After spending two months in Lisbon, followed by a week in Spain, I returned to London hoping to get my second Pfizer vaccine, go to Ascot with friends, and travel towards the end of August. Instead, I got covid.
Finding out I had covid
I took a PCR test on my last evening in Madrid, which came back negative, then boarded my flight to London the next morning. The regulations at the time meant that people who weren't fully vaccinated (like myself) had to isolate for 10 days and take PCR tests on days 2 and 8; this could be reduced if you paid for an additional day 5 test (which I did) and tested negative (which I didn't). On day 4, I was in a Teams meeting at work and when I sipped my coffee I realised that I couldn't taste it. This was a dead giveaway and later that day I received my results from the Day 2 test, stating that I had tested positive for covid.
Not only did this mean that I had to cancel all of my plans for the next two weeks, but more annoyingly, it meant that I couldn't get my second vaccine for a further 4 weeks after the isolation period had ended, and so I wouldn't be able to travel throughout the entirety of August. I had been planning to return to Lisbon (alongside some other trips) and tried to find which countries would accept England's proof of covid recovery, but the options were extremely limited. I persisted and discovered that I'd be able to travel to Lisbon via Ireland using my covid pass but for some reason my pass wasn't updating and after several days of being redirected to call centres that didn't understand the issue and how to help me, there was no way that I could travel, despite having had and recovered from covid.
I really wasn't expecting the results to be positive, as after several weeks of going to crowded house parties and bars and even living with others who had covid in Portugal, I'd avoided contracting the disease, however after a week of road-tripping in Spain (where we were in a private car and didn't spend any time in crowds), I got covid. Annoyingly, if I'd have tested positive in Spain only a couple of days earlier then I'd have obtained the EU digital certificate and been able to travel freely, but due to politics, my travel and vaccination options were very limited.
Whilst isolating, I received almost daily calls to ensure that I was at home, as well as a couple of home visits, however one of the people who came to my house seemed genuinely surprised that I was in, making me think that many people don't actually isolate. Furthermore, the people calling me didn't actually ask where I was, instead delivering a massive monologue about the restrictions in place and confirming that I understood and would adhere to them. Since I was working from home anyway, isolating wasn't too difficult, but I constantly missed their calls as I was in meetings and they were very persistent and a slight waste of time, with one call lasting over 20 minutes.
Symptoms
Before boarding my flight in Spain, my throat had felt slightly sore, but I'd just received a negative PCR test and my throat had felt sore several times in Portugal but I was fine, so I was confident that I didn't have covid. On returning to the UK, I had a constant headache for two days and felt slightly lethargic but I put it down to being back at work after a 10 days holiday and not being used to staring at a screen for so long. Following this, I had a bit of a runny nose but I didn't put it all together until I realised that I couldn't taste my coffee on day 4. I got my results and over the next few days the symptoms became progressively worse: my whole body ached, especially my back and this even disrupted my sleep one night, I had a constant cough and runny nose, and lost the majority of my taste and smell.
Although the body aches and lethargy only last for a couple of days, the other symptoms lasted longer. Oddly, I could still smell very strong things, such as mouthwash and even orange juice to an extent, but I couldn't taste anything at all. As someone who loves food and looks forward to each meal, this was a bit annoying, but both sense came back in less than a week. The runny nose lasted about 10 days and although the constant coughing had eased up slightly, I still had a slight tickle in my throat for about 2 weeks after recovering from covid. Luckily, I recovered well and finally managed to get my second jab (after which I add the headache, tingly knees, back aches and lethargy for a day or two) and the only thing that seems to have changed is that bourbons are no longer my favourite biscuit as since having covid they taste slightly odd to me.
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