ITV Wales Weather Presenter Kelsey Redmore shares her experience of living in quarantine with coronavirus symptoms

  • Wales

The last two weeks I've spent at home in quarantine after getting some coronavirus-related symptoms and feeling awful.

Here's what happened:

In the days leading up to being really ill, I kept complaining that I had constant headaches, felt tired (even though I was getting a lot of sleep), and even my eyelids were red and felt sore - it looked like I had red eyeshadow on. I just assumed I was a little bit rundown and thought nothing more of it.

A few days later and I was in the newsroom for just an hour or two before I suddenly started coughing and couldn't stop, so was sent home as a precaution. In the hours after getting home from work, it really hit me, and I suddenly felt so ill, exhausted and drained and couldn't stop coughing and my headache wouldn't go away, despite taking painkillers.

The days after I was still coughing, feeling tired and had constant headaches and a bit of a sore throat too. It was only on day six of my quarantine that I started to feel a little bit better - but only slightly. My parents dropped off some food and supplies at my front door, but it was so hard not to see them, especially my mum as it was Mother's Day. I left her card and present by the front door so she could pick it up as she dropped off shopping bags for me.

I'm grateful that I had my family, boyfriend and kind neighbours to help me out when I needed supplies (as well as them dropping off some cards and daffodils) Credit: Kelsey Redmore

Things changed again on day seven. I woke up with a tight chest and felt like I couldn't breathe properly. I pulled myself out of bed and tried to get up, washed and dressed but was out of breath just brushing my teeth and had to stop and sit down. I also lost my sense of taste and smell. I went on the NHS website and did the online coronavirus symptom checker and as a result, was told that I needed to contact 111.

I spoke to someone from the NHS who asked me how many days it had been since I first started displaying symptoms (a fever or a new and persistent cough). I told them that it had been seven days, to which they replied that it 'sounded about right' and that 'people with the virus usually start to get problems with their chest and breathing on days 7-9'. I was told to keep self-isolating for another week, or until my symptoms went away.

I spent the next week either in bed or sprawled out on the sofa for most of the time as I felt too ill to do anything, but by day 10 I started to improve little by little, day by day. In fact, it was only on day 14 that I started to feel like I was finally back to normal and felt more like 'me' again.

I'm yet to get tested, but for now, I'm just taking things easy and self-isolating as much as I can and following the government and NHS guidelines.

I'll be completely honest and say that it's been a bit of a tough two weeks being ill at home on my own. I was worried and anxious as I didn't know whether I had the virus or not, or whether I would get worse. But I'm just glad that I'm back to feeling like myself again and I'm grateful that I had my family, boyfriend and kind neighbours to help me out when I needed supplies (as well as them dropping off some cards and daffodils) to keep me going.

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