Mehjabin
Mehjabin’s mum was diagnosed with Long Covid in January 2021. When her mum was really unwell with Long Covid and practically bedbound, Mehjabin and her sisters helped their father complete the household chores. Mehjabin was interviewed in October 2021.
Mehjabin is 17 and lives with her mum who has Long Covid. She also lives with her dad and two sisters. Ethnicity: Bangladeshi.
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Mehjabin’s whole family except her middle sister caught Covid in December 2020. Mehjabin and her sister didn’t get any severe symptoms (she had a headache), unlike her mum and dad who did. Mehjabin says her mum had the worse symptoms, as her other illnesses and problems with chronic pain were “amplified” by Covid. It also made her mum’s existing issues with breathlessness much worse. They had to call paramedics a few times and around four weeks after catching Covid, Mehjabin’s mum found out in hospital that she had Long Covid.
At the time, Mehjabin and her family didn’t know much about Long Covid but found out more about it after doing their own research. Mehjabin says that at the time of catching Covid, she and her family were more worried that they were “going to die straight away.”
Mehjabin says her mum felt frustrated at the time when trying to access GP services about the pain she was experiencing as part of her Long Covid. Mehjabin says, “You spend a long time trying to get… the message across and nothing’s happening.” Mehjabin also said that some doctors viewed her mum’s Long Covid as just part of her existing chronic pain.
When her mum was really unwell with Long Covid and practically bedbound, Mehjabin and her sisters helped their father complete the household chores. Mehjabin said that this was OK and they managed as it was around school holiday time, but that it would’ve been “really hectic” if it had been now when they’re studying for exams. Mehjabin said that for her family “it was more like emotional worry than physical and time worry.” Mehjabin and her family run a YouTube cookery channel (Maha's Kitchen - Easy Cooking) which was affected when her mum was really bad with Long Covid as they found it hard to create and post videos.
Although Mehjabin’s mum still has shoulder pain, things have since improved and Mehjabin says “it’s more like before” as her mum is more independent now. On the positive side, Mehjabin says that through her family’s experience with Long Covid they’ve “grown a better attitude to help care for each other.”
Teenager Mehjabin’s worry about her mum’s Covid returned with the recognition that she had ongoing symptoms.
Teenager Mehjabin’s worry about her mum’s Covid returned with the recognition that she had ongoing symptoms.
We’d already heard it, but we hadn’t acknowledged it as much but then after she had been properly diagnosed for it we researched it more and looked into it more.
So, do you think as a family you were worried about Long Covid before your mum got it?
Not as much, mainly because we didn’t think it applied to us, so we were shocked ourselves when we got Covid because out of everyone we knew we were, we practically locked ourselves in our house except for my dad went to work every weekend so we were just shocked and then we didn’t consider Long Covid because we thought we’ve got Covid you’re going to die straight away [laughter].
Yeah so then we just practically focussed on living our last days well and then I didn’t study at all because I thought like what’s the point of studying in my last days. And then the Long Covid came after a few weeks and all of us survived then it’s like another worry that, you know, like the hill went down and it came back up again because of the Long Covid and they were like panicking and like this is really serious because she had a lot of health problems from before anyways, yeah.
After her mother was diagnosed with Long Covid, Mehjabin and her sisters shared the household chores with their father.
After her mother was diagnosed with Long Covid, Mehjabin and her sisters shared the household chores with their father.
I think just before my mum was diagnosed she was still in the same state but it was mainly because she practically almost became bed bound we told her just stay up, because we have a two floor house, we told her just stay upstairs don’t come down the stairs as it was really hard for her to come down the stairs itself and go back up, so we told her to stay upstairs, stay in the bed except if you need to go bathroom. And then after the family kind of took over the house chores, mainly because before my mum would do the majority of the cooking and we’d help out and my dad would go to work, but then again, my dad goes to work and all of us shared like the household cooking and, and cooked food for her.
Sometimes she’d be adamant that she wanted to help out herself because she’s just used to like doing cooking food and she’s like you’re not doing it properly but at least for more than a week while she was still in that state, we did the cooking and I think it helped that it was in the school holidays or just after the, none of us were really, really busy. If it was now all of us would be like preparing for our mocks and my dad has an interview coming up, it would have been really hectic, and then all of us helped out, we kept the house clean and just made sure like if she needed anything she’d have it.
So, a lot of it would be my dad just going to get the groceries before it would be my mum and my dad, they would go together, go Lidl, they often go Lidl to buy like random stuff that Lidl has for sale but then it just be my dad going and telling my mum here’s the booklet see what you want to buy. My role, it’s not more roles it’s just helping each other out, so say my dad like ‘lets cook this dish today’ and help him with cutting the onions and my other sisters, if they’re free because there’s four of us so if they’re free we help our dad or we help each other like that.
Mehjabin believes her family has learnt how to care for each other better as a result of her mother’s Long Covid.
Mehjabin believes her family has learnt how to care for each other better as a result of her mother’s Long Covid.
