‘MY DOCTOR THOUGHT IT COULD BE CANCER’
Nic Mitchell, 54, lives in Cheltenham with her two Cavalier King Charles spaniels.
I spent Christmas 2019 on the beautiful island of St Lucia. But what started as an idyllic holiday all changed when I fell ill and was left lying in my darkened room, crawling to the bathroom, unable to walk.
I couldn’t taste or smell, it was difficult to breathe, and a fever ravaged my body. Staff at the hotel believed I had swine flu, so I had to quarantine myself away from the other guests, with staff leaving me fruit and water by my door.
Landing back in the UK on 2 January, I phoned my GP, who told me not to come in for 10 days as I was clearly contagious. By 15 January, I was begging for an appointment. My joints were painful and swollen, and a rash had spread across my skin. Fatigue left me feeling as though I’d been hit by a truck.
Still fighting
Blood tests came back abnormal and showed signs of infection, and I was diagnosed with post-viral myalgia – pain and fatigue caused by the body fighting off infection.
But by February 2020, I was still suffering. My brain felt like it couldn’t work properly, my memory struggled and tiredness still plagued me. After more tests, my GP suggested I possibly had multiple myeloma – an often incurable bone-marrow cancer – and referred me for more tests, but agreed it was most likely swine flu.
But watching the news weeks later, I started seeing reports of COVID-19. As each symptom
was described, I ticked them off. And rapidly realised that it wasn’t swine flu, after all. I was stunned, no one in the UK had even caught it, so I reasoned nobody would believe me.
And as March came around, watching the daily press conferences discussing emergency action and death tolls each day terrified me.
But later that year, an Oxford University trial was offering tests to those who believed they’d caught COVID-19, to check the antibodies in their blood. And still struggling with symptoms, I signed up straight away. The test showed my white blood cells had increased in number, trying to fight an infection, and the red blood cells had grown so large that it had changed the viscosity of my blood – which explained some of my abnormal tests.
As the weeks went on, I was still suffering from debilitating symptoms. Seizures, swollen joints, numbness, brain fog, no taste or smell, and fatigue so bad I couldn’t lift my arms above my head.
Trapped at home
For 18 months, I stayed in my house, sleeping on my sofa as I couldn’t make it to my bedroom, and crawling to the kitchen to feed my dogs.
Isolated and depressed, I became a recluse – unable to work and dependent on NHS volunteers to pick up food and
medication for me, and on my neighbours’ daughter to take the dogs out each day.
By July 2021, I was able to walk the dogs slowly to a park nearby for the first time. I cried the whole way – it felt incredible to be finally returning to some semblance of normality.
Now, two years on, I’m still sleeping on my sofa. My brain fog and memory problems continue, rheumatoid arthritis makes it difficult for me to move around, and my eyesight is worsening. I still suffer from small seizures and need to rest most of the time.
With no support from GPS, I joined an online long COVID support group. I used to be able to bound up and down the Cotswold hills with my dogs, but now some days I struggle to get to the kitchen to make a coffee. My life has been turned upside down by long COVID, and I still can’t see an end.