A mum-of-2 has described herself as ‘one of the lucky ones’ after contracting COVID-19 whilst battling the pandemic on the frontline, but now she is back to work going to the aid of Islanders in their hour of need.
34-year-old Lynsey has spent most of her working life in healthcare. She has worked as a carer, then as a health care assistant at St Mary’s Hospital and for the past 4 years has worked on the frontline for the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service.
Lynsey is telling her COVID-19 story for the first time. In her own words…
“When Covid first started it was a very surreal and frightening time, the thought of catching something deadly and passing it on to my family made me very scared. As a mum your first instinct is to protect your kids and luckily I was able to put some protection in place for my children, they went to stay with their dad for 8 weeks whilst he was off work so that I could continue working on the Ambulance. I only saw them a couple of times each week just to talk over the garden wall. We had no physical contact at all, no hugs and no kisses. As a mum that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
“Initially I saw very few COVID patients but by November I was seeing more and more people who I knew were positive, some of these patients were dreadfully poorly and due to social distancing and infection control procedures I found not being able to give our poorly patients or their relatives a hug just the hardest thing.
“In mid-December, three days before I tested positive I was getting more and more breathless but due to previous problems I’d had with my heart I just put it down to that. On 16th December I tried to take the kids to school but felt so poorly I had to make other arrangements and that’s when I realised something was very wrong so I took a COVID test and because I was concerned the kids once again went to stay with their dad.
“My COVID test came back positive on 20th December and a couple of days later the headaches started, the most horrendous pains behind my eyes as well as loss of appetite. The headaches continued, accompanied with bad tummy pain and awful pains in my kidneys. From then until Christmas eve I just dosed up on pain killers and slept as much as I could. It was Christmas Eve when I found I’d lost my sense of smell and taste, I tested this by biting into a raw onion and couldn’t taste a thing!
Article continues below this advertisement “Christmas Day should have been a great day for me and my children as it was meant to be the first Christmas with the children in 3 years as I’d worked the previous years but to protect them they were already staying with their dad and at least I knew they were safe.
“In the days that followed, I got stronger and was slowly able to do more. I was finally strong enough and out of isolation on the 28th and the children came home.
“Up until recently, I was still getting breathless. Simple things like walking up the stairs exhausted me and left me with horrendous pains in my kidneys. This went on for several weeks and normal tasks felt so much harder. After 10 weeks off work, I am finally strong enough to be back doing the job I love.
“My partner and his family and my mother all contracted COVID after me. I felt terrible about this but I was unaware I had it at first.
Speaking about her recent vaccination and return to work, Lynsey has said:
“I recently had my vaccine and was more than happy to have this especially after experiencing how terrible COVID could be. The only after effect I had from it was a sore arm for a day or 2. I’m looking forward to having my second injection for further protection.
“I’m so relieved that I was one of the lucky ones, I survived and although it’s taken me a while to recover I’m now back at work on the frontline and getting stronger. It has been a real eye opener and made me even more proud of the amazing people I work with and who put their lives on the line daily.”
Good to hear you are feeling better. Thank you for all your efforts on the front line.
Stay safe and well
Glad you are getting better, don’t know what we would do without selfless people like you who put their and their families life on the line. God Bless You.
Yes shes one of the 99.7% recovery. Very lucky! Well done.
yes and in other news, all the other key workers that have felt ill and returned to work have not been given a full page spread.
You ugly person Rebel. The survival rate is only high because of all the work people like Lynsey has done. Unlike yourself that has over the last year constantly sought to undermine the NHS and seek to increase the infection rate by encouraging people, via your vile lies, not to get vaccinated and not to wear masks. Fortunately we see you as the idiot you are.
‘Couldn’t agree more.
no tom – the global survival rate is 99.97% and that includes countries with mediocre health care – this virus is virtually ineffective against the vast majority of humans and at least one in three won’t even know they had it.
How dumb you are! You know nothing about all of this obviously!
Aww thank goodness you survived. 3 of my friends had it. 2 have recovered but one got the positive test back yesterday. Thanks for all your hard work and I think I speak for everyone by saying when all this is over, we shall propose a toast to you and your colleagues