Poppy

Brief Outline:

Poppy developed Covid symptoms in late April 2020, but they got worse around September. Poppy has previously recovered from ME over 20 years ago and is optimistic about recovering from Long Covid too, but she doesn’t know when. Poppy was interviewed in November 2021.

Poppy is a 57-year-old freight train driver living with her husband, and teenage son. Ethnicity: White English.

More about me...

Poppy kept working as a train driver when the first lockdown started in March 2020 but had to stop when she developed Covid symptoms at the end of April 2020. A month after her first symptoms, she suspected that she had Long Covid – so she kept “pestering” her doctor about getting a diagnosis. While Poppy’s GP only added fatigue and breathlessness to her notes, the occupational health doctor she saw through her employer recognised that Poppy “ticked all the boxes” for Long Covid.

When Poppy was referred to a Long Covid clinic, it was virtual – where a nurse referred her to other specialists – unlike some of the face-to-face clinics, which she had heard good things about. A respiratory physiotherapist gave her exercises but couldn’t see that Poppy was struggling with them. Poppy feels that in-person clinics would have been better because the physiotherapist could have checked her breathing better than on an online call. She was discharged when she couldn’t do the exercises set by the physiotherapist. She tried to “power through” but found that “pushing it is the very worst thing you can do”. Poppy has also been diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS - an abnormal increase in heart rate that occurs after sitting up or standing) and finds that exercises make her feel worse.

Poppy hasn’t been able to go back to work because she hasn’t recovered. She was receiving statutory sick pay and topped this money up with her disability benefit for Long Covid. She has since lost her job. Poppy is thankful to the charity volunteer who helped her claim the disability benefit.

Long Covid has impacted Poppy’s family life too, as she feels that it stops her from being “a proper mother”. She thinks that her teenage son is coping well but also feels that seeing his mum get sick overnight has been hard. Her son had his GCSEs interrupted by the lockdowns, and she feels that his head wasn’t in the right place when he started sixth form. Poppy feels that him seeing her sick has helped him follow his dream of training to be a paratrooper sooner rather than later.

Poppy feels that being in a wheelchair since developing Long Covid has made her invisible to people and is upset that she now is unable to cook or play the baritone horn like she used to. However, she still sings in a choir which continued over zoom during the lockdowns, and she uses an app to stay mentally active. She is optimistic about getting better, but she doesn’t know when.

Poppy, a parent with Long Covid, felt that people treated her differently when she was in a wheelchair.

Do you feel like people look at you differently or treat you differently when you’re out and about?

Absolutely. If I’m in the wheelchair, I’m invisible. Don’t even look at me at all even if I’m talking to them, they don’t look at me. It’s ridiculous. I’m still a person, even, you know, sitting down that’s all.

Have your family been with you when you on those occasions?

Yeah.

What do they think about it?

They don’t say anything. Just wait till we’ve parted our ways and then have a grumble about it… You know, the real well-known Evangelist at a church I went to a couple of weeks ago, very well known. I won’t say his name [laughs]. I was talking to him with my friends that I’d gone with and my son and he didn't look at me once, even though I was talking to him [laughs] and he was so short he could’ve looked me straight in the eye [laughs]. Almost [laughs].

A charity helped Poppy complete her disability benefit application. She believes she wouldn’t have been successful without their help.

The disability one is a nightmare. But I had help from a volunteer from a charity who was with me on the phone call were they said you can do it on the phone now and not in real life because of Covid. And when they turned me down ‘cos they’d made so many mistakes, she wrote a very strongly worded letter to them saying exactly what they’d, they’d made the mistakes. Like one of the lines said, ‘I think she could walk 200 metres.’ I don’t know where she got that from, but there’s no way I could walk 200 metres. So, they gave it to me after, after she sent the letters in [laughs].

How did you come across the woman from the charity who was able to help out?

I think I was, I was watching a lecture on Long Covid from—it was an ME charity, but they were talking about Long Covid. I think I was watching a lecture and then got involved with them that way. Found out they’d got a department at this charity that helps people apply.

Yeah, that’s lucky

That was really lucky, yeah. Probably wouldn't’ve got it without that, definitely.

Poppy’s son, who would make lunch for her during the day, saw his mother get sick ‘overnight’.

Are you able to make yourself lunch?

No. It means going downstairs and getting everything ready.

So, does someone make lunch beforehand for you?

Yeah or my son will get it for me when he’s here during the day. I think he had, ‘cos he’s looking for a job at the moment, so if he gets one then we’ll have to re-think it out. Might be my husband has to leave a sandwich as well as breakfast, maybe, I don't know.

Yeah, so your son, is he sort of between school and finishing school or?

He’s finished school. He, he, he lost his way academically during, during the lockdown ‘cos he was meant to be doing his GCSEs that year. And they just got abandoned, basically. He tried to go back into sixth form and he’s, his head wasn’t in the right place. He saw me get sick overnight, virtually. Realised that if you really want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. Don’t leave it till later, just in case.