Deidre
Deidre’s daughter caught Covid in November 2021. She lost her sense of taste and smell throughout her Covid infection and found eating difficult – her sense of taste and smell has still not returned four months on, and she has lost a lot of weight and finds eating difficult. Deidre was interviewed in April 2022.
Deidre is married with 6 children aged 23, 21, 19, 10, 9 and 5. Deidre is a child minder who runs her own business with three staff, and her husband is a teacher. Ethnicity: White British.
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Deidre’s daughter (aged 8 at the time) caught Covid from school in November 2021. Deidre and her youngest daughter aged five also caught it, but her husband was not affected. Her 8-year-old daughter was very poorly and was bed-ridden for six days. She was still testing positive after 10 days of isolation and didn’t return to school for further 6 days. Deidre’s daughter lost her sense of taste and smell throughout her Covid infection and found eating difficult – her sense of taste and smell has still not returned four months on, and she has lost a lot of weight.
Her husband tested positive on Christmas Eve 2021 and although they all tested negative her daughter had cold like symptoms and her Long Covid symptoms got worse with headaches, sinusitis and tummy aches. Blood tests showed she was recovering from two viral infections, so they believe she did catch Covid again but just didn’t test positive. Her daughter has been on drops and antibiotics for her sinusitis and Calpol for her headaches and has now been referred to a paediatric Long Covid clinic by a hospital consultant. Her GP didn’t believe children could get Long Covid and her daughter underwent many tests to rule out other causes before the GP admitted “I think you’re right. I think she’s got Long Covid.’ Deidre had been doing her own research on the internet and through Facebook groups.
Deidre is most concerned about her daughter’s weight loss and would welcome some medical help and advice, but the doctors seem more concerned with her daughter’s headaches and sinusitis. Her daughter’s headaches have started to become less frequent. Deidre’s daughter’s diet currently consists of bland dry food like crackers as “things taste so yucky” with a metallic taste that makes her nauseous and not want to eat. She is not the energetic child she used to be as she is so tired “something as simple as going bowling for an afternoon wipes her out” and she finds school a struggle.
At the time of the interview, Deidre had booked her daughter in to be vaccinated on the advice of the doctors. However, she has since decided not to have her daughter vaccinated.
For Deidre’s daughter most food tasted ‘metallic’ and ‘like vomit’. She only wanted to eat plain foods.
For Deidre’s daughter most food tasted ‘metallic’ and ‘like vomit’. She only wanted to eat plain foods.
She, she doesn't like to have headaches all the time. And she hates the fact that things taste funny. So I said to her, what, if you can describe how foods taste, what would you say? I said, you know, when we had Covid to mummy things were like, like they were horrible. It’s like a metallic taste. It was hideous. And she said, ‘only way I can describe it mummy is everything tastes like vomit’. And that’s what she says. I was like, ‘Oh okay.’ I said, ‘What about your crackers?’ And she said, ‘Well my crackers are fine because they don’t really taste of anything.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s true.’ You know, today I try and get her to try something different.
Deidre noticed that her daughter’s headaches were becoming less frequent, though she was still affected by stomach ache.
Deidre noticed that her daughter’s headaches were becoming less frequent, though she was still affected by stomach ache.
She’s remained the same for quite a time. The headaches aren’t as frequent as they used to be. They’ve got better. I’ve made an eye appointment. You go down every route when they get headaches and stuff. So, I thought, with her eyesight before she came down with Covid and that was her main symptom was headaches. So, they have improved a little bit. Today’s headache, we haven't had a headache now for over a week, so that’s quite good. And we get lots of tummy aches and stuff like that. But I’d say it’s kind of remained the same, but maybe the headaches have got a little bit better.
Deidre thinks there should be more mental health support for young people and their parents.
Deidre thinks there should be more mental health support for young people and their parents.
I think it’d be nice if yeah, if [older daughter] had someone to speak to that was perhaps going through the same thing. Whether she’d speak to them or not, I don't know. She is quite quiet. Maybe she could read something from somebody else that, so she knows that she’s not the only person that’s, you know, suffering with it. And yeah, I do think that there should be more support available for, especially the parents dealing with it because it does impact you quite a lot and it, it is very worrying more than anything.
