Pain, pins and needles and headaches among 'lottery' of long Covid symptoms

Michelle Palser, a lecturer from Shrewsbury who has been left with a catalogue of symptoms since testing positive months ago, said doctors were not receiving enough guidance about what provision there is in the county for people experiencing the lasting effects of the virus.

A clinic was set up for long Covid sufferers in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin on December 1, and has so far treated 195 people.

Council and health bosses are now being urged to better promote the service, and ensure GPs have enough information to pass on to patients.

Ms Palser said she thought she had “got away lightly” when she came down with mild Covid symptoms before Christmas, but two weeks later she started to experience “cognitive issues”.

She said: “My thinking was really disrupted, I just couldn’t think. I found it really challenging to engage in a lengthy conversation with people, I had memory issues and word-finding issues.

“I had returned to work thinking I was better, and then realised actually it was having a massive impact on my ability to do my job.

“That was when I then started to experience quite a range of physical symptoms.

“The worst was chronic fatigue that completely wiped me out. I didn’t have any energy, I had really bad headaches, compression on my chest that felt like someone was sitting on it, pins and needles, muscle pains, joint pains, vertigo and nausea.

“It’s a bit of a lottery of symptoms – you don’t know what you’re going to pull out of the bag every morning.

“The hardest thing is the fact that you’re not consistently ill. You have some days when you feel like you are making an improvement, and I have had many days like that over the last 16 weeks.

“It lures you into a false sense of security and then you wake up the next morning and feel really poorly again.”

After three months, Ms Palser contacted her doctor and was referred to the long Covid clinic, but was worried when the GP was not able to give her any details about what the clinic involved, where it was, and how long the process might take.

Ms Palser said she and many other long Covid sufferers were turning to social media groups for support due to the lack of information coming through official channels.

She said: “For some reason it’s not getting through to GPs.

“There are a lot of people who might not know about the clinic, and when you are not well with long Covid you’re already feeling very anxious and want some reassurance.”

Ms Palser said the condition, coupled with not knowing where to turn, had left her feeling “isolated” – despite saying she had a good support network which other people living with long Covid may not have.

She said: “You do feel everyone else is leading their lives, lockdown is coming to an end, but at the moment I’m not in a fit state to be able to get out and do anything.

“I’m still going to be largely confined to my house and that’s quite hard. You do get frustrated and fed up.”

Ms Palser raised her concerns with Underdale councillor David Vasmer, who asked Shropshire Council’s cabinet at a meeting this week what support was available and how it was being publicised.

Councillor Vasmer said: “My concern was that people have been to their doctors and the GPs didn’t seem to know where they could get further help and didn’t have any further information.

“I don’t think there’s enough promotion of the clinic and a lot of GPs don’t seem to know about it.

“If people don’t know about it, it’s not going to do what it’s meant to be doing. I think more needs to be done.”

Councillor Dean Carroll, portfolio holder for public health, said all GPs were aware of the clinic and there were plans to publicise it further throughout the year.

Councillor Carroll said: “Referrals to the clinic are currently made exclusively through a GP as there are a number of clinical investigations that are required and a full medical history is necessary.”

The clinic offers support from a range of professionals including a specialist nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, dietician and sport and exercise medicine consultant.

It is currently being run virtually through video consultations, with phone or face to face consultation available for people without internet access.

Councillor Carroll added: “There are plans to expand the service to allow the provision of some face to face consultations also once restrictions ease and NHS funding streams are confirmed.

“Communications and updates have been shared regularly with primary care via the Clinical Commissioning Group and their regular communication forums.”