The timeline of my illness doesn't fit the narrative
I didn’t get so much as a sniffle working through the lockdowns. One of the reasons I stopped watching TV during the first wave was the inference by the Telly Wankers that a lot of us working through it with no access to hazmat suits, oxygen masks and hand gel would be dead by June. It can tempt you into phoning in sick.
(I was hospitalised for 3 days during the 2nd lockdown but I’ll save that weirdness for another day.)
I had The Worst Cold Any Human Being As Ever Had, Ever in December 2019, which wiped me out until mid-January 2020. At the time some of my symptoms were quite unusual for a nasty Winter flu, but I wasn’t the only one suffering, even though, of course, no one was suffering as quite as much as me.
I volunteered to go binning and support driving with the Refuse crews. It was quite a laugh, except for the odd time someone had a wobble and lost the plot, mainly due to news media overload.
As Spring rolled into Summer they had us all go to a testing site at a large out of town business park every Thursday. I was negative each time and didn’t get so much as a cough or runny nose. Walking 16 miles a day on the days I wasn’t driving and shunting wheelie bins and big metal 600 and 1100 litre jobbers about meant I was in rude health and pretty lean.
I was double-jabbed by autumn 2021 with the Astra-Zeneca version. By that time I was back doing my remote-working front-line job dealing with Waste Management issues across the city, and going out with bin crews dealing with ongoing problem areas and households.
In the middle of that October I cycled to work with an annoying cough. Mary in the office got me a testing kit which showed positive. I had to book to go to a testing site and the results came back positive later that day.
We were days away from moving house and my symptoms got progressively worse. Fortunately all the boxes were stacked and ready to go and I’d transplanted all my plants and moved the garden stuff to the new place the weekend before.
I was quite ill for about 13 days. I don’t remember much, but somehow when I came to I was in bed in the new house. Rach, together with friends, family and the removal chaps had sorted everything out. I was told she’d put me in our car whilst they moved our things and then carried me to bed when it was all done.
Rachel tested positive a few days after we moved in and became ill too. She got better but had persistent breathing issues like me through November. I didn’t get better and kept being regularly sent to A&E with breathing problems. I don’t remember Christmas 2021 or much of anything a lot of the time these days.
I had a lot of time off work during 2022, often I was driven to A&E by work colleagues with breathing difficulties, chronic fatigue and ‘brain fog’ or taken home where I spent days in bed. None of our GPs would see me or prescribe me with a salbutamol inhaler as recommended by our Occupational Health medical staff at work or the clinicians in A&E. They just filled out the sick/fit notes as and when required.
I was struggling with the simplest of daily admin, responding to emails and talking to people. I was getting lost when driving around the city. Some days I wasn’t safe to drive so I was sent home. If a cold went round and I picked it up, I was completely floored. One of our GPs put me onto the waiting list for ‘Long Symptomatic Covid’.
The breathing issues lessened during summer 2022, but I was still struggling with bouts of fatigue and cognitive impairment. I couldn’t do my job effectively anymore and I was offered redeployment back onto Grounds Maintenance, which I gratefully accepted.
I was doing okay, the work was helping me manage the fatigue and I was ‘baby sat’ by my pals I’d worked on Grounds with previously. I was still having issues with brain fog so I was put with trusted lads and driven around the sites.
A shitty cold went round last October and I ended up being taken to A&E again from work and put on a vent and a nebulisor. The A&E Doctor put me on prescription for inhalers. I don’t remember much and I was off work for a few weeks.
Since November, I’ve had a few appointments for Long Covid therapy assessment, and a full torso MRI scan and I’m now back in line waiting. Some clinicians don’t want to discuss the timeline of my illness compared with the narrative. Some get a little flustered and recommend I get boosters. I get knowing looks and acknowledgement from some nurses, always out of view and out of ear shot of the Doctors.
I started this substack to help me manage the brain fog elements. I’m not too fussed if anyone reads it or not.
My next goal: start cycling again and reduce my gut and chubby man tiddies.