Days were ‘a blur’ for Plaid AM as she dealt with the pain of coronavirus symptoms

AN Assembly Member has relived her “painful” few days of illness after contracting suspected covid-19.

Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood, the former leader of the party, said she suffered with a blinding headache, was unable to lift her head off the pillow and could barely talk.

She said Friday, April 10, and Saturday, April 11 were “a blur” as she battled to overcome her debilitating symptoms.

The Rhondda AM said her partner Ian was the first in their household to become ill on Tuesday, April 7 with aching muscles and exhaustion.

The family made the decision to isolate him at home away from Ms Wood and their 15-year-old daughter.

Writing on Facebook, she said: “I set up a bedroom downstairs on the settee, disinfected the entire house, obsessively cleaning light switches and door and drawer handles - things I don’t think I have ever cleaned before.

“I took Ian meals to the bedroom door and immediately disinfected trays and any items that couldn’t be put straight into the dishwasher.

“By the Thursday, he could hardly move. His temperature was going up and down - though we don’t have a thermometer so no idea what it was.

“He was shivering one minute and boiling up the next.

“He didn’t lose his appetite though and didn’t have a cough.”

Ms Wood said that by Thursday afternoon she started to develop a headache herself.

“By the time we were out on the front door clapping the key workers at 8pm, I felt dreadful,” she recalled.

“The next two days are a blur. “The headache got worse. Much worse. And was accompanied by a feeling of nausea and diarrhoea. For most of Friday I couldn’t lift my head up from the pillow and opening my eyes was very painful.

“I did manage to answer a few messages that came in and around lunchtime I posted some basic posts to my Facebook page but I only have a very vague memory of doing that.

“My sister brought us food in the evening but I could hardly speak to her when she dropped it off.”

When Saturday came around, Ms Wood said the blinding headache still persisted but she had no temperature or cough or throat symptoms.

She added: “By the Sunday, the headache had eased. Both my partner and myself were left with no symptoms, but absolute exhaustion.

“The tiniest of tasks necessitated a big rest and we both wanted to sleep all the time. Our daughter has had no symptoms at all.”

Ms Wood said she may never know if she had coronavirus as testing remains confined to frontline NHS workers and those in hospital.

“It looks like it’ll be some time before tests are available to be able to know, which is a shame because if we have had it and are now immune, we could potentially be useful,” she said.

She added that her 14-day quarantine period will now finish tomorrow.

“It’s been a scary time, and I’m sure there are plenty of others who have gone through similar and I know much worse in recent weeks.”

She has now called for statistics to be released on the number of people in Wales who have recovered from the virus.

“That’s down to a lack of adequate testing and tracking of cases,” she claimed.

“It’s likely that many people are getting mild symptoms and making a full recovery.

“Wouldn’t it be uplifting for us all to know how many people are recovering?”

More than 5,000 people in Wales have now tested positive for coronavirus after Public Health Wales confirmed a further 367 cases on Easter Sunday.