Yashas Srinivasa/Stuff
South Canterbury’s Jacqui Fraser spent 17 days in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.Now she is reaching out to others.
A South Canterbury woman felt like she went to “hell and back” after testing positive for Covid-19.
Now she is reaching out to support others who have the virus.
Jacqui Fraser, who is one of the 5422 people in the region to recover from Covid in 2022, spent 17 days in isolation after testing positive.
Fraser said one thing that played on her mind while she lay in bed for what felt like days on end was “how do people that live alone deal with this?”.
“I feel like I’ve been to hell and back,’’ Fraser said.
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“I was really lucky that my husband continued to test negative and could cook dinner,” Fraser said.
“All I could handle was going from my bed to the bathroom to go to the toilet and back into bed again. I don’t know how people manage alone if they got as crook as I did.”
Now recovered, Fraser is reaching out to anyone who needs support.
“I know the trauma and stress that isolation and the illness [Covid-19] caused me.
“If you don’t have support like someone to do a shopping run, pick up medication, someone to chat with about symptoms, someone to vent to, to make food for you, anything at all [contact her].’’ .
Fraser said she has a blase attitude due to being triple vaccinated, but said she was naive in thinking she wouldn’t be as sick as she was.
“I only know my own experience, and it felt like I had 50 razor blades down my throat and my ears were about to burst, and I was so congested I was struggling to breath,” she said.
On day four, after testing positive, Fraser’s congestion was so bad she had difficult breathing, and she was advised to go to hospital, she said.
JOHN BISSET/Stuff
Fraser said she spent several hours in Timaru Hospital with Covid-19 as she was having difficulty breathing. (File photo)
She spent a few hours in Timaru Hospital and was advised to take hot steamy showers to help fix the congestion.
While others in her family tested positive on the same day as her, she said none were as sick as she was. , All of her family is vaccinated and boosted.
“I am just really lucky to have my husband that could help me, he is an essential worker and was going to work as he kept testing negative, and he would come home to make dinners. He would do everything,” she said.
She said in offering her support to others, she hoped it could help even one person.
“One person who doesn’t have friends and family to do a grocery shop or to let someone vent about how they are feeling.”
Jacqui’s Covid survival kit included:
- Multiple boxes of tissues
- Panadol
- Ibuprofen
- Throat spray
- Decongestants
- Throat lozenges
- Eucalyptus essential oil and diffuser
- Vicks VapoRub
- Nasal spray
