Fiona is a lecturer and caught Covid in mid-November 2021. By that stage she had received two vaccines and had been careful to try to avoid Covid because she had been ill over several years with Lyme disease. At first, Fiona experienced extreme dizziness and a bad headache from Covid. She then experienced chest pains, bloodshot eyes, and lost her sense of taste and smell after a few days. She was in bed for 10 days, exhausted to the point she couldn’t get up, and had a high temperature. She also experienced joint swelling and peripheral neuropathy.

Fiona tried going back to work after about three weeks, pushing through her ongoing symptoms of vertigo. After having a booster vaccine in early 2022, things started to get worse and she felt like she had ‘fallen off a cliff’. She was found to have a heart murmur and a leaking heart valve. Her cognitive functioning was affected and the chest pains were what forced her to stop and ask for help. She said she had very conflicting advice about how long to wait after having Covid, before having her booster vaccine.

Prior to catching Covid, even though she had been badly affected over several years after having Lyme disease, Fiona was managing to stay active, pace her activities and had good stamina in her busy job. She has noticed some similarities between her Long Covid symptoms and how she felt after having Lyme disease. She had expected it might take a while to recover from Covid. She is most worried about her cognitive symptoms. Fiona finds people who have had similar experiences are easier to talk to and she hasn’t told everyone about her Long Covid because they may not understand.

She is exercising a little to maintain other aspects of her health but if she overdoes it, her symptoms are worse. She hasn’t fully got her sense of taste and smell back and has times when her coordination isn’t fully there. She has returned to work on reduced hours as a phased return. She is starting to have ‘good pockets’ when she feels more like herself and is able to do more, but she still has to take time out to recover from activities.

Fiona found her GP supportive, but recognised that, like others, she didn’t ask for help as early as she could. Because of her previous condition she was under the care of NHS specialists who diagnosed Long Covid and put a treatment plan in place quickly. She was prescribed painkillers and medication for blood pressure, but a number of weeks after the infection her blood pressure returned to normal and she no longer needs to take these.

Fiona thinks it is important for health professionals to listen to everyone’s different experiences and keep up with the research, and for employers to be patient and kind. She also wonders about government level financial support for people and for smaller businesses affected by people being off with Long Covid.