Razia

Brief Outline:

Razia found out she was pregnant early during the pandemic. She was concerned about the impact of Covid and the pandemic on her pregnancy. She caught Covid in January 2021 and was in extreme pain. Her baby also suffered from breathlessness. She is living with Long Covid symptoms, and finds the brain fog a particular challenge. Razia was interviewed in July 2021.

More clips from Razia’s interview can be found on the Covid-19 in the community

Background:

Razia is in her 30s and is Pakistani. She is married and has three children. She worked in government services and is setting up a business.

More about me...

Razia heard about Covid in early 2020, but ‘didn’t really pay much attention to it because it was happening on the other side of the world’. She found out she was pregnant with her third child soon after. She found the uncertainty around the impact the pandemic was going to have on her pregnancy care difficult. Two of her siblings also had babies during the pandemic, so they were able to share experiences.

When the first lockdown eased Razia and her husband decided to maintain a more cautious life, because they weren’t sure about the potential impact of Covid on Razia’s pregnancy or the baby. After she had the baby the country went into another lockdown. This was difficult because it meant she lost her social network – ‘everything around you changes, that support network can’t be there and you need them’.

Razia remembers that she and her husband felt ‘a bit under the weather’ in January 2021. A few days later she woke up in such pain that she felt like she’d been ‘battered with a baseball bat head to toe’. This lasted a few days and was like a ‘terrible flu’. Her baby also had some symptoms and was struggling to breathe. It was difficult to get professionals to take the baby’s symptoms seriously, but eventually a GP recognised that he might also have Covid and he was referred for further tests in hospital.

Razia’s husband recovered from Covid within ten days, but she was affected by longer term symptoms which lasted several months. Brain fog, breathlessness and fatigue were particularly challenging for Razia. The brain fog was worse than anything she had experienced before, saying ‘it’s not just forgetting why you’ve walked into a room or forgetting where you’ve put the keys, it’s actually bigger than that, it scared me’. She was frustrated with the difficulty of getting an appointment at the Long Covid clinic.

Though lots of life plans had to change because of the pandemic and the long-term effects of Covid, Razia was grateful that her children were healthy and happy. She took strength from her religion and listened to Islamic hymns to help her meditate and relax.

 

More clips from Razia’s interview can be found on the Covid-19 in the community

 

Razia was told by a hospital Covid specialist that children do not have Long Covid symptoms.

Razia was told by a hospital Covid specialist that children do not have Long Covid symptoms.

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Between the first and the second visit he woke up in the middle of the night and he was kicking. He was like twisting his body. He was like smacking his head back on, in in the cot and I was like, “Oh my god, he’s fitting.” But he wasn’t. He was wide awake. He was crying. He was agitated. And the only thing I can think of because, even though the Covid specialist at the hospital said, “Oh I’ve not come across that. I don’t think kids have such symptoms because babies normally are fine.”

But then they very quickly realised that he’s one of the exceptions and maybe other children have it or babies have had it and the symptoms have been overlooked because they’re not the common ones we’re told about in the media. So straight away in my family we were all like, don’t go by, babies don’t get it, kids are safe, because they’re not, you know. And for a lot of people around me, that actually changed the way they then, you know, went around their daily business but, in the end, we got the results back from the camera down. They said to me that they couldn’t see anything so there was nothing clogging him, so they couldn’t explain why he, his chest and throat were all so noisy. And the only thing, even now, they say is it’s all Covid. It’s all Covid related because there was no, nothing congesting his nose or nothing like that.

 

Razia’s one-year-old caught Covid in January 2021. He had breathing difficulties but this improved over time.

Razia’s one-year-old caught Covid in January 2021. He had breathing difficulties but this improved over time.

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His breathing is still loud, so even though the mega episodes of the two, three hours of up to seventy, eighty breaths a minute has stopped pretty much that was only last month, in the last month, like in the beginning of June maybe. Other otherwise it sort of up until the end of May he was still having even if it was one a day, he was still having episodes of. Mostly in the morning, he was waking up and his breathing was really, really fast and then, as the day went on, it would get better. But he still does have, throughout the day, it’s a lot noisier than it would be normally. It’s a lot it still gets a bit fast sometimes.

 

Razia and her husband both needed to work to “keep a roof over our head”. It was difficult to manage childcare, their jobs, and her fatigue.

Razia and her husband both needed to work to “keep a roof over our head”. It was difficult to manage childcare, their jobs, and her fatigue.

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So, it’s like I can only go back to work and negotiate hours and know what days I’m working if I have the childcare in place. So, the only thing we can do is hubby stays at home while I’m working and then we swap when he gets back, when I get back and, even now, like I had a day yesterday where I spent most of the morning in bed. I couldn’t move and, you know, I thought I thought I’d got rid of that. I thought that horrific pain, that horrific exhaustion because I mean I’m always I’m always tired. I always have pain somewhere or another but to that level where I can’t literally even lift my baby out of a cot. I can’t even sit up.

My husband he was he was sort of the girls were up and they were jumping all over him and trying get him. He put his head round after doing the morning routine to see if I’m up yet and he’s like, he didn’t even say anything and, when I went down, I made it up that lunchtime, he said, “I just put my head round and I thought, no, not today. She can’t do it.” Which is great that, you know, he was able to because he’s self-employed because, so you know he gets that flexibility there and I just I just think about all those people who might not have that luxury or that that flexibility. And I said to him, I said, “I’m supposed to be going back to work in September.”

Then, you know, again, the anxiety is building up where how are we going to manage with that because if we don’t have the nursery places, if we don’t, we can’t have him at home day and night, you know, while I’m at work and then I’m too exhausted to do anything else or I’m in too much pain. So, he then has to do the night shift at home as well, it’s like, working fifteen hours a week, I’m going to be, that’s not enough to keep a roof over our head and we’ve already been told by our landlord that we’ve got to look elsewhere. And it was hard enough before the pandemic to find a place that would allow you to rent with children. And that’s affordable, to be honest, because [city] is not the cheapest but he’s already said, “You guys need to look for somewhere.” And it’s, it hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t been easy to try and find somewhere and I thought, I can’t give up, because even though it’s fifteen hours a week, I can’t give that up because that’s that extra bit of income coming home but we can’t have him off work all the time because he he’ll only earn if he’s working.

 

Razia’s family now relies on her husband’s income which is “not enough to keep a roof over our head”.

Razia’s family now relies on her husband’s income which is “not enough to keep a roof over our head”.

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And I said to him, I said, “I’m supposed to be going back to work in September.” Then, you know, again, the anxiety is building up where how are we going to manage with that because if we don’t have the nursery places, if we don’t, we can’t have him at home day and night, you know, while I’m at work and then I’m too exhausted to do anything else or I’m in too much pain. So, he then has to do the night shift at home as well, it’s like, working fifteen hours a week, I’m going to be, that’s not enough to keep a roof over our head and we’ve already been told by our landlord that we’ve got to look elsewhere. And it was hard enough before the pandemic to find a place that would allow you to rent with children.

And that’s affordable, to be honest, because [city] is not the cheapest but he’s already said, “You guys need to look for somewhere.” And it’s, it hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t been easy to try and find somewhere and I thought, I can’t give up, because even though it’s fifteen hours a week, I can’t give that up because that’s that extra bit of income coming home but we can’t have him off work all the time because he he’ll only earn if he’s working.