Issue 1 - Culture Club Magazine

Storytelling Hub
My Covid-19 experience - Saj Ghafoor
It’s been one hell of a month!!!
I went to Pakistan on 11th March with
my husband. Temperatures being
scanned as we arrived. On 13th March
we arrived at my cousin’s home as her
daughter was getting married on the
16th. Only to find that Lockdown had
been implemented and no public
gatherings were permitted.
The wedding happened be it on a much
smaller scale at home with close family.
On 17th March I felt unwell and could
not attend the groom’s limited Walima
reception. My husband did, which was in
Lahore. I travelled to my uncle’s house
where I was staying in Faisalabad.
My children began messaging me to
come home asap due to potential
lockdown in UK. To bring forward our
flights I found Qatar offices closed. I rang
my husband and told him to stay there. It
was 4pm by now. I went online and
booked a hotel, packed up and my cousin
organised a private taxi to take us to
Lahore for 5pm.
As my cousin and husband tried to figure
out how to get a racsha (tuc tuc)to the
Qatar office, I ordered an Uber taxi. All
was calm at the office, waited an hour in
the queue and our flights were
transferred to Lahore for Friday 20th
March in the early hours. My cousin said
that the airport required blood tests to
verify we did not have the virus, which
would take 2-3 days. Qatar staff said
that was not true. It was as normal.
I still felt under the weather and a cough
developed. The flight was as normal,
landed in Manchester, picked up our car
and came home. We self isolated from
each other in the house as soon as we
arrived back.
By the evening my breathing became
laboured. I took my inhalers and coped
until the Monday when I called the
doctor. She asked for me to breathe
normally for her and counted my rapid
breathing. She called an ambulance.
I arrived in an isolation room where
basic checks were carried out. Then
spent the day in A&E while they did
blood tests, chest xray and received
nebuliser relief. I could hardly speak,
the pressure on my chest was
exhausting. After eliminating any other
possibilities I was given the option to be
admitted to the Covid-19 ward or go
home and call 999 if the breathing got
worse. I came home. It wasn’t until 9th
April that I began to feel I was through
the worst, three weeks later. The
fatigue is still ongoing. I have sleep
apnoea which I manage with a CPAP
machine. I think that helped
significantly to prevent me going back
into the hospital.
I am still spending much of my time in
my bedroom and two things have
sustained me mentally. Updating our
website to include Covid-19 guidance
translations and sewing. My husband is
shielding for 12 weeks and classed as
high risk, so we are still in different
rooms nearly a month on. However he
and my son have been total gems,
making me breakfast, lunch and dinner
and popping it outside the door for me
to pick up.
My daughter had her second son on 4th
April. I miss the physical touch of my
loved ones.
I step out every Thursday at 8pm to
clap for the NHS. My eldest is a
midwife, so proud of her but scared at
the same time! The internet came into
its own during this pandemic.
Whatsapp, Zoom, tiktok have kept me
smiling. Even in our homes we have the
power to make others smile.