I’m in bed, in pain, by 3pm most days...
Mum Aoife, 38, suffers ‘harrowing’ long-term battle with virus
A Mum-of-two has described her “grating” cough and chronic fatigue due to long Covid more than 10 months after contracting the virus.
Aoife Moore, 38, tested positive for the bug on April 8, 2020, but is still living with symptoms – which she admits have impacted her physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Describing her experience as “harrowing”, she told how she continues to drift in and out of consciousness and often feels like someone is sitting on her chest.
Aoife is just one of a growing number of long Covid sufferers calling for healthcare support as they continue to battle symptoms.
Patients can suffer from the virus for months regardless of the severity of their initial infection, a study by Irish researchers has found.
Ex-teacher Aoife, from Co Kerry, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I was someone who was constantly busy, always organising and planning the next activity.
“Now when I wake up it takes a while to come to. I have to assess and scan my body to see how I am. Every day is different. I have breakfast in bed and take my meds.
PRIORITY
“I have to rest after breakfast before getting up. Sometimes I have to choose between activities – shower or put on a load of washing – which is slightly more of a priority.
“Mornings are my best time so I use them for mental tasks like emails. My husband makes lunch. By 3pm I am normally back in bed resting for the rest of the day because of pain.”
Aoife explained husband Kerill is now her carer as well as looking after the couple’s two children – Aibhlin, five, and three-year-old Diarmuid.
She said: “Recovery is not linear. I describe it as snakes and ladders and each player on the board is a different symptom.
“So while my chest pain or chest tightness improves, my leg pain could be getting worse.
“It’s constantly up and down which makes it hard to gauge my progress.
“You cannot remember things. Inability to follow conversations, watch TV, read a book. You will forget what you were saying mid-sentence. You cannot multi- task.
“When I’m not lying down, I feel like I’m constantly trying to hold my arms up, my back up, my legs, my head. It may look like I’m sitting but it’s draining me to be upright.”
Aoife also suffers with chest pain which she says feels like someone is sitting on her chest. She gets frequent mouth sores, her gums are inflamed and she has joint pain and swelling.
She added: “Breathing sometimes burns, or feels like the sharp cold you get when you breathe in on a frosty morning.
“I cannot laugh or cry too hard or I start to violently cough causing a sharp pain and difficulty breathing.”
And Aoife told how feelings of isolation take their toll on her mentally.
She explained: “It’s tough to be
CLOSE Aoife and Kerill with kids Aibhlin and Diarmuid alone in bed unwell for long periods of time. “Downstairs my husband is busy with kids, the house and working. The cats are my main company. “Covid is not a two-week illness. It can impact every facet of your life for long periods of time.” Aoife said as a sufferer she is “on her own” as there is no support from the HSE or medical services locally. There are just three long Covid clinics in the country – two in Dublin and one in Cork.
She added: “I have had to constantly fight and advocate for myself. That alone is exhausting and should not be the case.
“It’s very important to get across the need for a nationwide strategy for long Covid and to plead that the Government
appoint a team to draft and implement such a strategy.”
Dubliner Declan Cassidy, who first told his story in the Irish Sunday Mirror, revealed his sense of taste and smell still have not returned ten months after he contracted Covid-19.
The 53-year-old, who also suffers with chronic fatigue, breathlessness and anxiety, said the Government needs to put a plan in place to help.
Declan set up his own group on Facebook called Tasteless Cuisine to help those suffering with a lack of smell or taste. He said: “One of the
One of the difficulties with long Covid is you feel alone, people want some hope DECLAN CASSIDY, LEFT, DUBLIN YESTERDAY
difficulties of suffering with long Covid is that you feel very alone.
“People would like some kind of hope that the Government will put a strategy in place to help deal with people with lingering effects.
“They would like to know that there is a plan in place to help them.”
Declan told how coffee and perfume now smell like potent chemicals.
He revealed: “I’m getting very imaginative now with what I put on food and it’s not just jalapeno chillies. I’m now putting stuffed olives that have spicy peppers inside on my porridge.
“At Christmas all my gifts were spicy things. I got spicy peanut butter and growyour-own hot chilli plants.
“I have some of a smell now but it’s just one smell – a chemical smell. The only good thing about it is that if my dinner is burning I can now smell it.
“I had an appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist this month but that was cancelled because of Covid cases going up. “In the Tasteless Cuisine group we have 600 members. It started the first week with only four. “Someone who had lost their taste and smell in March said they now have 70 per cent of it back. “It gives everyone a bit of hope.” Covidcasesireland.ie offers help and support to anyone with ongoing virus symptoms.