I tried to google fulminating myocarditis, but couldn’t navigate the screen properly. One afternoon I suddenly developed a tachycardia, tightness in the chest, and felt so unwell I thought I was dying. I imagined their vulnerable relatives dying and never forgiving myself. I was mortified that I might have infected the staff I had worked with for over 20 years. The heaviness and malaise became worse, I had a tightness in the chest, and realised it could be nothing else. It had no smell, I assumed it was old and inactive-but it was just I could not smell the chlorine. In the first days at home I wasn’t sure I had covid-19.
I went home early, and then the journey began. Then one afternoon I started feeling strange: I happened to be on a zoom meeting with David Nabarro who said anyone who felt unwell should isolate instantly, on the spot. I discounted a runny nose, carefully checked my temperature every day, and examined the CDC/WHO comparison table and decided I did not have covid-19. I said to myself that years of running and military fitness would protect me from harm. I watched Boris introduce social distancing and then shake hands on national television I talked with epidemiological colleagues about the established effects of austerity increasing mortality in the poor, and how lockdown would worsen this I advised my 97 year old father to isolate. People who have a more protracted illness need help to understand and cope with the constantly shifting, bizarre symptoms, and their unpredictable course.Įarly March seems so far away.
Health professionals, employers, partners, and people with the disease need to know that this illness can last for weeks, and the long tail is not some “post-viral fatigue syndrome”-it is the disease. The illness ebbs and flows, but never goes away. Although not hospitalised, it has been frightening and long. For almost seven weeks I have been through a roller coaster of ill health, extreme emotions, and utter exhaustion. Paul Garner, professor of infectious diseases at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, discusses his experience of having covid-19
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