A coronavirus survivor's story: 'I touched death.
Elizabeth, 49, knows she is lucky to be alive. After falling seriously ill with Covid-19, she was admitted to hospital earlier this month. This is her story, which she chose to tell partly to thank the hospital staff who treated her.
The first hint I had that something wasn't right was on a Friday.
I felt more tired than normal and by the time I went to bed I was exhausted. That was a particularly tough weekend.
On the Monday, I started getting pains in my legs, which became excruciating. I thought it was a trapped nerve and took some paracetamol but the doctors later told me the virus had gone directly into my muscles. I had a cough but it wasn't persistent, which people think is always the sign. I was bed-bound for over a week but then once I did get out - to the local petrol station to get some provisions - that was when it hit me.
I got back home feeling freezing cold and shivering. At one point I had four hot water bottles on the sofa and two blankets and I just could not get warm.
Then the fever set in.
It felt like my body was on fire, and I was getting splitting headaches. I couldn't eat anything, I was vomiting and absolutely wringing wet with sweat, and then my breathing started to get more difficult.
I'm asthmatic and that really worried me, but I still thought I could ride this out at home. Within a few more days I was slipping in and out of consciousness and I have vague recollections of my 15-year-old son telling me he'd called 111 [the NHS non-emergency helpline] for me. The paramedics arrived and I remember hearing one radio the ambulance driver outside saying: "She's very poorly, we need to bring her in." He put an oxygen mask on me and carried me out to the vehicle.
One of my kids had called my mother, June, and she was there watching. That was one of the hardest things: seeing the look of helplessness on her face. But she couldn't come close because she has a heart condition and is at high risk if she catches the virus.
When we arrived at hospital, we were in a queue of ambulances just waiting to off-load patients at A&E. I was lying there for about three hours until it was our turn. They put me in a wheelchair and I remember them saying they had no cubicles, they were full to capacity.
I sat there with my eyes closed listening to everything - people rushing around, phones ringing, general commotion.
The nurse said: "I have to swab you for Covid-19." He stuck the swab stick so far down the back of my throat that I was retching, and then just as I was recovering, he said: "Now I have to do it up your nostrils." That was followed by a raft of blood tests and a chest X-Ray.
I felt pummelled. All I could think was "What the hell's going on?" I felt like passing out. I remember another nurse coming over and telling me: "Just to let you know, your X-Ray results have come back - you've got pneumonia in the lungs and you'll have to be on oxygen 24/7."
At one point, I felt the most almighty pain in my chest, like I was being compressed with slabs of concrete. They told me it was the pneumonia attacking my lungs and they gave me a shot of morphine. That was followed by terrible stabbing pains in my stomach, as bad as labour contractions, and I cried out: "I can't take this anymore! I can't carry on!" By the time the pains subsided, I was almost delirious.
Comments
Post a Comment