UK Cypriot Mario Antoniou Garcia speaks about his coronavirus experience.Mario who is 53 was born in London his father Cypriot from Ayia Varvara and mother Spanish.
He grew up in Palmers Green and attended Aylward School and then Barnet Southgate College. Mario then moved to Harlow and now lives in Clacton.
Coronavirus diary.
I’m hoping that sharing my experience might help others that will potentially contract this horrible illness. 80% of you will have a really mild illness, but completely at random, some of you will get really sick, even if , like me, you’re healthy with no underlying health problems whatsoever!
My Symptoms first came on 25/03/20 and
Started with a new cough which was quite persistent and hurt my chest and i had a temperature of 38.1. For the next few days it pretty much carried on the same with high-temperature, persistent cough, constant headache, complete fatigue where i literally couldn’t get out of bed etc. My appetite at this point was normal and I looked forward to food. At this point my breathing was normal with no restrictions, but i made a call to 111 for some advice, and was told to self manage my symptoms, and if i got any worse to call back. After around about a week I suddenly lost my appetite completely and couldn’t face food but just carried on drinking fluids. I also started getting stomach cramps and diarrhoea and my temperature was absolutely raging, especially in the evening and went up to a highpoint of 39.7. It was at this point that I made my second call to 111, and again waited to speak to an operator for 45 minutes only to be told that I should ring my doctor surgery. I rang the doctor surgery and they said they couldn’t understand why 111 had told me to ring them? As 111 should be dealing with these situations? Luckily though a very caring doctor at my surgery Dr Carter rang me and we had a good chat, and she told me not to be a martyr and if I felt like my breathing was getting any worse to go to A&E immediately. The following evening my breathing was getting very laboured and it was at this point, my wife called 999. Paramedics arrived and immediately checked my stats and my blood oxygen levels were down to 88% which was very worrying and They told me I was going to A&E. I arrived in A&E around about 7 o’clock in the evening last Friday, the 3rd of April, And they pumped me full of antibiotics did an ECG and a chest x-ray which immediately showed abnormality as well as blood tests. I was in A&E until just after 5 am the following morning when They finally took me up to the Mersea ward, which was a pre-elective surgery ward which had been converted into a Covid ward. I was immediately put on oxygen and constantly monitored and was given antibiotics. The next couple of days were very scary and I almost resigned myself to my fate. I was constantly on oxygen to keep my stats stable. After around 3 and a 1/2 days on oxygen I started to make progress and they weened me off the oxygen slowly over the next 24 hours. Finally five days after being admitted they took me off oxygen completely and I coped well with that and my stats were strong so they sent me home., where i’ve made slow but staedy progress.
Every bit of physical exertion like taking a shower, completely whacks me out, and it’s gonna take a good few weeks before i hopefull get back to normal.
In my instance the scary scary time was between 10 and 12 days after showing my first symptoms, and this definitely seems to be a crucial point in the illness timeline.
I hope this helps in some way, but as ever stay home, stay safe and protect our amazing NHS.ni