rates have soared. So ironic that the Awards evening that I organised was the one where I got it.

And of course my mother did get it from me (she’s about three days behind me) but maybe because of the second booster or maybe the steroids, but she’s not been hit as hard as me by a long way. And neither did a friend who survived throat cancer. He just said it was like a mild cold yet he’s really vulnerable.

So it’s a very weird virus. My brother has just had his third bout. He was really ill April 2020 and nearly hospitalised with breathing issues. He lost 2 stone....I haven’t lost an ounce sadly despite not eating for the last week!
 
I actually caught it twice this year, at the end of January and again in early May.

I think I caught it on my trips to London for treatment for Leukaemia but no real way of being sure.

The first bout was really just a runny nose, but the second time the muscle aches were quite severe.

I get so many side effects from the various tablets that I have to take and the chemo treatment that I'm not sure what's happening sometimes.
 
The latest variant unfortunately seems to be getting into the lungs the way that the initial virus did. I was rather hoping, if I was going to catch it, it would be with the more recent milder one. Every time I decide to live in a more normal way the virus seems to conspire against me. A friend of mine caught it the other week. She’s on the mend but felt pretty rough for a week or so. Her husband who has far more health problems was pretty much asymptomatic. What scared me at the start of the pandemic was the way that people became ill in the second week, because I knew I’d spend the first week paranoid that I’d go downhill the following week. That and the Russian roulette nature of the virus. I know it’s often the people that live healthy lives that seem to have bad things happen to them but when it comes to viruses we used to think that a healthy lifestyle would help. No one seems to be escaping this latest variant though and I’ve agreed to look after my grandchildren in a week or so, something I haven’t done throughout the pandemic ( although I obviously would have done if they were desperate for help). I worry about my dog if we both get ill. There doesn’t seem to be any research into why some people are affected worse than others ( apart from that Neanderthal theory!). And no therapeutics except for those people with compromised immunity. I’m taking lots of pro and prebiotics ( as recommended by Tim Spector) and I’ve bought some Co Enzyme Q 10 in case I get it ( supposed to help ).
 
Sorry to hear of your struggles Kirsty. I caught it at Cheltenham and was poorish for a day or two and bad energy for a week - but seamless after that. (I'm guess being incredibly good looking might be a symptom inhibitor?) Stay well - your horses need you!
 
an capall said:
Sorry to hear of your struggles Kirsty. I caught it at Cheltenham and was poorish for a day or two and bad energy for a week - but seamless after that. (I'm guess being incredibly good looking might be a symptom inhibitor?) Stay well - your horses need you!
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Might explain why I seem to be permanently fked up!
 
That sounds awful, Jinny, and I hope you recover soon. How it affects some people and not others is a mystery, even within the same family. My dad died of it in November 2020 (caught in hospital, but he was already ill with dementia and a stroke), and my sister spent four nights in an ICU in April 2020. I have felt barely anything on the two occasions I have had it, and my COPD mum flicked it to one side at the age of 80 in April. Mental how this thing works.
 
an capall said:
Sorry to hear of your struggles Kirsty. I caught it at Cheltenham and was poorish for a day or two and bad energy for a week - but seamless after that. (I'm guess being incredibly good looking might be a symptom inhibitor?) Stay well - your horses need you!
Click to expand...

Obviously not the case or jinnyj wouldn't have had any symptoms!
 
Are you on the mend Jinny? I spoke to someone the other day whose whole family had caught it except her and, interestingly, she was immune suppressed and on steroids.
 
Thank you I am! Taking things slowly by just doing things in the morning then watching the Tour de France in the afternoons.
My mother wasn’t as bad as me by a long way but being a berludy minded old cow, didn’t slow down as I suggested. She now has a compromised lung and the probability of it heading towards pleurisy which was what I was worrying about. I think it’s going to be a case of antibiotics on Monday as soon as the surgery is open again.
 
I’ve just come back from 2.5 weeks in Corfu and unfortunately contacted it out there for the second year in succession. Yes, I know - the definition of stupidity in making the same mistake twice and all that - but like Jinny, I consider myself pretty fit and run or play golf most days.

Last year, other than failing a PCR test and then losing my sense of taste & smell, I wouldn’t have known I had it but this year wow, the muscle pain and fatigue was fairly gruesome and reckless as it sounds the pretty much constant but steady flow of alcohol did help to dull it during the day and evening but waking up was payback and it took serious effort to get out of bed each morning.

Anyhow, stay safe all and hope you’re well soon Jinny.
 
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