I think overall we just have a better idea of how to like care for our mum, because in the end when we’re sick our mum always cares for us, she has, she knows what to do, she’s like if you’re sick put like a fever pad on your back or drink this tea and that tea, but for us when our mum was ill, which she always is, we had no idea what to do. I think after she got Long Covid then she became completely dependent on us and then through that we’ve learnt as well how to actually care for our mum and if our dad he does, but if he doesn’t, but then we know better how to look after her and cook for them.
Or, you know like say for example is my mum will go, no I don’t need any help but it doesn’t mean you don’t give any help, you still help her, be adamant, yes you need help, before I, especially for me I would have said like oh she says she doesn’t need any help, so I won’t give any help but and now I’m like I don’t know what she’s thinking inside, I’ll still help her, it’s like that we’ve grown a better attitude to how to care for each other.
Mehjabin’s family have a cooking YouTube channel that was put on hold while her mother was most unwell.
Mehjabin’s family have a cooking YouTube channel that was put on hold while her mother was most unwell.
A big, a big change that Long Covid caused I think for us it’s a bit bigger, so my mum had a YouTube channel and we are really dedicated on posting videos onto YouTube, specifically during that Covid time because it was the only time we ever did it but we had to, we never, we had no new videos to post at all and resorted to, because we don’t want to just pause the channel we want it to grow eventually so we ended up resorting to making compilations of our old videos which was shocking even for us like we’ve never gone this low we have always had new recipes together we, and all of a sudden we’re just giving compilations just in an attempt to keep stuff running, so that was a big change for us. I think after a few weeks we decreased it from twice a week to once a week and one time we didn’t post at all and it was just really big for us because the channel’s a big team family project and it just went to this really low point, but after that stuff, stuff started picking up when my mum became better, once feeling better eventually.
Yeah and it as just like, like because we had a store of like recipes and all of a sudden they just kept decreasing and decreasing and there was nothing to post for like oh… and our mum was too sick but she was like just make a few compilations so we don’t want to have nothing posted, she was really worried about the channel she was like yeah we started it and we want it to like grow big, we can’t stop now, yeah.
Has your mum been able to get back to filming new recipes?
Yeah, she’s become more healthy and she’s able to stand up for longer periods of time but sometimes she has to sit down and take a break. But for her it’s more of a hobby she enjoys doing it, she doesn’t see it as like a chore or I have to do it she does it out of her own, she goes to my dad oh do you want do some recipes this weekend and go and buy this pineapple I saw on sale and we’ll make some pineapple recipes, at one point they bought a load of mangos and they made like five mango recipes in a day. But they enjoy it, it’s like a pass time.
Mehjabin is a young carer for a parent with Long Covid and described the difficulty of trying to get care through eConsult and feeling bounced between 111 and A&E.
Mehjabin is a young carer for a parent with Long Covid and described the difficulty of trying to get care through eConsult and feeling bounced between 111 and A&E.
I think for her it’s just mainly been really annoying, it’s just even for us as well because say she has a new pain propping up or there’s something next, she has a new joint pain that came out of nowhere and she really wants to talk to her GP about it, you couldn’t get them on a phone call, and you use the eConsult system. But then we knew when ask about symptoms and we just take something, like no call 999 straight way you can’t proceed further with this GP service. So, then we would call 911 first because we didn’t think it was life-threatening immediately, but then I think one time they [911] referred her to 999 and they came and they’re like what’s so serious about this, you should have just gone to the GP, so just in the end the GP referring us to A&E, and A&E referring us to GP, and nothing was happening in between. That was annoying for her, like you spend a long time trying to get like the message across and nothing’s happening.
Mehjabin wants health professionals to take her mother’s health ‘more seriously,’ rather than thinking her symptoms were due to ‘normal chronic pain.’
Mehjabin wants health professionals to take her mother’s health ‘more seriously,’ rather than thinking her symptoms were due to ‘normal chronic pain.’
I think treat Long Covid separately to the rest of, like your health history, like example of my mum, they shouldn’t have been like, it’s just part of your normal chronic pain, it’s just increased, it’s normal, maybe just treat it separately even just invite her to come down, let’s look at you and check how you are. A similar example happened with my dad, it was ages ago but it was where something happened to him but they’re like no it’s, he had heartburn, but they’re like ‘No, it’s normal’ and then later after he started like vomiting blood and went to the hospital they’re like you have this bacteria on you, only like people who drink a lot, smoke a lot have, and it’s a rare case and if you don’t come then obviously it would have been more devastating but just because the GP didn’t bother, they’re like oh it’s just normal heartburn, even though my dad like persisted with it.
So, it’s just I feel like they should take it more seriously because I’m applying for medicine so I’ve seen a side they’re like oh a lot of times patients just exaggerate their cases so they can be helped but a lot of times it’s not just that, they’re doing this so they can actually be seen. If I have a cough and I’m exaggerating it then I obviously think it’s really serious and to try and look at it, not be like another issue. The shortage of staff, I feel like that’s the reason why they’re not prioritising properly, yeah.