Pastor reveals battle with ‘long Covid’ – six months after leaving hospital

Pastor Mark McClurg from Newtownards Elim had a serious battle with the virus six months ago and was elated when he was finally released from hospital.

Aged 40 and with no pre-existing conditions he was a keen golfer who had played football for many years.

In February he was “running about after the kids” in Disney World, Florida, shortly before he came down with the virus.

But now he is finding that he has not been able to make a full recovery, with his consultant advising him that it may take up to 18 months to do so.

“This is now six months since I left the hospital and I am still experiencing fatigue, breathlessness,” Mr McClurg told the News Letter.

“I have a brain fog – concentration and trying to remember things is difficult. But the biggest problem is fatigue.

“I am still waiting for a consultant to get a CT scan to see if I have got scarring of the lungs. The consultant doesn’t think I have this but obviously we need to rule it out.”

His outstanding symptoms have not really lessened at all since he returned home.

“There are two things I have noticed. My immune system is not what it was and my body is not able to heal itself as quickly.”

His daughter was sent home from school recently with a head cold which was then passed on to him.

“I never coughed when I had Covid but I had a cough during this head cold and it just felt like razor blades cutting the inside out of my lungs.”

Normally he would “snap out” of a head cold but this one took almost two weeks to get over. “And that is not normal for a head cold.”

He also has ongoing joint and muscle pain. He had a knee injury from playing football years ago and if it bothers him he usually goes swimming, which fixes it in three to five days.

“But again, after two weeks I am still suffering from pain in my knee. So I am definitely thinking these things will be an issue for other sufferers.”

He said other people from NI are contacting him to discuss having similar symptoms and he has noticed other NI people on social media also describing similar symptoms.

“My consultant said ‘Mark you have to think about this as a long haul’ and that I have to look at this recovery in terms of 12-18 months.”

His sister-in-law, an NHS dietician, is giving him Vitamin C, zinc and probiotics for his immune system.

Another consultant told him: “The difficult thing is that we don’t have a book on Covid, we are writing the book on it now.”

He added: “Normally I would have been preaching twice on a Sunday no problem. But after last Sunday I was that tired I could not even finish my Sunday dinner. I had to go and lie down.

“There is not a day goes past that I don’t feel so tired that I have to go and lie down and sleep. And I would not normally have to do that.”

Sometimes if he is walking he has to slow down as he gets out of breath. But in the meantime he is keen to point others to the faith which gives him the strength to keep going, despite his trials.

“I am very keen to keep pointing people to Christ in all of this,” he said.

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