What’s it like to have Covid-19? A Castleknock Club member who unfortunately had the Virus shares his experience with us.

‘It was coming up to the weekend before Saint Patrick’s Day. People were beginning to be aware and cautious of the fact that the Coronavirus had been confirmed as being well and truly established in Ireland.

It turned out to be an earlier than usual finish to work on that Friday, given that Monday was going to be a Holiday.

At home in Castleknock the talk was about what Social Distancing really meant and the eventual if somewhat reluctant agreement from four teenagers was that we would curtail our contact with friends.

Saturday was spent mostly at home and on Sunday we decided to go for a walk on the Knockbarron Eco Trail in the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains in Co Offaly, just in case restrictions on movement would soon be imposed. On the day we met very few people and my only contact outside of the family group was a stop at a filling station to get diesel. On Monday, as it was a day off work we all stayed home and finished up making pizza around 5pm.

At around 7pm that evening it was as if someone had hit me with a sledgehammer. I developed a heavy tiredness, a chill and a severe pain in my head. I went straight to bed with an instruction to everyone else to stay well away and that’s where I stayed for the next 10 days.

The tiredness stayed with me for those 10 days, the blinding headaches lasted 2 days, waves of pain up and down the body also went on for 2-3 days as well as the chills. However, I didn’t develop a high temperature, if anything I was on the lower side of normal. I didn’t have much of a cough either but I did have a tightness of the chest for about 5 days which was very worrying.

The family were great in bringing me what was needed but always leaving it at the bedroom door. It was a struggle the first few days to even get out of bed to collect what was left at the door but it was the right thing to do in order to keep our distance.

Boredom or the like doesn’t really feature in the first few days as you are too sick to do anything other than lie in bed. As my strength came back the desire returned to get out of the room but that is when you have to stay-put for everyone else’s sake.

As the Tuesday was St Patricks Day it was not possible to contact my GP. I did so on Wednesday the 18th and he confirmed that the symptoms warranted a test. I eventually got notification to attend the Testing Centre in Croke Park on Tuesday 24/03/20 at 5pm.

That was well organised and went smoothly. Now the wait for the results. I was told it would take three to five days but due to the backlog that developed it was not until Monday April 6, 12 days later, that I received a call from my GP to say that the results had come back as positive.

It was a relief in a strange way, to know that I had been through it and for whatever reason was able to get through it without needing any medical intervention. I was contacted the following day by HSE to start the process of contact tracing. Thankfully the list was a short one.

No one else in the house has shown any signs similar to mine and only one of the kids had mild symptoms. I have also heard of other people who have tested positive but their symptoms are totally different to mine. So the answer to all this is simple.

If you do feel unwell at this time don’t take a chance. Isolate yourself and keep the virus to yourself.

Keep safe everyone.’

In light of the above story the club hopes everyone is keeping safe and well and complying with the requirements to stay home and to only take exercise within 2kms of the house. We are saving lives here; keep up the good work! The Government has announced that the current restrictions will remain in place until 5 May.

 

Some of our neighbours and friends are cocooning, on age grounds and perhaps based on under-lying health conditions. They will continue to need our support over the coming weeks. 

 

The Club's Community Response, which we launched a couple of weeks ago is making a difference. Requests for assistance are coming from three different sources - Fingal, SuperValu and directly to the Club Community Response team based on the flier that was distributed to local shops. We have had over 30 calls-out to date, some more than once to the same household.

 

The team are seeing an increase in demand and a number of our volunteers have left their numbers with households for call backs. We can be rightly proud of our volunteers for their commitment. Every request for support has been matched with a volunteer within three minutes.

 

On behalf of the Club, we would particularly like to express our gratitude to Barbara O'Neill, our Children's Officer, who is central to the success of the initiative.

 

We waited a long time to have our own Clubhouse but unfortunately it remains off-limits until May 5 at the very least. So this is perhaps an opportune time to thank one of the many groups of volunteers who gave an enormous amount of time and effort to the project – the painters.

The building looks great inside and out as a result of the huge efforts made by Fergus Kiernan, Jason O’Neill, Mick Delahunty, Johnny Murphy, Alfie Sawyer and Ger O’Brien in particular. Apologies to anyone we have missed. The only good thing is that when the restrictions are lifted the Clubhouse will still be in pristine condition and a credit to all concerned.

The Closing date for our Club Survey has been extended to mid-April.

All Club Members over 18 are asked to complete the attached survey. It will take less than 5 minutes. The replies to the survey will help inform the Club Executive.   

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FKV2CY2

All who complete the survey will be entered into a draw for a €100 voucher. If there are members over 18 who are part of your family membership and who will not receive this email, please forward the link to them and ask them to complete the survey.

 

Every question on the survey requires an answer. If you get to the end and have missed a question the survey will bring you back up before it allows you to press DONE.

 

If you have any queries about the nature of this survey please direct them to the Club Chairperson Kevin O' Shaughnessy, [email protected] or the Club Secretary, Sean McLaughlin, [email protected]  

 

Cash for Clobber is a very important fundraising stream for the Club and we know that many families are using this time to do a bit of a spring clean or clear out.

 

Can we are asking members to store their Cash for Clobber bags in their sheds or under a bed until we are back up and running as given the Government guidelines we cannot allow access to our Cash for Clobber container in Somerton, nor are we able to collect from members’ homes.

 

And Remember – Keep Washing Your Hands – Keep Your Physical Distance – and – Keep Well.

 

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