‘YOU CAN BARELY CRAWL’
One of the hospital’s clinical staff shares her story about having coronavirus.
Mary was among the 27 staff stood down when a resident tested positive on Sunday March 22.
“When we were told we left work and went home. I went for testing the next day.”
Two days later she was told that she had tested positive.
“I nearly burst into tears on the phone . . . there was a real anxiety attached to having it.”
She realised that she had the same virus as those who were dying daily around the world.
She suffered from fever, body aches, joint pain, pain between the shoulder blades, shortness of breath and chest heaviness; “extreme fatigue, like you can barely crawl to the door”.
As the illness progressed, the symptoms changed.
“All of this causes confusion ‘where am I?’
“Being a nurse I pinched my skin and finding it loose knew that I was dehydrated and needed to drink [water].
“After all of these changes I moved to a state of coughing almost like asthma, with difficulty filling my lungs with air”.
It took a full two weeks for her to return to normal.
For the first week, Mary wasn’t worried about anything thing at all, she was just sick.
A few texts and emails came in from family members and from work and she just forwarded them on “as there was no way I could answer anyone”.
By week two, all her energy went into fighting the virus.
“I tried to go for a walk but found that halfway down the hallway I had to stop; too tired. ‘Why can’t I even get to the toilet?’ I had no up and go.”
Every day she got a phone call from the same health nurse.
Her advice; drink fluids, take paracetamol and rest.
“They sent the ambulance out to check on me the one time and both ladies were dressed up in full PPE.
“I was on my front porch and they were checking me from a distance looking terrified. Blood pressure, temperature, oxygen saturation. They then went away as you only get taken to hospital when you stop breathing.”
“While I was locked up my outside waste drain at the house blocked up and I rang my landlords.
“They said ‘I’ll get a friend to drop off a plunger, because no one wants to come because you are diseased’.
“My neighbour John comes over and said ‘your drain’s blocked’.
“He rang the landlord to follow up with getting a plumber. The next morning a council truck turned up. A phone call comes in and they said ‘stay inside don’t come out, we’re unblocking your drain’.
“It must have been John who sorted this out. My other hero.”
About two weeks ago, Mary started to feel human again. She returned to work on her birthday, Tuesday, April 21.
“I am happy to be back where I belong doing the job I love.
“I really missed these people who we look after.”