Jenny

Brief Outline:

During the first year of the pandemic, Jenny was not particularly worried about her risk of falling ill with Covid19. This changed when her brother-in-law and a pastor from her church fell ill with Covid and died. Jenny was ill with Covid and spent nearly 8 weeks in hospital, including 9 days on ICU. Interviewed for the study August 2021

Background:

Jenny lives with her husband. They have been married to for 44 years, and have three adult children, one of whom lives with them again temporarily. 40 years ago, Jenny worked in the NHS herself. She is now retired. Ethnicity: White British.

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Onset:

When Jenny had a cough in February 2021, she dismissed it, putting it down to the time of the year. She lives with diabetes and received care at home, her carer noticed that Jenny’s oxygen levels were low and insisted on calling an ambulance. The ambulance arrived promptly, and the paramedics thought it best to take Jenny into the hospital. Having lost his uncle to Covid very recently, Jenny’s son was distraught at his mother being taken to hospital.

In hospital

Jenny tested positive for Covid. Her husband and their son tested positive as well. Jenny’s husband was tired for a while; their son was asymptomatic. Jenny, however, was more seriously ill. In hospital she was admitted to the ward after an X-ray had been done, and she was diagnosed with Covid pneumonia. This was the start of a 7 weeks and 5 days hospital admission, including 9 days on ICU. She was given a drip with antibiotics. Finding a vein to do injections proved to be very difficult. A number of doctors tried, and only after many attempts was it successful with the help of an ultrasound.

Jenny is grateful to the hospital staff who have been excellent with her: they explained things clearly and when something was uncomfortable, they got it over with as soon as possible. Jenny has worked as a nurse herself about 40 years ago and finds that much has changed for the better since: staff speak to patients much more frequently, and doctors are much more approachable.

Keeping in touch with family and friends

Jenny’s carer had packed Jenny’s phone and charger for her when she left home. With her phone and the tablet that her family had brought to the hospital later on, Jenny kept in contact with her family, family in-law and many of her friends. Shortly before her own hospital admission, Jenny’s brother-in-law had died of Covid in intensive care. From the hospital, Jenny was attempting to organise accommodation for her family to attend the funeral, and she was in touch with his wife about various bits of organisation and support. But when she was in hospital longer than expected, she had to attend the funeral digitally from the hospital.

Jenny spoke to the patient opposite her and often lent him her tablet so that he could watch something. She herself was frequently knitting when she felt well enough. Many other patients were just in for a couple of days, or did not speak English, so it was difficult to build relationships.

Admission to intensive care

After three weeks on the ward, Jenny seemed to get better and a doctor came to say that she may be sent home on the next day. She received physio and tests to determine when she could be discharged. However, Jenny then deteriorated due to a secondary bacterial pneumonia, which meant an admission to intensive care. After the very recent death of her brother-in-law, the idea of ICU and ventilation worried her greatly. She asked the doctors not to ventilate her, which they fortunately did not have to consider.

A DNACPR* was signed. Three doctors came in after one another to let Jenny know it had been added to her file, which Jenny did not like. She says that one doctor telling her once would have sufficed.

Jenny requested an air mattress while she was on the ward this never materialised during the three weeks Jenny, until her niece called the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), who said they could be rented through them. The ward staff had not known about this. The mattress arrived shortly before Jenny was admitted to ICU, where these mattresses are standard. Jenny feels that getting the air mattress earlier may have prevented her from getting worse, as it would have helped her sleep better and therefore be better rested.

In intensive care

Jenny has various memories from the ICU: tubes, portable x-rays, feeling claustrophobic on the CPAP mask which she had to wear initially. The CPAP (Continuous Positive airway Pressure) mask was later replaced by a nasal cannula. Jenny could not receive visitors due to the visitor ban. But when she deteriorated rapidly, the doctors called in her husband for a potential end of life visit, twice, and her son and daughter once. He had mentioned to the doctor that they could speak to him in Jenny’s presence, which meant that Jenny overheard the doctors telling him that they were expecting that she may not make it through the night. Although Jenny found this incredibly hard to hear, it also made her fight for every breath that night.

Jenny felt supported by her family, friends and her pastor – who was also allowed onto the ward, and who used Zoom to reach her. Her church community prayed for her every single night whilst she was in ICU. She really appreciated getting her hair washed by a nurse.

Transfer to the general ward

Eventually Jenny started feeling better, and she was transferred back to the general ward. She took this as a sign that she was getting better and felt relieved. Initially, due to a urinary infection, she was on a separate ward where she was monitored more closely. After 2 or 3 days, she was moved to another part of the ward, when close monitoring became less necessary. Jenny’s daughter dropped off a celery juice every day at reception, to help strengthen Jenny’s immune system. She continues to do so now that Jenny is at home.

