Hi I'm Christina. 41. I was an NHS worker on a medical ward when I caught covid off the ward in Feb 2022. What started as flu like symptoms left me heavily fatigued and weak. As the months progressed my fatigue got worse and I had developed neurological symptoms. Memory issues, word finding issues, brain fog. The fatigue was getting worse and after numerous calls to the gp who dismissed me saying nothing they could do. I ended up in hospital with delerium having several mini strokes and a huge stroke minic. I was finally diagnosed by a neurologist in hospital with post viral illness, long covid, mini strokes and every single type of migraine. I lost my speech and almost all of my left side. My brain turned itself off in hospital and rebooted leaving me with a few minutes attention spam, unable to write correctly and tell the…
The Long Covid Collective
Hello everyone my name is Kimberley. living in London but originally from Cumbria.
i first contracted covid in January 2021 as I was working in cardiology at the time and training at the gym five times a week as mixed martial arts to cage fight. unfortunately, I contracted covid a few days before I was due to receive the vaccination.
At first I thought it was a mild case. How wrong I was. After a few weeks my symptoms seemed to be getting worse. I experienced chest pains, breathlessness (walking up the stairs was a struggle, consistent headaches, muscle pain. I have also found since getting long covid I almost constantly get infections from uti’s to pleurisy.
i was signed off work and referred to long covid clinic and covid rehab for NHS workers but of which offered advise but acknowledged that there was little help the could offer. I…
Hello Kimberley!
Thank you so much for posting this. It is so lovely to hear from you.
Firstly that is so cool that you trained in mixed martial arts for cage fighting, what a fantastic sport to be involved in!
I am so sorry to hear that you have been struggling with long covid symptoms for so long. Your story seems very similar to mine in the fact that you thought it was a mild case and then your symptoms started to get worse. I found that new, weird symptoms started to appear after a few weeks and more just kept coming as time went on, which was quite scary! All those symptoms are very similar to mine too, the headaches, breathlessness, chest pain and muscle pain are all awful in their own right, let alone all together, so it is far from ideal. That is very interesting that you are prone to infections now, I have found this too. I guess the body is just at a low point and so things we would have usually been able to fight off, get to us. Which is really not what we need after everything else going on.
Sorry to hear that the long covid clinic couldn’t offer you much help. I found that when I went to mine I knew more about it all through researching online and from this community- I came away from it feeling quite defeated.
I am so pleased to hear that you are starting to feel a little better, even if it is very slow. I am finding this too. I am grateful for even the smallest of improvements (even if they may not last long!), long covid really forces you to be grateful for the smallest of things!
That is lovely to hear that you have a supportive family. All this really makes you very grateful for your loved ones. Ahh, what is your dogs name? And what breed? ☺️I thought I had the best dog in the world, but I guess our dogs can share that title together? 🤣
Sending so much love Kimberley, thank you again for sharing your story. I really hope you start to get some relief from it all soon. We will get through this…eventually! ❤️
Hello Christina,
Firstly I am very sorry for the delay in reply! Thank you so much for your post - it is so lovely to hear from you. I am so sorry to hear that you got covid last year and that it was from the brilliant job that you do with the NHS. It is a very common theme that NHS workers push themselves beyond what they should be doing for their patients, so thank you for all you did back then, but I am so sorry you have been experiencing all of these awful awful symptoms. It must have been extremely scary to have ended up in the hospital and to have had lost your speech and movement on your left side. That is truly heartbreaking to read. I am pleased that you were able to get a diagnosis and that you are hopefully getting a diagnosis for ME/CFS…although I hope you get all the support you need with this as I know people have experienced different things with this. I am so sorry to hear that you got Covid again this April, you really did not deserve that! I hope you’re recovery this time is faster and you get back to your life of boxing, swimming, weight training, cycling and walking very soon. I really hope you are doing okay working part time and its good to hear that you are resting when you need to, although its really not easy to do so (especially since you were so active and busy before covid!). You should be so proud of your journey with this, although its been absolutely awful, you have done so well to get through some real tough times. I really can’t thank you enough for sharing your story, it is very kind of you to do so. Sending you lots of love ❤️