A fit and healthy gym manager with suspected coronavirus has spoken out about how it has left her struggling to even walk to the toilet.
Michelle Carney is a Tough Mudder ambassador and regularly runs 10k races, but the 38-year-old has been told to self-isolate by NHS Direct who said they strongly believed she has coronavirus after she developed a dry cough and a fever.
Testing is only being carried out in hospitals so she will not receive confirmation that she has Covid-19 .
The mum-of-two, who is self-isolating for with her daughters, says she has experienced the full list of coronavirus symptoms but has also revealed other lesser-known symptoms, Hull Live reports.
Ms Carney, who is asthmatic but otherwise fit and well, described a feeling like a “weight inside my lungs” and them itching from the “inside”.
“The air seems to cause a cold burning feeling to my lungs - similar to if you breath in cold air after a strong mint but about 100 times worse,” she said.
“The worst part though is that the air seems to strip my lungs and airways of all moisture. My lungs, throat and eyes feel unbelievably dry. Water helps for a matter of seconds but then the dryness instantly returns.
"Strangely as my breathing has started to improve the dry feeling has become worse.
“I am drinking extraordinary amounts of water each day but I still constantly feel a though my lungs have been left outside in a desert for weeks.
“The symptoms I haven’t seen people mention on the TV include that my lungs itch so badly on the inside. They feel like there is a weight inside my lungs.
“My airways just feel so dry. I’ve drunk eight or nine pints of water today and I’m still thirsty.”
Michelle says she has spoken to NHS Direct on a number of occasions and that they have deemed it likely that she has the virus.
However, she has stayed away from hospitals meaning she has not been tested.
Her symptoms began 11 days ago as a “mild cough” – just a day after completing a 10k with no signs of illness - before it accelerated into a fever last Monday.
“This time last week I wouldn’t have been capable of having this conversation,” she said while speaking to Hull Live.
“My temperature was in the high 30s. I was coughing. I had sweats and shivers. My larynx felt like it was obstructing my throat.
“By Wednesday, I filmed myself at 5.30 in the morning taking my bin out. I was literally gasping and wheezing. Every second word I was stopping.
“The Saturday before I got it I actually did a 10k. By the Wednesday, I was struggling to get to the other end of my drive.”
Michelle, who lives in Crowle, North Lincolnshire, has been using social media to share her story and urge people who are still out and about to avoid being in public unless essential.
A minute-long video of her appeal was shared on Facebook – but she spent most of it coughing as she battled to get her message across.
In the video, she says: “I’m heavily suspected to have Covid-19 and I’m on day eight of my isolation with my children. Just over a week ago I was out running every day running 10ks. Now I’m struggling to walk to my toilet.
“I’m staying home for all of you. For those who are still healthy enough, please stay home as much as you can to protect the health of the key workers we need out in the field.”
Her daughters, aged 15 and 17, both remain fit and healthy and have not shown symptoms of the illness.
Michelle says that, while living in the same home, they have been able to distance themselves in such a way that they rarely come into contact.
“They stay as far away from me as they physically can.
"They stay in different rooms and if they have to come in the same room as me then they are at the opposite end of it,” she said.
“Touch wood, they are absolutely fine. They have not got a cough or even a sniffle.
“I’m thankful they are older as I’m a single mum. If they were younger they wouldn’t have been able to stay away from me. They would need me more.”
