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Its so weird seeing the first anniversary of the Arrowe Park quarantine of the Wuhan evacuees, especially as people in the local hospital were already sick with what must have been covid.
There had been a group of people attached to a local sports club who had visited Wuhan in Oct/Nov of 2019. After that they were all unwell with a respiratory virus, which worked its way through various other local, connected groupings
My mother was an inpatient in our local hospital, and it was about this time when the doctors were talking to us about the strange, viral pneumonia she had developed that they'd never seen anything like and couldn't find the right treatment for
They weren't sure what it was because it was so weird and her xrays looked strange and it didn't respond to the conventional treatments and they didn't know quite what to do
Of course, there weren't any restrictions on visiting or hygiene yet, beyond the standard encouragement to hand sanitise going in and out of wards. There certainly weren't any masks. I remember sitting on my mum's hospital bed, with the consultant explaining what he planned
Now, I look back with some sort of shocked confusion that we were all so close together, unmasked. But then, my overwhelming sense was how empathetic and impressive this consultant was, especially as there had been some less than impressive care
Within a couple of weeks, my little boy was ill. It was about 10 days before the Feb half term, we took him to our doctors. I remember telling the receptionists that he had possible overseas contacts through school, but they said everyone was hysterical about it. No masks yet
The (then) 4 year old was the kind of kid poorly where you sit up with them all night because either they will suddenly improve or you'll have to rush them to hospital. The doctor's said he had a really nasty respiratory virus. No one had covid unless they'd been to China
The 4 year old had a few days off preschool, and following standard advice at the time, he went back to preschool 48 hours after being calpol free. He needed to go back because by this time my partner and I were ill too.
The preschool knew we were poorly as they'd agreed to take 4 yr old on extra days because I was so unwell. But they were clearly anxious and even though this was before the Feb half term, we got a call from the school nurse to they wanted me to speak to public health England
The preschool were so concerned that they wouldn't take 4 yr old until Public Health England had cleared us. Rumours among frontline healthcare workers locally were that covid was circulating in the community. I called the helpline, explained and they laughed.
Unless you'd been to or in close contact with someone who'd been to China, it wasn't covid. The 4 year old went back to preschool. My partner was not very well and I was increasingly unwell. I developed pneumonia. I've had pneumonia sufficient times to know this was v different
The next 10 days or so were very blurry. Much of the time I couldn't get out of bed. I crawled, gasping, to the toilet. My lungs burned. It felt nothing like a a normal, bacterial pneumonia. It was more obvious it wasn't the same when I did develop a 2ndary, bacterial pneumonia
My partner gradually recovered from what felt like a nasty flu bug. The 4 year old was bouncing. I was really bloody ill. We looked after our 4 year old throughout and did not drive 200 miles just in case we couldn't care for him. It was horrendous
My mother was dying. We knew she was terminally ill, but this weird, unidentifiable pneumonia was worse. I couldn't go anywhere near her, because you can't take extra pneumonia to someone with enough pneumonia of their own.
Even when I was crawling to the loo, gasping for breath, it never occurred to me to call an ambulance. A couple of times, just before I fell asleep, I feared I wouldn't wake up again. I was too ill to be able to care much about that
I had antibiotics for the secondary pneumonia. They eased the low lung bubbling of bacterial pneumonia, but did nothing for the widespread burning throughout both lungs. Or the deafness, kidney issues, weird swollen toe and all the other strange symptoms I had
Slowly, so slowly, things started to improve. I couldn't hear on my right side for months, couldn't smell or taste, gasped for breath and even for someone with long experience of disability and fatigue, was unusually exhausted
My mum improved too. She fought off that weird viral pneumonia several times, to the astonishment and pleasure of those caring for her. It kept coming back though, and it meant she was too ill to have the life extending treatment which had been planned for her cancer.
She bounced in and out of hospital with nursing care at home, until being taken back home the day before lockdown. We were so fortunate that a full home nursing package was already in place as part of her end of life plan
My mother died at home on April 1st. My father, sister and brother were there. I couldn't be there as I was still so unwell I couldn't crawp up the stairs to their inaccessible flat and felt too unsafe to be carried in. I feared leaving my 4 year old without his mother.
Like so many families, I had to say goodbye for the last time on a video call. My family were luckier than so many, being nursed at home meant that at least they could be there to hold her hand.
There wasn't a funeral. Dying at the peak of the first wave meant all we got was a vague time slot at the crematorium. My sister and father went and sat in the crematorium gardens at that time. My mum thought funerals were a waste of money, so we planned a celebration of party
Of course, we haven't had that party. My mum had so many friends that hundreds of people want to attend. Like her, I think funerals are a waste of money, but god, they matter. Grieving at home, alone, is not natural
We don't appear in any of the covid statistics. We weren't tested, weren't counted and none of us were supposed to have covid because it wasn't supposed to be circulating in hospitals and communities the way we now know it was
There are at least 100,000 families grieving loved ones who've died of covid. The numbers are too big for any of us to process the implications. And then there's who knows how many thousands more families with stories like ours, excluded from the official record
I'm not sure what the point of this thread is, but seeing the footage of those coaches arriving at arrowe park has brought back all the memories. Somewhere I have a photo of the media crews outside hospital, focused on that accommodation block, with their backs to the real danger
While they filmed, people streamed in and out of the main hospital building, where covid raged out of the view of their cameras.
I found the photos, Arrowe Park Hospital, 02/02/2020
