When Lynne Woodhouse first started to feel poorly in late March last year, she had never heard of Long Covid and had no idea how serious her health problems would become.
At the time it was “a bit of cough and a sore throat” thought Lynne, who lives in Daybrook and works for a major supermarket.
“I’m someone who never feels the cold, but I had to wear my jacket and so a colleague joked ‘gosh you must be ill!’’” recalls Lynne, aged 57. “I have mild COPD so I thought it must be to do with that.”
Little did she realise how rapidly she would deteriorate with COVID-19. Ultimately, Lynne spent six weeks being cared for by staff from Nottingham University Hospitals, including at Queen’s Medical Centre in an induced coma as a ventilator took over her breathing.
A few days after first feeling ill, Lynne had phoned in sick from work with a “blinding headache and terrible chills”.
Symptoms worsened over the coming days with Lynne - who has a son in his thirties and two grandchildren - experiencing vomiting and diarrhoea.
Social media saved me
“Social media saved my life, as my daughter-in-law said there is something wrong, as they hadn’t seen me on Facebook for over 12 hours and that was not like me.”
Her son Matthew, who lives in South Wales, summoned family members in concern. They came to Lynne’s house where they needed to get a ladder to see through Lynn’s bedroom window.
COVID-19 had left Lynne delirious and unable to leave her bedroom. Her family summoned an ambulance crew who had to break in to her house and then rush Lynne to the QMC.
Shortly after arrival on the ward Lynne remembers: “A nurse gave me my phone and said ‘Do you need to ring anybody, as we need to put you to sleep’?
“So she dialled the numbers, and I managed to speak to my sister and my son…basically saying ‘Goodbye.’
“The doctors said this could go either way and the best chance for you to be treated is to put you into an induced coma. I was encouraged to say what I needed to…the ‘I love yous’.” Then that was it for about five weeks…”
Slow rehabilitation
On emerging from the coma, Lynne was moved to Nottingham City Hospital to begin the slow process of rehabilitation. Her time on the ventilator had been difficult, and while unconscious she had suffered from a series of vivid nightmares.
Although Lynne feels about 50% better than she was before COVID-19, she still struggles to put on long sleeve tops due to the lack of mobility of her arms, has insomnia and suffers from stress.
“I still cannot smell or taste and I haven’t slept under the covers of my bed as I feel trapped, as though I can't breathe, “ she added. “I also had a panic attack at the dentist. While they were working in my mouth I couldn't swallow and breathe and I looked up to see staff in full PPE, which brought a few things back to me.”
As for the care Lynne received at Nottingham University Hospitals, she said it was, “fabulous". "I can’t thank staff enough for everything. They were so caring, nothing was too much trouble.”
Her rehabilitation started with physiotherapy enabling Lynne to sit up and then stand, but weeks of COVID-19 and ventilation had left her very weak, so regaining mobility was challenging.
On her return home in May, she needed oxygen from a portable machine and help from her son Matthew, who moved up from his home in South Wales to give her assistance with day-to-day life.
“It was as though I was an OAP or had had a stroke. Because I have lived on my own for 20 years and done everything for myself, it felt like I had totally lost my independence, which upset me.”
Last August, Professor Charlotte Bolton, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at NUH and one of the researchers now leading studies in to Long Covid as part of the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, referred Lynne for further support including exercise classes. “It gave me some motivation and got me driving again. It was a shame the classes only lasted six weeks.”
While under NUH’s treatment, Lynne volunteered to enrol in the GenOMICC research study, which looks to better understand patients’ genetic suspectibility to COVID-19.
Why research is so important
She is supportive of more studies being carried out into COVID-19.
“Research is very important as it is about understanding the unknown. Everybody is different; everybody has a different set of symptoms, so we need to know how it affects people, and the categories of people that are affected.
“So we learn from it and we help in future and get it right first time. Back in March we didn’t know about COVID-19, and one of the doctors said to me ‘We are learning from people like you.”
Lynne is also backing the new Nottingham Hospitals Charity appeal to raise money for Long COVID research, “because only good can come out of it and people will be better off for it, and hopefully doctors and others involved in research will be better informed because of the findings”.
