Sam Z
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White British
Background: Sam is 39 and White British. He lives with friends and works as a freelancer. Sam was worried about his job during the first UK lockdown. He was aware that work could dry up and that his income could be affected. He caught Covid twice, and the second time his symptoms developed into long Covid.
More about me...
Sam remembers being told to work from home in March 2020 when the pandemic first hit the UK. He remembers being a bit worried that his business would dry up. As he explains, “being a freelancer, of course, I was fully aware that I was on quite thin ice given most companies were looking to make cutbacks.” Sam says these next few months were hard on his mental health. He says he was bored and wanted to return to work.
Sam caught Covid in February 2021. He is unsure how he caught it because he was working from home and rarely going outside. Sam’s only explanation is that he caught it while going to the supermarket or fetching a takeout. Sam says that he did not think he had Covid at first because he only had a fever and he did not lose his taste or smell. He did not even feel unwell enough to skip work.
After a few days, Sam said he was pressured by his housemate to get a Covid test which came back positive. Sam said he was feeling pretty much ok by this point, but he did lose his taste. He says, “there wasn’t one particular food that was unbearable.” At this point, Sam deliberately rested and started to feel better after two to three weeks. Sam says that he feels that he has fully recovered from Covid. He has reinstated everything he was doing before Covid such as running and playing football.
Sam caught Covid again later that year in the summer. Not realising that he had Covid, he had his second dose of vaccine at the same time. His initial symptoms were similar to the first time he had Covid, but he found that some symptoms persisted for several months. Managing tiredness was a particular challenge. Sometimes he felt his energy levels were so low that is was like being ‘unplugged’. He found that rest and changing his diet helped with managing his fatigue.
Many days Sam Z felt ‘almost normal’, but on some others he could hardly move.
Many days Sam Z felt ‘almost normal’, but on some others he could hardly move.
A weird, bizarre illness I’ve ever had. Well, I’ve never really had a proper illness like Covid. It’s such a bizarre thing. On many days, I feel like I’m almost normal like or close to normal. But I still know that I can’t go further than, I can’t, I still just very conscious to not push myself. You can sit talking to your friends and feel almost completely normal and feel switched on. It’s just so bizarre going from being like that to not wanting to talk at all and not being able to move. So, yeah, it’s quite a lot to put your head around.
After his first dose of the vaccine Sam Z caught Covid again and felt much worse the second time.
After his first dose of the vaccine Sam Z caught Covid again and felt much worse the second time.
And the, the second time was definitely worse than the first time, the symptoms. The first time I just felt it was like a mild, moderate, moderate fever with only some aches and sweats. The second time I felt much rougher. I still didn't have any breathing problem at the time. No breathing problem. No coughs. Just, yeah, I just felt more feverish and more achy and just more. Even during the day I felt rough. Whereas when I first had it, in the daytime I didn't actually feel too bad, just the lack of sleep, but worse at night. I was still quite achy during the day. So that, that and in the same time as the first time I had it, that started getting better probably around about after five or six days and I was, I was isolating once I knew what it was. And then, yeah, I, I finished my kind of isolation period. By that point, I was starting to feel better and exactly the same trajectory as the first time.