I thought I would start a little lockdown diaries series, this is #1. Everyone is more or less in the same situation right now, ish. I am lucky enough to be off work due to me being high risk and having to care for Elara. Elara cannot obviously stay with other family members at this time so I’m home. Mike works in the same place as me and he is currently off due to me being high risk too. Our work place has a few ‘key worker’ roles and Mike may have to return to work on alternating weeks in the future. But at the moment we are all safe and at home.

I am currently on week 5 of staying inside but I’m going to go back in time to the beginning and update you all. On the 12th March I was due to go into work but had been feeling rough the past couple of days. I phoned the doctors and they asked for my temperature and what were my current symptoms. I quickly checked my temp with our in ear thermometer and I was shocked to find it was 39.9. Due to my temperature and cough and it was the beginnings of the covid-19 pandemic, they wouldn’t allow me up to the doctors surgery. I was prescribed antibiotics and steroids for my breathlessness which Mike picked up on his way home from work.

I have a history of pneumonia and have always suffered with asthma so they were concerned due to me being high risk of the corona virus anyway. So I was told to increase my steroid pump, take the oral steroids and the antibiotics for 6 days. My chest and cough worsened over the weekend, I became very breathless and my cough worsened to being continuous. I didn’t want to panic anyone so I waited until the Tuesday when I had finished the medication.

On the Tuesday I phoned the doctors surgery back and the Doctor suspected I had pneumonia again so I was put onto a further weeks worth of stronger steroids and antibiotics. I have previously had a-typical pneumonia which is a rarer form of pneumonia that is actually viral. So as suspected, the further course of antibiotics didn’t work either. My temperature was fluctuating all this time; most of the time I would be fine and then occasionally I would get a high temp and feel very poorly.

Another week had passed and now due to me worsening further and really struggling for breath to the point of me using my Ventolin every half an hour or so. I was passed from gp surgery to 111. I was too poorly to be seen to by the gp but not poorly enough for hospital. I was given a further course of antibiotics and steroids even though I had now been told my numerous doctors that whatever I had was definitely viral. They still had to rule it out. I had still not been seen in person by anyone but had spoken to numerous doctors over the phone.

I have now finished the 3rd set of medication and although I am still not 100% I definitely can see myself improving. The temperature had dissapeared for at least a week now and the flu like aching and shivering seemed to go away after around a week. I still have an annoying dry cough and it feels like someone is sitting on my chest but as I can feel myself getting better I don’t want to bother any more doctors.

Is it pneumonia again is it covid? Who knows. But myself Mike and Elara haven’t left the house now since the 13th March. Mike was in work the first day of my symptoms btw because at that point no one had been told to isolate due to having covid symptoms. I was phoned back by the gp on Friday and told to self isolate, the whole family, for 2 weeks.

So that covers where I have been healthwise. In the next blog post on lockdown diaries I’ll talk about mental health and I’ll be writing a few more posts about how to keep a toddler entertained and stuff like that. Hopefully some interesting stuff. In the meantime feel free to check out my post on What we’re watching on Disney+ here. A friend of mine Rachel has also started her own lockdown diaries and you can check that out here.

Katie x