Esther X
Esther is 26 years old and is Jewish.
Esther tested positive for Covid in January 2021. She unclear when she caught the virus, believing she either caught it attending her grandfather’s funeral or when her family gathered to support her grandmother during that difficult time. Esther was ill for weeks after testing positive and now suffers from Long Covid symptoms. Esther was interviewed in October 2021.
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Esther first heard about Covid on the news. She knew as the virus spread through Europe it was a matter of time before it reached the UK. Esther eventually caught Covid in January 2021. She believes she caught the virus after attending her grandfather’s funeral, although, she is not certain, as she may have caught it during the time her family gathered to support her grandmother after her grandfather’s death. Esther recalled how following the funeral her family group chat was flooded with messages from family members stating that they had also tested positive.
Both Esther and her partner tested positive for the virus. While her partner had relatively mild symptoms and quickly recovered, Esther was unwell for weeks. She recalls it taking three weeks until she was able to eat again and that symptoms persisted four to five weeks after she had tested positive. Esther’s main symptoms included extreme fatigue and a high fever, the latter causing her to seek medical advice through NHS 111. It was the initial fatigue that led to Esther taking a test. She told her partner “Oh my God, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.” Having heard this phrase used by others with Covid, her partner encouraged her to get tested.
At the time of the interview, Esther felt she had not regained her previous energy levels. She was previously a very active person but found herself becoming breathless and felt her fitness had gone. It was on the news that Esther first heard about the term ‘Long Covid’. However, it wasn’t until a later conversation with her partner that Esther started to consider that she herself had Long Covid. She visited her GP, who diagnosed her with Long Covid, prescribed an inhaler for her breathlessness, and ordered her a chest scan. Esther expressed that she would be upset if she caught Covid again as she worried it would make her Long Covid symptoms worse.
Esther explains how difficult it was to make an appointment with her GP, although she thinks that if it had been really urgent there may have been another way
Esther explains how difficult it was to make an appointment with her GP, although she thinks that if it had been really urgent there may have been another way
So, I think this is actually quite minor, but it took me quite a long time to be able to get a doctor’s appointment to even have that five minute conversation with my GP because previously what would happen is, previously at my GP you would just call up first thing in the morning or not even first thing in the morning and you would arrange a call back and the receptionist would say, great, Doctor X will call you back between this time and this time. But they have recently, over the last couple of months, I presume because they’re really overstretched, they’ve started a system where you’ve basically got to sign into— to Patient Access. Like first thing in the morning like 7am in order to book yourself a call back from a GP. And so for a few days, even though I was kind of logging into Patient Access at like 7.30, all of the time slots had been taken, already. And so it actually took me a couple, it took me maybe three or four days until I actually could get a time slot basically to get that GP to give me a call. And I think if it was like a, if it was a really pressing issue, I probably, like I would have been able to call my GP and, and call the receptionist and just say, “It’s really urgent.” But I don't know, I guess it wasn’t like you know, life or death at that point, really. But maybe, in retrospect, maybe I should have done [laughs].
Esther X had gone back to playing football, but now just played in goal instead of midfield.
Esther X had gone back to playing football, but now just played in goal instead of midfield.
Yeah. Well I mean, yeah, like kind of, but I actually think, you know, I’ve managed to work around it a little bit. Like, you know, I played football once a week or at least I did, previously. And now, I just play in goal [laughs]. You know, and so I’ll maybe have like a couple of minutes of playing out and you know, playing mid-field or whatever. But then after I’m done, you know, my teammates understand when I say, I need to go back in goal now, you know. So, like, you know, we you know, I’ve managed to adapt, I guess and still to you know, try to find joy in those things even if I can’t participate as I would like to, if that makes sense. But no, oh my God like people have it so much worse. Like that person that you were just talking about who like can’t get through a sentence. At least I can do that, you know.