Mum of two says she was ravaged by COVID-19
A local woman has shared her horrific experiences of Coronavirus and urges everyone to stay at home if they possibly can.
Justine Sullivan, a mother of two in her mid 40s, has tried to trace the source and believes she contracted it after visiting a friend in a tower block in Ealing. Several residents in the block had visitors over from a country where there was a significant coronavirus outbreak. Her partner is asymptomatic but son, who is asthmatic was affected at the same time.
Whilst they have both now recovered, Justine, who has two autoimmune diseases (meaning the risk is higher), says it has had a devastating physical and emotional impact.
She says many people may be carrying the virus without knowing and is angry the government didn't start testing and taking action in January when they were warned.
In the diary shared below, Justine documents the horrific symptoms she experienced.
''So this happened over a two week period at the end of Feb 2020.
Weds - Saturday
General feeling unwell. Like something is not quite right. Coming down with something but thinking maybe I can fight it.
Sunday - Realising what I had was going to make me ill and started to come down with what I thought was a chest infection. New painful cough developing in upper chest. Felt progressively worse and early to bed.
Monday. Felt much worse. Tried to carry on but slowly realised I needed to get into bed and take rest. Saw the DR who said I had a wheeze and suspected chest infection
Tuesday
Slept all day and hoped it would pass. Managed to get up and out of bed for two hours - extemely painful headache and throat starting to get worse.
Wednesday
Unable to get up.
Banging head and headache that I couldn’t shift despite back to back pain killers. Dr calls and tells me not to go into their surgery and that I need to continue to take pain killers and plenty of fluid.
Sore throat like razor blades which didn’t respond to usual throat spray or lozenge.
Constant metallic taste in mouth since Monday
Spent all day in bed sleeping
The sore throat was out of this world. Nothing soothed it.
That night I woke with an extreme dry mouth like I never experienced in my life. I also ran to the loo and vomited - no food came up. Just bile. Unable to produce any saliva
I was also very very dizzy - this was the worst ever and I was quite frightened as I was having huge muscle spasms as well. Should have phoned 999 as what I was experiencing was really scary.
Thursday - I was rough as hell. Couldn’t talk and slept all day in between waking to text and email work. Still had metallic taste in mouth. Thought I was losing my voice.
Friday
the sore throat disappeared like it hadn’t even been there and it was all in my upper chest. The cough started again and felt like I had water in my upper lungs. this resulted in a cough from hell which would seize me because it was so strong and then very deep. I felt like I was coughing from deep within my lungs. My chest muscles were very painful which got worse from coughing. Was afraid to cough as I felt the muscles in my chest were ripping
Friday and Saturday is when I had the diarrhoea. Again that was weird and not like anything I'd had before
Sunday - managed to get out of bed in the day time but back to bed with exhaustion
Monday
Slowly started to improve - but I had that terrible cough, the dizziness and extreme fatigue for another week and despite speaking to the doctor - no one tested me!!
Spent the next 5-7 days with the cough from hell and vertigo.
I also lost my sense of smell and wouldn’t eat food I normally liked.
I was craving food I don’t normally eat
Then as if by magic The cough from hell went Didn’t hang around like a normal heavy cough would. It just went
I felt like I had been through something quite traumatic and weird that needed some proper time to get over. It knocked me for six.
I was physically drained and emotionally vulnerable
It was nothing like flu. Nothing like a cold. Nothing like I had experienced ever before
Spoke to NHS direct and described my experience and they confirmed my suspicions of COVID19
My son who was with me when we contracted coronavirus was ill with a cough, sore throat and fever within days. My other son who was only exposed to me had diarrhoea when I had it. He’d been sleeping in my bed as he was so upset I was so ill.'"
Government advice
Latest UK figures ( 30 March) A total of 134,946 people have been tested for the virus, with 22,141 positive cases in the UK. 1,408 UK Deaths.(updated)
In Ealing there are currently 265 cases
March 30 2020