The physiotherapist visited Jenny on the ward, to assess her ability to walk and oxygen levels. For a while, they were not yet happy with the oxygen levels, so that Jenny had to stay in hospital for a while longer, but eventually Jenny was allowed to come home, with oxygen.

At home

After Jenny came home from hospital, she had  follow-up appointments with the respiratory nurse, who did blood tests. Jenny has not yet seen a doctor from the respiratory team. She has seen a physiotherapist via video and in person (the in-person appointments were to check on a shoulder issue unrelated to Covid that the ICU doctors had insisted she would get somebody to look at). Jenny has been offered peer support (on zoom), but this never materialised. If it were to be offered now, she would still like to participate.

At the time of interview, August 2021, Jenny has had both vaccines. Although she is concerned about catching Covid again, she does not want to put her life on hold, so she goes out, is careful, and tries not to think about it too much. Sometimes it is difficult that others are very concerned for her, and to see friends be really worried about their own health, but she keeps in contact with them and tries to invite them out for a coffee. Jenny continues doing exercises for her shoulders. She feels 100% better than when she came out of hospital, although breathing is still difficult. She expects the oxygen at home to be stopped soon.

Covid has changed the family: among the positive changes, it has made Jenny and her husband decide to help the kids out with some money, and it has brought Jenny and her husband a lot closer.

* DNACPR stands for ‘Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’; it means that health care professionals will not attempt resuscitation should one’s heart stop.

For Jenny it was a relief to go to the ward, after being on the ICU for a long time.

For Jenny it was a relief to go to the ward, after being on the ICU for a long time.

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What was it like for you to go to the [general] ward after that? Sometimes patients find that quite a big difference.

I was quite relieved to know that I was well enough to go back to the ward because I kept thinking…because they kept me in ICU, I kept thinking, am I ever going to get out of here. And when they said I could go back to the ward, I knew that must have been a good improvement to be able to do that. And then when I got to the ward, you’re still in a separate part where you’re monitored more than…in one bay, you’re monitored more carefully. And then when you improve a bit, then you go to another bay where they don’t have to keep such an eye on you all the time.

Jenny found it frustrating that she got tired quickly but tried to do small things and stay positive.

Jenny found it frustrating that she got tired quickly but tried to do small things and stay positive.

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What has life been like for you since you got home?

Frustrating because I can’t do things I want to do. I get tired quickly. Like I said, I’m wheelchair-bound anyway because I’ve got severe osteoarthritis and one leg I’ve got a metal pole from my hip to my ankle, so I can’t bend that. But I can potter around and do things, but I try to do simple things, you bend down to do something and, oh, you’re out of breath again.

And it’s just frustrating. So, I’ve sat and done a lot of knitting. Having things to do, like I like doing crossword puzzles and I used to hate doing word search. But while I was in hospital, having word search to do, you didn’t have to think too hard about it, but it takes your mind…I think if I didn’t have things to do, I would have gone mad, I think. I lent a man my tablet so he could watch some films because he had nothing to do, so…and I was knitting and doing the word search. And it’s just, keep yourself positive really, trying to have positive thoughts and keeping your mind active. Otherwise, you just lay there and think about what’s wrong with you and I don’t think that helps. So yeah.

And now they just tell me it’s time, they say it can take five years before you’re totally over it. But I’ll just take each day as it comes and do what I can do and what I can’t do, I’ll have to leave ‘til tomorrow. So yeah, it’s getting better. So, each day is a new day and you improve each day. Some days you think you’ve gone 10 paces forward and nine back but then other days you think you’ve gone 10 and stayed at 10, so yeah.

It’s hard work recovering?

It is. And my husband, he’s still tired, you know, he said he’s exhausted. He does a bit in the garden and he’s coming back in and sitting down and falling asleep a lot more. Yeah.

Jenny’s admission to ICU with Covid has brought her and her husband closer together.

Jenny’s admission to ICU with Covid has brought her and her husband closer together.

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Has Covid affected your perceptions of yourself?

When I was in hospital, my husband and I both said that things were going to change. And they did for a while. Things like helping the kids out with money, which we wouldn’t normally have done, which we have done. [Husband] said, we don’t need the money…well, we do obviously but he said, you know, they need it. So, we helped each one of them out a bit.

And I think…well, I know it brought me and my husband a lot closer. I mean, we’ve been together 47 years and we spoke about things that we’ve never talked about before. I can’t even remember now what it was, but I know…yeah, it has changed us, definitely. Yeah, that’s because of that near-death experience and my husband thought he was going to lose me. I mean, we’ve been married 44 years, so it’s a long time.

That is a long time, yeah.

Yeah. And yeah, it’s definitely brought us closer together. And things that should have been said a long time ago that weren’t said that we’ve talked about. Yeah, so it has changed us. For the better, I don’t know. Hopefully. Yeah, I’m sure it has. Yeah.