"This is long covid. No one knows if or when I will get better."

Humans of Scotland is a campaign to highlight the voices of disabled people, people living with long term conditions, unpaid carers and those working in care.

Created by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, it aims to raise awareness and spark debate, sharing stories on subjects like hidden disabilities, mental health, addiction recovery and adverse childhood experiences.

This is Leanne’s story:

“Just over one year ago I started to feel poorly and discovered my temperature had shot up. We sent the kids away, my husband and I moved into different rooms and tried not to panic. On the advice of NHS24 I was assessed at the covid-19 assessment hub.

“The conclusion was my chest didn’t sound great, but it wasn’t bad enough to go to hospital, phew! I still remember waking up struggling to breathe and worrying I might not wake up in the morning. Anyway, I expected it to pass.

“One year on, and not yet recovered, I have had a mountain of tests with no answers. I am now waiting for them to check my heart. I have respiratory physios coming to my house, an OT, a respiratory consultant, an amazing GP and a mountain of pills and gadgets to help me through the day.

“Fatigue, headaches, brain fog, sore joints and muscles, high heart rate, breathlessness, new allergies and stomach problems are only a handful of the weird symptoms which come and go. And I have had a temperature every single day for a whole year!

“This is long covid. No one knows if or when I will get better. I battle to work from home, do the shopping and all the other things we do in normal life. I might even, when we’re allowed again and I feel up to it, meet friends or go for lunch.

“It’s good for mental health and if I end up back under the blanket on the sofa then hopefully it will have been worth it.

“I don’t speak about this normally because of a strange feeling of embarrassment that I couldn’t just shake this off, but also, I wasn’t in hospital on a ventilator.

“However, this is not binary. There are thousands of us stuck here somewhere in between. I have now joined a long covid PPI group, have trialled a long covid app for a University research project and I have trialled a book about brain fog.

“Anything to help the thousands of others following me down this path.”

This article was originally published by the Alliance.

 

Read more: ME expertise helping long covid patients;  Ian’s story: Supporting people during covid-19; Emma’s story – being a physiotherapist during covid; May’s story – life during covid-19

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