Kiran

Kiran has asthma and had Covid in September 2021. She had fatigue and a very nasty dry cough. When she ate she would start coughing and found it difficult to breathe. Since having Covid, Kiran now falls ill very easily with headache, dizziness and temperature and gets very tired. She needs a day to rest in bed and then she feels better again. Other times she also gets sickness and vomiting, although that is less common. A sports injury led to her having bad body aches which have become worse since having Covid. There are no special measures put in place at College to help her falling ill so often so she’ll “just power through.”

The day after her first Covid vaccination Kiran felt dizzy and had a high temperature during the night but by the next morning it was gone. She took two Covid tests and both were positive. Kiran has asthma and during her Covid infection, she had a really bad dry cough and found it difficult to breathe, which was made worse when she was eating so she stopped eating for a couple of days. She drank lots of warm liquids.

Kiran started getting better but she was still very breathless. After doing normal activity she would be “very breathless and very, very tired” and her legs would start shaking. Kiran had to take time off College mid-September. She wanted to get better so although it was Ramadan she waited for two weeks before fasting.

She told her College tutor why she was having days off but there had been no notes put on her record which caused problems for her. This has now been fixed but there are no special measures put in place at College to help her manage falling ill so often so she’ll “just power through.”

Since having Covid she gets tired more easily and becomes ill more easily with headache, dizziness and temperature and she has to stay in bed the whole day. Other times she also gets sickness and vomiting, although that is less common. She hasn’t spoken to a doctor because she gets over it in a day and she’ll go back to College and do her normal days.

Kiran now tries to stay away from the cold and the rain because she feels more ill. When it’s really cold her chest starts tightening up and she can’t breathe properly so she makes sure she is warmly dressed.

Since having a sports injury in year 9, Kiran has had “really bad body aches” which is currently being investigated at the hospital. But since having Covid her body aches have increased. At night-time, she gets “very bad aches” and pain from her “waist to below her toes” and she feels like she is “going paralysed.” It can also happen if she’s standing for too long or walking, when her feet start hurting and get swollen and it’s hard for her to walk the next day.

After her second Covid vaccine, Kiran’s arm was aching and she had fatigue. She was in bed for two days, but she felt better after two day’s rest.

Kiran’s sisters also have Long Covid symptoms so they share the workload in their home and look after each other. They share a bedroom so she says there can be no privacy if one of them is feeling unwell and everyone gets more frustrated and argues more. However, they try to support each other when they can.

Kiran’s college knew that she had Long Covid but didn’t put anything in place to help her manage. She said she just had to “deal with it” and tried her best in her first-year exams.

Age at interview 17

With college, do you have any special things put in place to help manage the fact that you've fallen ill a lot or?

Yeah

You just like deal with it.

Yeah, I've gotta deal with it. Obviously they found out, I obviously told my old tutor, but then she left. She didn't tell anyone. Obviously they're bit too late now to, what's it called, ‘cause obviously I finished college now innit and I've finished college now. My first year’s finished, I'm onto second year, but obviously nothing's been put in place for me, and I just had to go college and yeah.

Do you have exams the first year or is it just at this end of the second year?

No, I had exams the first year.

So you've just had your exams basically. Did they go alright?

I tried my best [laugh]. I tried my best but yeah, we’ll see on the exams. We’ll see on the results day.

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Kiran would sometimes get ‘really, really bad pains’ at night from her waist to below her toes.

Age at interview 17

Okay, so sometimes I like at night-time they’re from my waist to below my toes. They’re like very bad aches where I can't even get up and get medicines for myself. And it will be at night-time when everybody sleeping so I can't tell anyone to get medicine for me. They're like – I think they're in my joints, I think so. It’s just really, really, really bad pains and it's like I'm feeling I'm going paralysed. That's how it feels like. And it's like really bad pain and I can't get up myself to go get the medication for paracetamol to make the pain go. Or what I do, I just go to sleep like that and the worst that it happens at night-time and normally when I'm like standing too long or like walking, what’s it called like my legs start hurting, my feet start hurting, they start getting swollen and it's just very hard for me to walk the next day after that.

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Kiran was often sleeping in the living room, or her mum’s room instead of in her bedroom with her six sisters, as it was better for her asthma.

Age at interview 17

Can you wake up someone to get you medication?

Normally I do what's it called, do that, but obviously everyone's sleeping because in my room, in my room there's like six bunkbeds there and I don't sleep there right now because obviously my asthma and it’s too closed up for me. So I just sleep either in the living room or in my mum's room. So yeah, I normally tell my mum to get me paracetamol and things like that, but if she's sleeping ‘cause she takes medicines but if she's sleeping, I'll try get up or like call one of my sisters, but if they don't pick up, then that means they're sleeping, obviously.

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Normal activities that Kiran used to do before Covid now made her breathless and ‘very, very tired.’

Age at interview 17

So, whenever I do normal activity like I used to do before Covid, I'll just get very breathless and very, very tired. Very tired ‘cause obviously this was in the beginning of college, I started in September. It was the end of September. I got it like mid-September, and I got out and then I was very tired, and I took a week off college because of how tired I was. Like I couldn't do nothing. My legs would start shaking. When I do any like normal activity, my legs would start shaking. I'll get tired very easily and yeah, and I used to get I fall ill more now easily. That's one thing. After Covid I realised I fall ill very easily before. I never used to fall ill that easily, but now I fall ill easily so yeah.

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