My daughter's a palliative care nurse for nhs. She's currently in hospital recovering after contracting Covid 19. She's well enough now to do a diary.
She's asked me to post this to give an insight into what it feels like.
I've not posted the pictures.
My Covid Journey
For those of you that have followed me for a while, you know I’m not shy of a selfie or two. The last thing I ever expected was taking selfies from a high dependency CPAP Ward but I wanted to show how real this is.
So many people are still not taking this seriously. Please. Take it from me. It is serious. Pardon the pun but DEADLY serious. The first pic was 18th April, I was absolutely fine.
Have a read of this and then tell me you don’t believe the severity of it.
I’ve been working front line with covid positive patients for a number of weeks now.
Sunday 19th April, I’d done an extra shift at the weekend. I got changed in the office and did a bit of a cough, my line manager looked at me a little funny as you do these days 🤣, but I insisted I was fine, and I felt fine, with all intents and purposes of being in work on Tuesday as normal. I walked from the top floor of the hospital to my car, and when I got to the car I thought I felt a little more out of breath than normal. Driving home, I suddenly went really weak, felt red hot, just didn’t feel right at all. I took myself to bed for the rest of the day and night.
I was literally sweating and freezing my way through the night spiking temps etc and felt really short of breath. In the morning I organised to be tested at work and dragged myself there, Ryan had to take me as I physically couldn’t drive, this all happened in less than 24 hours. We got back home at 11:15 ish and I crawled back upstairs to bed. I did the 111 symptoms checker, spoke to my line manager and consultant again and explained it said to ring an ambulance, they advised I really should.
Me being me; was I really that bad? I gave it half an hour or so and I genuinely felt couldn’t breathe, actually gasping. I knew I had to get onto my front if I could , I managed my side and Ryan rang an ambulance. The paramedics arrived quickly and my oxygen levels weren’t amazing, my temperature was 38.7 and my heart rate was through the roof (likely related to the temperature). They scurried me into the back of the ambulance and whizzed me straight up to BRI. I didn’t see my children before I left because I didn’t want them seeing me like that.
Once there they got me on some oxygen etc and tried to regulate my breathing but struggled. I knew my body was working quite hard and I was already exhausted. They moved me to the high dependency unit of the A and E for cardiac monitoring , and I went for a chest X-ray. I had all the signs of Covid19 plus they thought I had little clots too on the lungs, no wonder I felt so rubbish right?
I was in A and E for hours , and they were brilliant, although my temperature wouldn’t come down at all. then eventually moved to a normal ward. Wow. I just started getting worse over the course of the night, just felt absolutely dreadful. I’d lost all taste and appetite, felt so dry because of the oxygen I was on, and I didn’t know if I could even move. I couldn’t talk in more than one word answers so developed a bit if our own sign language with the night nurses.
I eventually fell asleep but not for long, was dripping with sweat and I woke up with a start and panicked , really panicked. I’d slid right down the bed flat on my back and I couldn’t get up, luckily this little cute lady in the bed opposite saw me and shouted the nurses, it took me ages to come round again.
Tuesday 21st April:
They sent me for a CTPA. I could barely lie down for it but I knew I had to have it so I did, it took me half an hour to get from the bed onto the CT scanner (literally next to each other) and then be ready to lie flat.
I was on Morphine too for this awful chest pain and to try regulate my breathing.
Once back on the ward, I was only there a few minutes when the intensive care consultant came to see me. I’m not gonna lie, I panicked then, but he had come to see if I was interested in taking part in a clinical trial for medications that may help Covid19 patients. I said absolutely yes; even if it didn’t help me, it may help someone else and I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.
Airedale then rung to say I was Covid positive, which I 99% knew anyway.
Ever since being with the paramedics my temperatures had fluctuated from 38.2 right up into the high 39’s.
Later on that evening I was seen by the medical team who were quite concerned and wanted to put me on a CPAP machine to help my breathing , and they wanted to do it NOW.
That’s when I started to panic, and get really upset. I hadn’t seen my kids or Ryan, my family, my friends and what if I got worse, and it didn’t work?!
I got to the HDU CPAP Ward and they fitted me with the mask - WOW: imagine someone pressing right down over your nose and mouth and putting your head out of an aeroplane window; it was AWFUL. I didn’t think I could tolerate it and I panicked big time telling the nurses to take it off. I knew one of them; we worked together at Airedale previously and I said to her “Don’t let me die”, she and the rest of the team were fantastic; they really reassured me. I was up and down with this mask through the night. When I fell asleep and woke up, you forget for a second you’ve got it on and then have that claustrophobic feelings...awful.
Even the slightest thing like getting out of bed to the commode, yes I was using a commode because I couldn’t make it to the bathroom took two nurses and a LOT of effort and I was exhausted.
I developed a horrible crushing pain in my chest too, they did an ECG which was fine and the doctor said to me that if I got any worse they would offer me Intensive Care treatment as I was a candidate, believe me I realise how lucky I was because so many people aren’t.
I had too much to fight for though, there was no way this was taking me so I found my own way of managing with the CPAP and tolerating it more overnight.
Wednesday 22nd April:
Id had a rubbish night, several attempts at cannulas and with my breathing and temperature. It got to the morning and I knew the best thing for me was to get out of bed although it was the last thing i wanted to do. The physios helped me stand etc and I managed to sit in a chair all day. The doctors has said I could try and wean off the CPAP so I was on and off it for several hours at a time. They had changed my IV antibiotics to oral and also started me on steroids. I found that later on into the evening I was able to speak more in sentances. I managed a small meal of a sandwich and yoghurt; the first thing in 3 days and I felt less fuzzy in my head too.
I’ll keep updating my journey but for now that’s where we are at.
Please don’t bombard me with messages as I’m not up to answering them but please, feel free to share this and make people realise that if it can happen so quickly and severely to someone in their 30’s with no underlying health issues, then it’s no wonder it has claimed the lives of so many.
I’ll update again soon, going back on the CPAP now.
Stay safe and please, stay home xx
Topic: Covid 19 (Read 2009 times)