James

Age at interview: 12

Brief Outline:

James caught Covid in 2020. He says his symptoms never improved and that they still come and go in “a kind of on and off pattern.” James’s mum and twin brother also have Long Covid and he feels like “…the whole family’s been degraded because of all this.” James was interviewed in December 2021.

James is 12 and lives with his mum, twin and older brother. Ethnicity: White English.

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James caught Covid in the Spring of 2020. He says his symptoms never got better and that they still come and go “…a kind of on and off pattern.” His first symptoms were joint pain, sickness and diarrhoea, which he describes as “not nice to live with.” He also has what he describes as “agonising” abdominal pains.

James’s mum and twin brother also suffer from Long Covid and he feels like “…the whole family’s been degraded because of all this.” Although his older brother also caught Covid around the same time, he fortunately recovered. Before catching Covid, James says he rarely used to get ill.

Having Long Covid meant James has stopped doing activities he used to enjoy, like climbing, swimming and going to the skate park. Although home schooling has worked for him academically, physically not being in school has impacted his existing friendships – “I’m struggling with friendships at the moment because of that.” Sometimes James is able to physically go into school and feels fine, other times he can’t attend for weeks at a time because of his symptoms.

On some school days, although James can be “completely fine socially,” on other days he says he feels like he just doesn’t want to talk to anyone. His friends don’t necessarily understand his situation, particularly as his symptoms are so unpredictable. Sometimes James keeps quiet as he feels they’ll “take the piss” and some kids pick on him.

James’s older brother has done most of the cooking and household chores since his mum and brothers fell ill. Because James and his twin brother experience “on and off” symptoms, they take turns to help around the house in between bouts of feeling unwell. As a result of this, James has developed a lot of useful household skills (like how to do the laundry).

James splits his time between his mum and dad’s houses but spends more time with his mum. James feels his dad is very understanding but doesn’t completely understand how having Long Covid affects him mentally.

James experienced a range of different symptoms. He started with sickness, diarrhoea and joint pain, and had recently developed heart pain that was keeping him awake at night.

My first symptoms were sickness, diarrhoea and sometimes joint pain, which was quite not nice to live with. So then after that it went to just sickness and diarrhoea until about mid this year, around June, July. And then, and then just, as in like, it started last night actually, I’ve, I developed these really, really agonising heart pains that like, they come on and off, but really frequently. So, like I have it for ten seconds and then I’m fine for twenty, have it for ten, and then it’s gone for twenty and that, I I couldn’t get to sleep last night which is part of the reason why I’m quite tired today. That’s kind of where we’re up to.

James went through an ‘on and off pattern’ of feeling better for three weeks then feeling ill for 3-4 days.

And for me, I, well at the start I had it like all the time for I think two or three months, and then, and then I was better for like three weeks, and then I was ill for three to five days, then I was better for three weeks, and then I was ill for three to five days. So, it was a kind of on and off pattern that I was having.

James suspected that having sugar made his heart pain worse, but he couldn’t say for sure.

I’m not sure for definite, but I think having sugar has, has kind of, I mean with the heart pains, I had like a decent intake of sugar that day compared to what I usually have, which is not really that much. And, and then my voice, and then, and then that night, or last night I developed these really strong heart pains which I, which in my head I’m looking to the, to the sugar, but I don’t know for a hundred percent cos I’ve been fine when I’ve had sugar before.

James says that not being at school for so long because of Long Covid negatively affected his social skills. Some days being back at school he feels fine, other days he doesn’t want to talk to anyone.

Oh, as I said earlier, me not being in school because of being off ill, it’s affected my social skills and also like changed lots of my friendships that I was in, and I’ve come back and I’ve like, I may have interacted with this person, but I’ve fallen out with this person. And it’s been very wavy kind of, it’s like I’ll either have days where I’m completely fine socially, or like, or I come into school and I just don’t want to talk to anyone, whatever reason.

James has missed a lot of school because of Long Covid. He says some of his old friends have “drifted off into other people.”

Again like with being away from things, like school, I’ve, I mean like as I went to secondary school like while I’ve had Long Covid then it’s been like, it’s been a bit tough to like find my like group of friends and I have then they’ve drifted off into other people who for some reason don’t like me or whatever. So, then I’m quite struggling with friendships at the moment because of that.

Yeah, it’s really hard. With school have you not been in much at all, or have you been able to go in sometimes?

I mean I go off for like weeks at a time because of my Long Covid being so bad, and I think it is getting a bit worse at the moment, but it’s hard to tell because I can, episodes can range from like two days to two weeks.

Mainly the people that I didn’t really get along in primary school, or maybe year seven, I I don’t really tell them because I know they will just take the piss.

How would they take the piss?

They would just like, I mean say now, I go into school after being off for like 3 days, and like everyone just shouts at me like, “Where’ve you been, why were you off? What happened?”

Wow.

And, and they know that I’ve got Long Covid, but they don’t really care and, and they kind of like pick on me for it. So, like, like, “Oh you’re just trying to get off school,”

James worries about catching a new, possibly more severe variant of Covid and is very keen to get his second jab (interviewed in December 2021).

I’ve got my first jab, but then I haven’t got a booster or second or whatever. And now there’s like, I got it like just when Delta was like in its mid-stages, like before we found, I can’t remember what it’s called, but the new one—

Omicron.

Yeah. So I got it then, but now we’ve got Omicron?

Yeah.

Yeah, I realise, that apparently it’s meant to be like a lot worse than Delta and the one we had before, so then now I’m just like worried, like, why is no one getting a vaccine, like, so I got my first, now apparently it has like a few months where it works fine and then like it wears off, so if you’re going to vaccinate everyone then why don’t you vaccinate them fully, and like continue it? Which I understand the rollout like millions and millions of people, but still, they need to do their absolute best to like vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.