Nargis

Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Pakistani
Background: Nargis is 43 years old and is Pakistani. She lives with her husband and son. Nargis tested positive for Covid during the January 2021 lockdown after she, along with her husband and son, developed symptoms. She felt that having Covid made the pain from her pre-existing condition worse. Her symptoms were different from other people’s.

Nargis was aware of Covid in 2019, but she didn’t expect it to come to the UK and couldn’t believe in this day and age it would happe. With lots of misinformation about Covid circulating, Nargis wasn’t sure how bad it was until she, along with her husband and son, tested positive in January 2021. At first, she thought she had a bad case of the flu, but the symptoms continued to develop and included feeling so weak that she could barely stand long enough to brush her teeth. She didn’t lose her sense of smell and instead experienced heightened senses.

Nargis felt helpless while she had Covid because there wasn’t any medication she could take to ease the pain. She also found that Covid made the pain she felt from a pre-existing thyroid condition ten times wors, to the point where she couldn’t tolerate the pain andjust didn’t understand what was going o. Nargis didn’t feel that doctors were very helpful but found it difficult not being able to see them face-face.

Despite being afraid at the beginning of the pandemic, Nargis explains that she saw the positive side during the first lockdown because everyone was together at home. She was scared that because her son was asthmatic he would suffer more if he caught Covid, so he wasn’t allowed outside for months. When he did catch Covid, he lost his appetite after he had recovered from his other symptoms, but it returned when he went back to school. Nargis felt reassured that schools were testing pupils for Covid.

Nargis didn’t participate in any clinical trials because she didn’t experience the symptoms the trials were looking for. She chose to participate in this research project because she wanted to let people know that not everyone has the same symptoms when they get Covid.

At first, Nargis was a little bit sceptical about getting the vaccine and this wasn’t helped by the rumours which were being spread about it. However, she felt that it was important to have the vaccine because she can’t risk to get it agai. Nargis wishes she;d had the vaccine earlier so she wouldn’t have caught Covid in the first place.

Nargis had taken all her childhood vaccinations but felt differently about Covid vaccines at first because of rumours.

Age at interview 43

I mean we; I’ve had all the other vaccines ever since I was young, you know, sort of from child to adult and at first, I was a bit sceptical and then, obviously, all these stupid rumours going round.

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Nargis, who caught Covid in January 2021, usually has joint pain but Covid made it ‘ten times worse’.

Age at interview 43

Yeah, it’s I’ve got inflammation with it and I’ve got my body hurts inside and my generally, just causes joint pain and I just always get joint pains so. And it sort of made everything worse, I would say ten times worse and it was really bad. I couldn’t tolerate the pain at all. I was taking paracetomol and then I get really cold because of my underactive thyroid and this, it actually made it worse. And I was feeling really cold. It was like a cold shower was sort of. But it was in my body inside and I’d get stabbing pains going all around my body. So I’d take paracetomol for it and then I’d start feeling hot and I’d get really sleepy. I’d sleep about ten minutes and when I’d wake up, I had a fever. Yeah, all my symptoms were really strange. And it just went around in circles.

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Nargis caught Covid in January 2021. Everything smelt like eggs and washing powder became overwhelming.

Age at interview 43

I mean, to tell you the truth, I couldn’t manage anything. I, you know, my husband, he was, he had it himself. He was unwell. He was passing me water in bed and anything, you know, I couldn’t eat. Even if he was passing me food, I couldn’t eat. My, I mean with Covid they say your taste and your smell goes but mine was enhanced. Even the slightest spicy food was extremely spicy for me. I couldn’t I just couldn’t manage it. Eggs, eggs smelt to me, I couldn’t eat them. And for example, everything smelt really, really bad to me. Like I told you before, my husband changed the bedsheets and, although they had been washed like two weeks previously. It smelt like they’d just come out the wash and they still had washing powder in them. That’s how much washing powder I smelt off the bedsheets.

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Nargis did not let her son out of the house for three months because he has asthma.

Age at interview 43

First lockdown, did you feel vulnerable? Did you feel at risk, you know, back then?  

More than myself, I was concerned for my son because he is asthmatic and that, to me, it was, you know, please, I’d say to my husband, wash, make sure he was really careful and then I was really careful and, in the first lockdown, I wouldn’t allow him out even for exercise, my son. I was that scared. So that’s why I keep on saying it’s scary, not for me, but for him. I was concerned for his health. For three months, I didn’t allow him out-out at all.

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