My name is Robert Moore, and I am 45 and I used to work for NHS Scotland and I have had Long COVID for roughly 2 years now. I contracted Covid back in April 2020 and have been suffering ever since.
I used to work in the mental health sector of NHS Scotland and at present I am now not working at all due to my health getting worse over time. So, it all started when I was redeployed to a dementia ward full of males and most of them had Covid (which I’m not getting into as the majority of the patients passed away from it) and it was pretty difficult to keep the patients in their rooms and isolate because they could walk around normally. We had tables set up with what PPE we had which wasn’t a lot, and we ran out of masks every 15 mins because it was the single layer masks.
There was a patient who had walked out of his room asking for his mummy and I walked him back to his room and the snot was dripping all over my arm and we didn’t have any gowns – it was just a plastic apron and my uniform. I went home that evening and I had to put my clothes from work into a bin I had at my front door and then go for a shower. I was petrified in case I brought back covid and infected my family with it. After a couple of days, I was fine until I got home, and I felt a scratching in the back of my throat, and I kept drinking and I knew that I had covid. So, I called 111 to get advice and called my work to let them know, and they organised a covid test for me for the Sunday. The Sunday came and I had to drive myself about 10 plus miles to get my test done even though I had a place 5 minutes away from my home. I got lost on way to my appointment and I had to make up a sign and have a mask in the car in case I got stopped by the police. When I was on my way to the appointment, I had the Covid centre calling my wife and me all at the same time and I was over an hour late for my time slot but still got seen.
I got my results within a couple of days and all I can say is my whole world came crashing down because all I had seen was people dying from covid, and I said to myself “I’m going to die”. When my wife and I told the kids it was my little boy’s face that broke me; he was in fear and shock about it. I then isolated myself away from everyone in my living room and had my own cutlery and cup and took antibacterial wipes with me everywhere I went. There were quite a lot of nights where I thought I was going to die and laying on the floor gasping for air after my coughing fits. All that went through my mind was I hope my kids don’t find me dead on the floor in the morning. When I was 7 days into my covid battle I got a call from my ward manager telling me I was in the next day and when I told him I wouldn’t be in he got quite ratty with me; he didn’t believe I ever had COVID.
When I went back to work after 2 weeks, I didn’t feel I was ready to return, I was back into the thick of it, and I found it difficult to do my job with a mask on as I was struggling to breath, and when I had to restrain patients it was even more difficult to do my job. I then changed jobs for the benefit of my health, and I worked in the treatment rooms in Glasgow. I still had to wear a mask but it was not as challenging until I caught covid again and had more and more symptoms of Long Covid which developed from chronic headaches, which I was in hospital for, to having a lot of gastrointestinal problems, a vitamin D deficiency and low folate as well, and I am currently being tested for arthritis in my hands.
Now as from the 31st March my employment will be terminated due to ill health as my Long Covid is getting worse, but I do have some good days, but the bad days outweigh the good just now.
Sorry for my lengthy story but I’ve just not had a good experience with my work when it comes to me having COVID the 1st time.