A mum-of-three was left bedridden at Christmas and "feeling like a pensioner" after she was struck down by coronavirus.
Sarah Jane McIntyre is past her period of self-isolation, but is still feeling the effects - a trip to the shops was so exhausting it left her shaking and drenched in sweat.
The 35-year-old, from Belfast, has urged people to follow restrictions and said the symptoms she suffered were not like those commonly associated with Covid-19.
Health care worker Sarah Jane said she began with headaches so severe it was agony just keeping her eyes open and back pain like she was in labour, reports BelfastLive.
Her warning comes after a sharp rise in positive cases in people aged 20-39 in Northern Ireland.
"No one understands, it is out there that the symptoms are a high temperature, cough and loss of smell and taste, but it has been so much more than that for me," she said.
"No one tells you how tired you will get, walking down the stairs is tough. I don't think people realise how serious and contagious it is, I am still getting over it and I am on day 12."
She said she is lucky she didn't have to go to hospital and could remain at home with her children, despite the virus making her "feel 80".
Sarah Jane, who has asthma, returned from London on December 17 and said she felt tired but had put that down to lots of walking around the city.
She then started to develop a headache, but again because it was not one of the stated symptoms she did not think she had contracted the virus.
But as the day went on she couldn't keep her eyes open and even her skin began to hurt.
"I just thought, this isn't normal, and I was freezing, I could not get heat into me.
"I didn't want to risk seeing anyone so I went and got a test that afternoon. I did not expect to be positive, I thought it was a bit of a cold but the Saturday I found out I was positive.
"I balled my eyes out."
Sarah Jane said her fingers and toes hurt like she had arthritis. She also said she could barely keep her eyes open and felt "like an old woman" getting out of bed.
"You feel like you are turning a corner with it then bang, you are back to square one but worse, the relapse is bad," she said.
She forced herself to carry on as normal as she could on Christmas Eve for the sake of her children despite feeling "nauseous the whole day".
"I did not lose my sense of taste or smell, my husband has Covid too and his symptoms are different to mine as well."
On Christmas Day she suffered from diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness and said she "nearly fainted" in the bathroom.
"You feel like a pensioner," said Sarah Jane.
"I went back to square one on Christmas Day, had a rip-roaring temperature and each day I was sleeping more than I was awake. Now I have a cough that takes my breath away.
"Covid does not care who you are, what age you are. It is a roller coaster of symptoms and it changes like the wind. I could wake up feeling OK then feel so, so ill.
"I was allowed out yesterday but the fear of going out has taken over."
Sarah Jane worries she is "never going to feel like me again".
