Experiencing COVID-19!

So here we are, a few weeks away from the longest day here in the UK. Normally we would all probably have been away for the Easter break, back and enjoying the UK weather throughout April and May.

But alas, some of this is true but some of it has been impacted by the pandemic that the world is slowly adjusting to or should I say manoeuvring around, and creating a future that may look slightly different to what we have be used to for many years.

With every challenge in life – one looks for the positives, but this time there has been fatalities across the world. Friends, family members and neighbours have all been affected in one way of another – making this a time we will always remember.

Ok, so some of the positives have been around spending more time with the family – which in most cases has meant that we eat together at most meals, the children are learning new cooking and cleaning skills (saying this quietly in case they can hear me!) and long walks with the dog in the woods. Personally, trying to break the bulge of the continuous grazing I have found myself doing – to the point that if I open the fridge door one more time and shut it without taking anything from it – I’m going to declare myself a teenager!

So there are some positives, including the hours we have gained from not sitting on a train (if you are lucky to get a seat), on a plane for hours or being parked on the M25 on a Friday afternoon admiring the long line of number plates in front of you wondering “where is everyone going?!”.

But I write this blog to give a view of life that hit me some 8 weeks ago when 80+ party goers enjoyed what I can only say was a fantastic 50th birthday for the wonderful Tracy C. Partied all Saturday night along with all the rest of our friends 3 days before the lockdown was announced by Mr J, and boy did we party.

Come the following Tuesday my wife and I had noticed that neither of us could actually smell or taste any food. We kind of just shrugged this off and went about our merry ways although my wife did feel unwell for a few days with seemingly mild symptoms of the virus – or were they?? Hard to be certain at this point – so we checked the NHS website for symptoms – was the cough persistent enough or the raised temperature raised enough?? Meanwhile, I continued to become more tired and achy, but no cough and I don’t remember having a high temperature.

Roll on the following week and my wife was feeling mostly better. We checked up on a few more of the party goers and most of them stated they had felt tired or head cold etc – but were ok. Apart from 3 of us…….

All of us had bad headaches, constant feeling of sickness, and if I got up for anything – had stars in my eyes, and having to sit down quickly. A couple of us had difficulty in sleeping and other actions which I won’t go into – but thank goodness the local Tesco had an Andrex delivery that week.

The following week – I realised I hadn’t been sleeping very well and started sleeping in the day, this evolved to having cold sweats in the night and the most banging headache – no scrap that – it was more like someone was trying to cut through the top of my head with a blunt chainsaw.

So, on went the ice packs, cold sweats continued, aching across my whole body and severe pain across the back where my kidneys are. I was trying to grab sleep as quick as I could take the pain killers, and nothing seemed to be improving.

That's when I realised, I had been hallucinating and wondering if I was in Groundhog Day 3 – “The Covid Days!”. I started to realise things were no longer in my control – and for the first time ever – I started to worry about being able to keep on top of this.

My wife checked the NHS website again but as I didn’t have a cough, sore throat – just a very high temperature – we still weren’t sure what was going on.

Then it was Thursday – don’t ask which one as I can’t remember – but it was a Thursday. I woke up feeling a little better and joined the family for food.

Feeling nauseous, I went back to bed and don’t remember much other than waking up on the bathroom floor at 4am with cold sweats, awful head pains and my wife holding my head in her hands. My son was there too, and I remember seeing the blood drain from his face in front of something no 17 year old would ever wish to see – Dad lying on the bathroom floor in his boxers.

I honestly don’t remember how I got there, other than I had been downstairs wanting a drink of water and then felt really sick.

My wife and son got me back to bed – fed me pain killers and slapped a couple of ice packs on my head and neck. Oh, at this point I should pause to state that we didn’t have a proper thermometer except the ones you hold on a child forehead when they are about 2 years old!

I woke up on the Friday – and drank as much fluid as I could. I woke again and realised that I actually felt worse, and this time, really scared. I told my wife and she phoned 111. The responder wasn’t happy with my symptoms and said she would see if a paramedic was needed but wanted to talk to me first.

I spoke to 111, explained the situation. A little while later a further call back from 111, to explain again the 4am blackout, and then proceed to fall back to sleep. A while later I wake up to two paramedics at the bottom of my bed and with immediate thoughts being 1) what the &*%!  And 2) did I have clean underwear on!

They check me over, inform me I have a very high temperature, and that, yes, they feel I have in fact contracted Covid-19 and that other people they have seen are having similar symptoms to the ones I have had from Day 1. Nothing confirmed of course as they weren’t testing – just treating the symptoms.

They suggest I re-hydrate regularly, subscribed stronger pain killers and informed my wife that if anything changes – she should call for an ambulance immediately. My wife was amazing – the next week she woke me up every 4 hours with pain killers, ice packs and orange segments to keep me going and get me back on my feet.

I have only now made a full recovery – and feeling back to what I can only describe as normal – except I am eating more chocolate and biscuits than Cadburys can make!

There are three things I have taken from my experience that will live with me forever.

One - always try and stay as positive as you can. Without my wife being there that night – I am not sure if I had made it through the weekend, so no matter what – staying positive means you can wake up each day and be happy you are still here and can see your family and friends one more time. Embrace life!

Two - what an amazing team the NHS are – it is without doubt one of the most amazing things we have in the UK, and when all this is said and done and we are back to the normal ways… we should hang any politician that doesn’t agree to these people having better pay, benefits, or be recognised more. I just hope in the years to come we don’t forget the sacrifices they have made – just doing their day job.  

Three - I hope that all this enforced lockdown and change makes it that much more precious to be close to family and friends and for the world to give more time to these parts of our life – instead of spending all our time chasing the next unnecessary or materialistic dream.

Final points; at least 4 people from the party have had the anti-body test and have been confirmed positive, and 2 days ago the NHS website was updated to include in the top 3 symptoms – lack of taste and smell.

It was such a great party that even the BBC wrote about it… check it out here; “A massive party”… https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-52622673

Stay safe and stay close (within social distancing rules).