Three days after landing at Heathrow, following a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Canada, I am still struggling with the effects of two conditions. Firstly, I am still absurdly jet lagged. I sleep when I shouldn’t be sleeping and I don’t sleep when I should be. That would be more manageable if I wasn’t having to put up with the after effects of another bout of Covid-19. Having one of the two would be bad enough but staggering around with both is a real pain.
I have read that the omicron variant of Covid is not as severe with the previous version I caught in early 2022 and that’s probably fair. I was fully vaxxed when I caught Covid for the first time and while I was still testing positive after 15 days, beyond a cough and tiredness, there was not that much to concern me. I appeared to recover well, although I have had various minor issues since, with worsening asthma and unexpected bouts of tiredness. I cannot know whether they were or are Covid related, but it does seem to be more than a coincidence. This time, I feel pretty wiped-out.
Apart from the exhaustion – jet lag? Covid? Both? – I still have a terrible hacking cough, which without going into too much detail, is more productive than it was, making me sound like a vintage car being started with one of those handles. Sometimes, I cough so much, I wonder if a lung might suddenly appear or that I will pass out. It’s very disconcerting and for an asthmatic person, quite scary at times.
I feel I am, very slowly, getting better but it has been a useful reminder of just how bad Covid was and remains. I was talking with an old friend last week, someone who is a few years younger and far fitter than me, yet he said when he had Covid, he had to stay in bed for the best part of a week and was within a splutter of having to call an ambulance as his breathing become a real struggle. That was just last year and today this former daily runner finds it an effort to run at all. Again, there might be a million other reasons why this is – and it may not be the after effects of Covid at all – but it does make you wonder. We hear a lot, but know only a little, about so-called long Covid. One day, science may tell us that Covid is not just temporary.
I have some simple advice for folk about Covid and that is try not to catch it. And if you do catch it, then make sure you have your jab when it’s offered to you. Because of Covid and the annual flu bug which will soon be doing the rounds, we all need the best protection we can get. Not being able to breathe properly is not a lot of fun. I can’t wait to be well again.
