I’m not in the least bit sad to see the back of October. The first of November is the day we were finally allowed back out after 3 weeks of quarantining. See your level 5, well, I’ll raise you 1 person and then 2 people and then a couple of children, all infected with Covid and not allowed outside the front door for days on end - until now.

I never expected it to visit our house - it seemed like something other people might get. But no, Covid-19 was not listening to my inner thoughts and came a knocking on our door in early October (shortly after a torn off thumb necessitated plastic surgery and an over night stay in hospital - I told you October was not fun for us!).

My husband was the first to succumb to the most talked about virus of the 21st century. We still don’t know where he picked it up. A weekend in bed when we thought it was a chest infection followed by a test on the Tuesday led to a heart-sinking moment with his positive test result the next day. I had already started to feel a bit ropey and got sent for testing the next day ensuing in my positive test result on Friday morning. We started to isolate from the minute we knew he had to go for testing - from 12th October.

Two out of our three children tested positive the following week. The third child never fell victim to the virus so we’re shipping him off for research shortly (kidding!).

I’m writing this to explain a little bit about our experience of the virus. About how I felt and still feel. It’s not about the HSE and contact tracing and all that side of things. I simply want to explain my symptoms. I know we were lucky and may not have got it very badly, despite my husband being asmathic. 

So here’s how I felt :

• first couple of days I felt like someone had kicked me in the back, just below my ribcage

• very low energy which has still not fully returned

• loss of taste completely - this has slowly returned after about 10 days

• breathlessness - I would be out of breath after walking up the stairs

• light headed - this was very frequent and I often had to sit down when this happened. It went after about 10 days

• loss of appetite (not a bad thing …!)

• trouble sleeping

• constipation

• a cough that wasn’t nearly as bad as one I had with a previous chest infection

The children displayed no symptoms at all really (unless crankiness and boredom count!). They were frustrated with having to stay home and not being able to see any of their friends, especially when they knew life was going on as normal for said friends. There is no treatment as such. We took some painkillers as needed and started taking Vit. D on the recommendation of a nutritional therapist.

Friends and family were incredibly supportive and we’ve never had as much food in the house as we had over the last couple of weeks. Dinners and soup and treats and more …. And a friend took over the running of my online shop to ensure my orders were safe.  

I am almost back to normal now - the light headedness and breathlessness is gone. The cough and any pain I had have dissipated. The one thing I’ve been left with is a crushing tiredness - the thought of going for a run or even a power walk is laughable at present. I’m hoping my energy levels will return sooner rather than later. 

So luckily for us, our brush with Covid was mild and we recovered quickly for the most part. It’s the fact that it’s so contagious that makes it so challenging. And I don’t mean in any way to undermine the suffering and pain that other people have experienced as a result of the pandemic. But boy, am I glad October is done …