Our daughter (40y) got COVID last September when she went back into the classroom. She passed it to her husband and they and 2 children under 8y had to quarantine. No help allowed (obviously) so the parents had to play ‘tag’ minding the two jumping beans whilst the other one dragged themselves back up to bed for a couple of hours. She said it was a nightmare, being so poorly but not getting enough rest.
Our son in law was fine and went back to work after 3 weeks. Our daughter had 9 weeks of work, going back in to teach the week before Christmas. Breathless, a tight chest, racing heartbeat and under it all, anxiety - worrying what this new virus might be doing to her body. Quite frightening really. She had no underlying conditions.
She followed the NHS guidelines, spoke to the practice nurse and went out for a shuffle up the road to return exhausted to lie on the sofa. She said she felt so old. No mojo at all. One day whilst out walking her breathing scared her. A new symptom of a very crackly chest on inspiration. She took herself to the walk in centre (got stopped at the door and questioned why she’d turned up but was allowed straight in).
Had blood tests, an ECG, oxygen sats checked and a chest x-ray. All fine which hugely reassured her obviously. She said the A&E doctor looked at her chest x-ray and said ‘luckily, no signs of blood clots in your lungs’. She didn’t even consider that as a possibility and said so. The doctor sighed and said ‘it’s so new, we’re learning all the time’.
Anyway, the good news - it’s February, she went back to school after Christmas and slowly, slowly her energy levels have returned. She doesn’t look pale and washed out any more. She had a photo taken on her 40th birthday at Christmas and looking back at it now, she looked wiped out.
Sorry for such a long post but I hoped it might help other readers.
