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I have found out several things in the last few weeks - to always double check a home Covid test, that Track and Trace is an absolute pain, and most importantly, even if you are double jabbed don’t think you won’t get ill with coronavirus.
It all started with a message from my son’s school. Someone in his class had tested positive for Covid and his ‘bubble’ had burst. He and all his year group had to stay at home for 10 days.
We discovered through the Facebook grapevine who the child was and it wasn’t one of my son’s close friends, so at this point we weren’t too worried. My husband and I had both had our second vaccine in May, so even if we got it we’d be ok, or so I thought. I was more worried about what my son would be missing out on at school.
We, like many other families in his year group, did home tests after hearing the news. We were all negative.
But a few days later I started to feel unwell. At first it was just a sore throat. I often suffer this when I’m tired or rundown, thanks to recurring tonsillitis as a child, so at first I didn’t connect it with Covid. But as I began to feel worse I did a home test just to be sure - again it was negative.
The following evening when I felt no better I did another swab test, this time my son volunteered to do one too. They appeared negative and off he went to bed. But it was only much later when I happened to glance at the tests again, I noticed very faint lines in the ‘positive’ sections of our tests.
For those that haven’t experienced a home test, or to use their proper name a Lateral Flow Test, they are similar to a pregnancy test. You swab your throat and nose and the results appear in 30 minutes - one line for negative, two for positive. You could barely see our second lines, but after taking a closer look, they were definitely there. Thank goodness I had forgotten to throw them away.
That night I had one of the worst night’s sleep I have ever had - in fact I barely slept. I veered from shivering cold to burning hot, I had stomach cramps and pains in the muscles in my legs and arms, my head and throat hurt, and I felt like something heavy was resting on my chest, leaving me struggling to take deep breaths.
The next day we had to drive 25 minutes to a test centre to all have full PCR lab tests. We had to wait for the results, but they confirmed my son and I both had Covid.
By this time I had gone through stages of feeling better and thinking 'oh well that’s because I’ve had my vaccine' but then feeling much worse. The pain in my chest developed into a cough that mostly troubled me at night. I felt exhausted and spent a lot of time in bed. Even after a week, I couldn't get through the day without taking myself off for an afternoon nap.
Luckily my son had no symptoms at all. Unfortunately that meant he was still full of energy. Unable to leave the house, he was bouncing off the walls along with his little sister who couldn’t go to nursery, when all I wanted to do was lie down.
Both my daughter and husband tested negative and never developed any symptoms so we were very lucky in that respect. I carefully tried to avoid my three-year-old as much as possible - I didn’t hug her or put her to bed. It was only for a few days but it was hard.
In the middle of all of this I was being bombarded with calls, texts and emails from NHS Track and Trace. You may think bombarded is a strong word but in one day I had two texts reminding me to isolate, as well as an email and several notifications on the app. It’s not like I could forget I had Covid.
The day after our PCR results came back, when I probably felt my worst, I had a call from Track and Trace at 8am. The nice man on the phone said it would take half an hour to answer his questions so I agreed, despite feeling terrible. It actually took two hours and several phone calls because of a problem with registering my son’s home test.
For those old enough to remember the Little Britain sketch, it was very much ‘the computer says no’ attitude. We hadn’t registered my son’s home test straight away, instead we registered mine and then just got on with booking us all in for a PCR, so then it couldn’t be registered at all because more than 24 hours had passed. But we assumed you would be able to register it later - after all they seem to ask every other detail of our lives.
I know they are only doing their job, and trying to stop the spread but to be asked if my son’s classmate, who I don’t know, had been abroad felt a bit ridiculous. They also seem to use a standard script as they asked if my son had had the vaccine and I was later advised he would need to tell his employer about having to isolate - he is six.
As the so-called ‘freedom day’ rolled around, we were all still stuck at home and I was still feeling quite poorly. I had no intention of ditching my mask on July 19, but my experience has only reinforced my feelings about still wearing a face covering in crowded indoor places.
I know I am one of the lucky ones and did not end up seriously ill. I feel incredibly thankful I received those doses of the vaccine in March and May. Some people might say “but you were double jabbed and still got Covid, what’s the point in having the vaccine" but I think how much worse my symptoms could have been if I hadn’t had those jabs. I’m yet to celebrate my 40th birthday, I consider myself relatively fit (I run almost every day) and I have no underlying health conditions - but I felt terrible for several days and I’m still suffering with the after-effects.
People still need to be cautious and must not get complacent, even if they are double jabbed like me. Those early symptoms of the Delta variant could easily be mistaken for a common cold and you could be spreading the disease, especially now masks are not compulsory. If in doubt, get yourself tested.