Deidre’s daughter was unable to commit to plans in advance.
Deidre’s daughter was unable to commit to plans in advance.
Sometimes I’ll suggest to her that she has a quick nap if we’re going to go and do something. We went bowling at the weekend because she got star of the week at school. So that was very exciting. And they’d also got really good school reports. So, we treated them to that and they went bowling. But even something as simple as going bowling for an afternoon wipes her out. She kind of came home and she wrapped herself in a blanket and just lays on the sofa and like watches TV or something, but just lays there with no interest in anything else.
What about her friends networks and has she managed to keep up with friendships or have friends around the house or have there been changes there?
She’s got like one very close friend at school. But they don’t come round to play or anything very often. And they have said on Friday does she want to go to the Roller Disco. The Roller Disco is about like five o'clock, so she might be able to do it. She kind of said, ‘Can I let you know?’ Yeah. Yeah, she doesn't have, she doesn't have that many friends. She’s quite, she’s a really quiet child. Quite shy and that. She’s lovely, but she is really quiet. Her best friend [daughter’s friend] caught Covid at the same time as [older daughter]. So, they used to message each other on, on these little messenger platforms just to say, ‘How’re you feeling today?’ I think they’re both quite poorly with it, but [daughter’s friend] kind of bounced back a lot quicker than, than [older daughter] did. So, it was going round their classroom, unfortunately. They were all dropping with it.
Deidre says her two daughters look out for their sister more now, which is nice.
Deidre says her two daughters look out for their sister more now, which is nice.
The sister that’s just above her is only like 19 months older [clears throat] she’s noticed her, a difference in her and she’s always, ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Do you need anything?’ And things like that. So, no, they, they all look out for each other. The younger one who is five, her and [older daughter] get on really well as well. They normally play together quite a lot and sometimes [older daughter]’s like, ‘I don’t feel like playing right now.’ She’s like, ‘Oh, okay then. Are you just going to rest.’ It’s like ‘Yes, I’m just going to rest’. So, yeah, I know it’s horrible.
So, the sibling relationships, have they altered at all, that dynamic?
I think the other two look out for her a lot more. They look after her a lot more. They look after her a lot more because they know obviously that she feels poorly quite a lot of the time. So and so, yeah, no they look after her, which is nice.
Deidre’s friends and family have been an enormous help, including taking her other children for days out.
Deidre’s friends and family have been an enormous help, including taking her other children for days out.
My family have been very supportive for [older daughter] to be fair, and [husband]’s side of the family have been amazing as well. So, and they’ve always offered to help out with anything. They’ve all been really good and my friends have been amazing as well. I don’t like have masses of friends. I have very, very good friends who, you know, you can count on your, on one hand. And they’ve just been, yeah, they’ve been amazing at helping out for anything or taking the other children to activities perhaps if [older daughter] not feeling up to it and then they’ll take the other girls out and stuff, so. And obviously, I’ve got older children as well and two of those can drive. They’ve been, you know, brilliant as well. We…sometimes my 19-year-old daughter will kind of just take [older daughter] out somewhere so to do something special. Things like that which is quite nice.
Deirdre felt that the GP had initially ‘pooh-poohed’ the suggestion that her child might have Long Covid but accepted it after doing lots of ‘scary’ tests.
Deirdre felt that the GP had initially ‘pooh-poohed’ the suggestion that her child might have Long Covid but accepted it after doing lots of ‘scary’ tests.
Well, my own GP, she pooh-poohed it at first and kind of said, ‘Oh no, children don’t get Long Covid.’ And I said, ‘No, I can assure you children do get Long Covid. And with all of [older daughter]’s symptoms, I think that’s what it is.’ And she said, ‘Well, I need to, as a doctor, I need to test. I do lots of different tests.’ She had tests for cancer. She had tests for, you know, it was horrific time, which obviously it all came, thank God, came back clear and everything. And she then said to me, ‘I think you’re right. I think she’s got Long Covid.’ Mother’s intuition.