Covid-19 in the community

And look I think though, what I started doing which I found very difficult was that I was putting on a mask in the house 24/7. Because I did not even by accident want to pass it on so I would you know only take it off when eating and whilst I was sleeping but other than that even when I got up to go to the toilet I would just have, I had my mask on most of the times. Yeah so not, not pleasant. Ended up, ended up trying to drink a cup of coffee and I didn’t realise I had my mask on [laughing].

We’ve got just only two bedroom and one sitting and so she come down to that sofa on sofa I’m sitting down now. She, my daughter, sit down on that sofa. I stay on this sofa, my husband in the room and my other two daughter in two beds and I give them whatever, a small towel and that’s everyone separate towels. What I can do is that way.

You want to go to the bathroom or the kitchen you have say, “Hey, I’m coming so just stay away,” and so even that in itself, the management of having one, even one person in the household you don’t think about it. It’s just actually very, very difficult to feel that you can actually be, you know, infecting other person within your house, so not only now you’re worried about yourself, now you’re worried about you passing it on to someone else.

That is an issue with, like, you know, living, you know, BAME community. The households, they are obviously sometimes are overcrowded, mostly, so… And in my case, it isn’t so. You know, but if anybody else would, if it’s overcrowded you get more sick, obviously other people get sick as well so, that does affect everyone else. And then they can’t self-isolate any more, you know, because they haven’t got anywhere to self-isolate.

I did not manage to isolate from my family. I’m not sure I really even tried. I mean I was basically in my room the whole time, but you know. I didn’t sort of, have my own bathroom or kind of physically isolated from people, but nobody else caught it from me as far as we know.

I didn't feel all that concerned if they got it, and in a way, I thought it was better if they did because then they'd be unlikely to get it again at another point. And I thought... sort of thought the sooner the better because if they get symptoms later on in our ten day isolation, they're going to have to isolate for another ten days while I go back to work and desert them; they're going to hate me even more [laughs].

My husband and my children looked after me. A lot. like I’m in my room but my husband go there every time said, he said don’t worry I want to come here and to look after you. But I said you can go, you can go but he said no.

They worried for me, they, it was night time my husband was waking up so many times said he came to my home, my bedroom and he ask me you are okay, you are okay. Because I am vomiting a lot, sometimes I run to the bathroom and he helped me, sometimes I, he helped me a lot. Sometime I can’t stand up for myself.

My husband said we will shift her to one room, and I looked after her, gave her food and water. But being a mother, somewhere in me I wanted, I wanted to be close to her. 
 
I heard people lose their breath with this people become ‘out of breath’ so and she is 14 years old right now. 
 
So, I insisted with my husband “No, please allow me to sleep in the same room. We’ll sleep at some distance from each other, right?”, And then, no then, my husband told me that I also have young child, he is, my boy is around eight or nine and my husband told me that, “no everyone else will also get infected, so better to take some precaution”.
 
So, we did that. She recovered in four days, five days later, Then after a gap of two days, my turn came (laughs). Then two days after me, my husband got it and other child also got infected. I mean the whole family got it.
 
My daughter had become a bit active, And she is young, so it did not affect her that much, she had temperature for two days, She had a headache but there wasn’t much flu or anything. She had a slight cough, but even that went away.
 
So, she took care of us, like she brought us offered us water, medicines to the bed, bless her the food would come from outside, with the help of friends, that is how it went along, for 22 days.

We would try at least for the first 5 days when we didn’t know they were positive as well. I would just try and make sure that I would, I think what we used to do is that they would have a shower first, they would use the bathroom because we only had one bathroom upstairs. They would just use the bathroom first and then in the, I would go late. I would go last and then after I would finish my shower and my other things you know I would just clean it down as much as I could and then absolutely we would just try not be in the same, in the same room. So, like you know if I were in the kitchen just getting something for myself they would just stay away or most of the time he would come and leave everything for me, you know by the door. But again that was, I think that happened for the first 2 to 3 days and then yeah, I by I think by Friday or Saturday we were all one big happy family, where we were [Laughs]. There was no point in self-isolating against each other because we were all, we had all tested positive.

It was kind of, it was a bit like you know, when you’re really, really drunk and you on, when you’re on a night out and someone who’s really drunk is looking after someone who’s even more drunk than that person. It was a bit like that where it was kind of blind leading the blind and like trying to look after each other.

There we were again, battling it again and I would say that this time was, you know, in terms of kind of managing it at home, it was a lot harder because all five of us were down with it at the same time. So, I was literally well [name], my husband got it last, so he was doing all the kind of meals and bringing them up to the children and myself. And then when I got it, you know, it was a case of, sorry when he got it, it was a case of, you know, literally going round all of the bedrooms, taking everyone’s temperatures. Then doing a Calpol run, then doing a fluids run, then doing the meals, then back to bed or whatever, you know, it was, it was like running a ward but being ill yourself, you know.

Both my friends had family that they tried to isolate from so stick in their bedrooms and keep some distance. Luckily, their family didn’t get infected. And I was just on my own so like normal. Just having to watch lots of movies and try and ignore, trying to wait for it to finish, I guess.

I’m only blessed because my niece is a Director of Emergency Medicines in the US so somebody who is quite bright so that’s a good one, just happen to be luck. And the lady, Chinese doctor, happens to be on the global Malaysian network, which actually, she offered to help me so, basically, I am blessed. I’ve got people helping me because, as I say, I don’t know what to do. The doctors, they don’t take me to hospital. They left me at home with only rest, drink fluid, vitamin C, what else can I do? I’ve got no nurse helping me. I’m sick but not sick enough to go in. So I’ve got to find an avenue.