17th March, 9:35am, the cough that rapidly changed throughout the day and then the week to come!

I wanted to share my story, my fears, my hope and my desire to stay positive during this unprecedented situation. 

Tuesday 17th March at 9:15 I hosted a call, updating my team on our company positioning in regard to COVID-19. I was positive we were behaving in the right way and encouraging anyone with a slight cough or fever to self isolate... little did I know, only 45 minutes later would I be one in that position. 

By the end of my second call around 11am, I was coughing like a trooper, it was as the government and NHS had described, a dry cough, one of those ones that’s irritating and you can’t stop even if you tried. 

By 1:30 in the afternoon, I began to feel clammy and took my temperature, at 38 degrees it had just gone over the advertised 37.8, but I tried to continue to work on my laptop. By 4pm I was beaten, I was exhausted, feverish, coughing, aching across my chest, neck and back, and had an excruciating headache. I had to sleep, during the day! 

My in-laws live at the end of our house in the annex, this was the day, as a family, we isolated ourselves from them. We can hear them, we can FaceTime them, but social contact was now not able to happen. My husband and 2 of our 5 children were now locked in quarantine with me. 

The couple of days to follow were much the same, with the cough, aching and fever. 

By Thursday, the fever had gone, but I realised why the elderly and those with medical conditions were at high risk, my chest felt like it was being crushed, I was wheezing and just walking to the bathroom took my breath away.  I continued to work, doing as much as possible, sat at my desk, but couldn’t do anything that used energy. 

For the first time on Saturday, I started to cough up very small amounts of mucus.

On Mother’s Day, I felt much better. I couldn’t run a marathon (although I never could), my chest still felt restricted, and I continued to cough, but I felt grateful, as I managed to do a lot more than I had on the previous days, which included walking around the garden and laughing whilst playing board games. I enjoyed the time with my husband and albeit only 2 of my children and I am relieved none of them have shown any signs of symptoms yet. 

Monday 23rd March, I truly feel I am on the positive side of whatever it is I have had, but I am frustrated, was it COVID-19, was it normal flu, was it something else! For now I don’t know and I just need to wait until there are tests that show who has had it and whether this now makes me immune. 

I want to find out for sure, so I can help others knowing I am not a threat, particularly to my parents. 

It’s amazing, times like these bring people and communities together, albeit at a time that we need to stay apart. Technology enables us to stay in touch and be there for each other, but without touch. That’s one of the hardest things, not being able to kiss or hug the people I love so much. 

Work for me needs to continue and I am one of the lucky ones who can work from home, as can our whole company. I work for MyLife Digital, never before has the company name been so relevant and my team and I are determined to use our skills and resources as much as possible at this time to help services and businesses communicate with their customers, as they need to rely on digital channels to get their messages out. We have all been bombarded with information over the last few weeks, but now is the critical time to allow individuals to receive the right information at the right time, giving them the controls to decide what that is. 

You may have questions and I’m happy to answer as many as possible, but some I can’t. 

Am I survivor of COVID-19? I don’t know as I haven’t be tested.

If I am, how did I get it? I don’t know. (I was in London on public transport the previous week)

Do we really need to isolate? YES, listen to the advice. I am normally healthy, but whatever I had took it’s toll on me, so for others it could kill them. Please please please do as the experts are asking.

I am lucky, we had food in the house, not because we stock piled, but because we are using things we’ve had in the freezer and at the very back of the cupboards. But now is the time I will need to get some extra bits ordered and our earliest delivery is April, so please please please think of others before you go mad! 

Be safe and listen, there will be people who are not as lucky as me, there will be tragic consequences and my heart goes out to all the families who are suffering from COVID-19, but we will get through this if we stick together. 

Thank you Neil, Charlotte and Ben for looking after me. I love you x