Diane
Diane, her husband, and their youngest daughter had Covid during the Delta variant in early December 2021. At the time, their two older children did not have any symptoms and had a negative PCR test. Diane and her husband had a persistent cough, which for her husband continued until mid-January but it finally went when they had their third booster Covid vaccine and they both felt much better. Diane continues to have limited sense of smell and taste which returns fleetingly. She remains optimistic that it will return. She is grateful that this is the only Long Covid symptom they have as a family. Diane was interviewed in March 2022.
Diane works in higher education and has three school-aged children. Diane, her husband, and their youngest daughter had the Delta variant of Covid. Ethnicity: Indian.
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In early December, Diane’s youngest daughter became ill with a cough, temperature, and headache. Over the course of a few days Diane felt dizzy and had an upset stomach. A PCR test confirmed they both had Covid. She describes it as “that dreaded date” that sticks in her mind. Diane’s symptoms continued to worsen, and she developed a persistent cough, achy limbs, a temperature, and a headache and lost her sense of taste and smell. Her two other children and husband had negative PCR tests. As a family they isolated in different parts of their house and used separate bathrooms and tried to keep their other two children as much in their normal routine as possible. They spent a considerable amount of time isolated in their bedrooms.
Two days later, her husband developed a continuous cough, and she heard him collapse on the floor in the middle of the night. A positive PCR test result showed he also now had Covid. Diane described it as a “scary time” because they were both so unwell, but their children still needed looking after and pet dog had to be walked. Having previously worked as an intensive care nurse, she started to fear whether they might need to go to hospital or might even die. She says of having Covid: “it was difficult from a psychological perspective as well as a physically.” No relatives lived nearby to help out either. Plus, risk of passing Covid on would have been too high.
During the course of their illness, Diane continued to cook (wearing a mask indoors) and look after their older children which was difficult to manage. She said, “I’m normally fighting fit and, you know, full of energy…but it just floored us.” Her and her husband took turmeric, ginger, garlic, and Vitamin D to try to boost their immune systems. A trip to Spain she had been looking forward to had to be cancelled and Christmas was mostly spent recovering. In early January, the couple still felt tired. Their youngest daughter recovered fairly quickly, though.
For many weeks, Diane and her husband had a persistent cough. They tried lots of remedies including honey and gargles, but it was not until mid-January that her husband’s cough settled when he had his third Covid booster vaccine. Both Diane and her husband felt somewhat better after that and their energy levels have been regained.
Diane lost her sense of taste and smell which has lasted long term. Occasionally she can smell or taste things but only fleetingly. She couldn’t taste a strong spicy chilli that her daughter cooked and when cooking herself, she relies on others to tell her how it tastes. She misses not being able to taste food as she describes herself as a “big foodie” and no longer feels it is worth going out to eat at restaurants.
She hasn’t sought medical advice for her loss of taste and smell because she says it doesn’t affect her that much and it is not as bad as what others with Long Covid are experiencing. Most people she knows have not been too concerned about her loss of smell and taste. Her mum is the only one who questions how she can still have this symptom so long afterwards. Diane has been advised by a friend who is Advanced Nurse Practitioner working in the Ear Nose and Throat specialty to do ongoing taste and smelling exercises on herself. She remains optimistic that her sense of smell and taste will keep improving over the next few months.
Her eldest daughter had Covid in October and experienced severe headaches but has now recovered. Her son hasn’t had Covid. All three children have been vaccinated now.
Diane is grateful for the Covid vaccines and that as a family they are “fairly back to normal,” apart from her loss of sense of taste and smell. She has a fear of catching Covid again because of the impact it could have on her family again.
Age and ethnicity were factors that Diane was aware of when considering reinfection and the effect on her family.
Age and ethnicity were factors that Diane was aware of when considering reinfection and the effect on her family.
So we kind of want to continue as normal but, you know, we’re still kind of protecting him and each other really, you know, we, my husband’s above 50, I’m of BAME background as you can guess, I’m at more risk, so there are those risk factors and age I guess, we are, you know, I’m nearing 50 but, you know, age works against us and, you know, we just, we don’t have much family around so we have to remain healthy in regards to, from a financial point of earning as well as just a general day-to-day living and being able to function as a family, we need to remain fit and able so that’s the kind of fear that I have because, you know, if I’m floored the whole family gets affected, perhaps more so than my husband because I’m the kind of main carer and organiser kind of thing, and the cook and all that kind of thing, so that’s the main thing.
Diane had not spoken to the GP about her loss of taste, as she didn’t think it was ‘serious enough.’
Diane had not spoken to the GP about her loss of taste, as she didn’t think it was ‘serious enough.’
No, because it’s a kind of, it seems a common thing and I’m not quite sure what they would do, I think they would just suggest doing the smell test and the taste test as well, so you know, I’d heard from, you know, my advanced nurse practitioner friend, I spoke to GP’s and I haven’t really had any need to go, I think I would be time wasting to go and talk about my relatively little symptoms, I know it’s a big deal to some people, but you just get on with it, really. I haven’t got time to do it, plus I don’t think it’s serious enough to go to the GP and ask for a referral to somewhere. That’s not, it hasn’t really affected me that much.
What do you think would be serious enough to go and see a GP about?
Well, I think if, if you know, I know people who’ve had, you know, like chest pains and palpitations and on-going cough and, you know, persistent headaches and things like that, I think if it was more pain-related, or unusual or more frightening symptoms. I think then I, you know, then I would go to the GP, but I don’t think for my symptoms I’m fairly back to normal, I am back to normal, and I don’t think I need to go to a GP.
Diane, a parent who lost her sense of taste, is concerned about long-term effects such as early-onset diabetes.
Diane, a parent who lost her sense of taste, is concerned about long-term effects such as early-onset diabetes.
You know, and then you think has it got any long-term effects, you know, you read on social media and things, has it had any long-term implications? I’ve just had my HBA1C check because I’m at risk of diabetes because of my parents. But that came back fine, but you just kind of think does that exacerbate things that could potentially happen or make them younger, you know, a younger onset of things like the menopause and diabetes and other conditions and, yeah.
Diane used the NHS website and looked at academic papers to find information about ongoing loss of taste and smell.
Diane used the NHS website and looked at academic papers to find information about ongoing loss of taste and smell.
Yeah, just checking Google search at the NHS website you know, there’s studies going on and, you know, some academic papers as well. But it’s just one of those things I didn’t get too embroiled in it in that, you know, it was like for some people it comes back, some people it doesn’t and it takes longer for some and it doesn’t, and I think that’s the main take home message, I didn’t get too into the nitty gritty, it was just ‘Is this normal?’