NURSE — I’VE CHILLS AND BRAIN FOG
Jacqueline is a nurse at a major Dublin hospital. Married with two sons, she became ill on April 17. Here is her story:
“Our hospital had a number of Covid patients and I remember I began to feel a bit off in work. That night I woke up at home with a very high temperature and an unusual headache. I knew immediately it was Covid.
“I spent two weeks isolated in the bedroom with food being left outside my door. My sons, aged 10 and 12, would speak to me through the door. I don’t remember much about those two weeks as it seems like a hazy dream. I suffered occasionally from shortness of breath. At the end of the two weeks, it was like a celebration when I finally left the room. I felt well and at the end of the third week I was headed back to work. I am usually very fit and I decided to go for a walk in the park before going to work. But I ended up in the A&E department because I could not breathe and became quite distressed.
“I spent five to six hours in A&E before being sent home. They checked bloods and an X-ray and told me it might just be anxiety. Although the doctors were good, I felt dismissed.
“I began to experience a lot of recurring pain in my back, neck, hip and wrist. The pain felt like it was inside my bones. I was overcome frequently by a profound fatigue. I would have to sit down for hours and wait for it to pass.
“My concentration went. I was finding it very difficult to find the right words when speaking. There were weeks when I did not drive. I would be driving along and then realise I had completely forgotten where I was going so I would turn around and go home.
“I continued to have memory lapses and would completely lose my train of thought. It is like a brain fog. My whole body got chills and feelings of numbness. I find myself gasping for air regularly.
“In a typical week, I would have five bad days and two good days. My last relapse lasted 10 days. I’ve just had four really good days but I fear a relapse is just around the corner.
“My sons have been very good and some of their summer days are taken up with doing chores that their mother normally does. I drove my son to the playground and he asked me if I was too weak to push a swing.
“I am an assertive person and I feel I have to fight every day for people to listen to what is happening to me. At times, I feel I am not being believed. My husband is very supportive.
“I am glad I am now being seen by a team in St Vincent’s Hospital and they make time to listen.
“I have not been able to return to work yet. I’m grateful I have support in work. I sometimes wonder will I ever get back to my own baseline of a fit and active life which I wish for. It causes me a lot of worry and distress. I am doing all I can to heal myself.
“I am very grateful to Claire Twomey for setting up Covid Cases Support Group Ireland. It has been a big help.
“Unfortunately, Covid was first portrayed as an elderly person’s illness and some people still think if they get it, they will be OK in a while. Thinking like that can be a big mistake.”