First published on 3 April 2020 and updated regularly due to ongoing symptoms. I hope my decision to share this home care guide is of help to others. 

 

I was aged 46 years old when I became ill. Apart from hay fever that occasionally brings on mild, seasonal asthma, I have no underlying health issues. Starting from 20th March 2020, the symptoms diary page is a patient log. I used it to refer back to when speaking with my doctor and paramedics. If you suffer from anxiety already, I'm not sure this will help you. The current apocalyptic atmosphere and whirlwind of bad news are distressing enough. Perhaps skip to the toolkit page - a list of things that helped me manage the illness at home. Please use the menu bar at the top of this page to navigate yourself around.

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We now think the rest of my family had a very mild version of the virus, consecutively over a few weeks, ending with me taking the Mother hit. It may have started with my husband, who spent a week noticing that he was more breathless than usual when he cycled to work and had a mild sore throat. We had just returned from a short trip to Barcelona. My 18-year-old daughter then had a sore throat and lethargy, and my 12-year son felt tired for a couple of days. My 7-year-old daughter had a sore throat, low-grade fever, swollen glands, conjunctivitis, upset stomach, headache, lethargy, and spots on her inflamed tonsils. It was 17 days before she felt well again, and another six weeks before she had fully recovered. Our doctor had ruled out coronavirus, thinking it was probably just a viral infection, given that we hadn't travelled to China or Italy. My daughter was given antibiotics in the second week, and experienced fatigue, headaches, swollen glands and stomach ache on and off for weeks afterwards. I became ill three days before the UK government announced a 'lockdown' on 20 March.

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