Experiences of Teh Plague

[Ham]

As I sit here, bemused by my C-19 positive test, I was thinking I'd really like to understand other people's experience, and I'm not jumping back in to the gushing river that is the POBI coronavirus thread to do it.

Bemused? Yes. Not because I've no symptoms, but the background is strange.

Before Christmas, I had cold, with a bad night time cough. No fever or other symptoms. Night time cough is  a standard for me and colds, ever since years ago when I tried ignoring a chest infection and pneumonia, so I didn't go for a test. It cleared up. over two weeks later, Mrs Ham started exhibiting similar symptoms, it appeared too long a gap to have been infected from me, but who knows? anyhow, she had a test done. Two, actually. Both negative. My cough started to come back at the start of this week, the cough this time was definitely more of a coughing fit, and unpleasant as ****. So I hied me to a test centre yesterday and had my positive result this morning.

Symptoms are only the cough. No fever, no lack of smell, but that's bad enough.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The first thing is that there's a huge variety of symptoms.

For me, it was a week or so of really low level cough. Literally just one cough a day.* Then this became a worse cough and I felt weak, especially in my legs. A bit like flu but without the ache. A day or two of that, then really bad cough and 12 hours of the highest temperature I've ever had. After that it was just a gradually clearing up cough, and then I lost my sense of taste and smell. Luckily that came back gradually after a week or so.

But Mrs Cudzo had completely different symptoms, not such a high temperature and not so much coughing but pain in the kidneys (her description). And the boy had a positive test but no symptoms whatsoever.

Losing my sense of taste made eating a chore and having no sense of smell was just weird. You don't realize till you lose it that even when you're not aware of any particular smell, there is always some smell at work. It's as if absence of smell is almost a smell in its own right.

*Ed: I don't know if this was actually an early symptom, it might have been a random cough by coincidence.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Interesting story here:

ED LAVERACK’S “COMEBACK FROM THE VIRUS” DIARIES: #1 – FITNESS DAMAGE

I know only one person who has definitely had it and they just thought they had a cold but went for the test just in case and it was a positive.  It sounded very unpleasant while it lasted mainly due to major breathing discomfort and then joint aches.  No loss of smell/taste apparently or coughing fits.

Took about a month to get back to full fitness.

A neighbour was taken to hospital mid-November, a 40 year old engineer who was going to work.  He's hardly left the house since coming back and I don't know if it was covid but he was fit and active before, running, cycling. 

[Greenbank]

Before Christmas, I had cold, with a bad night time cough. No fever or other symptoms. Night time cough is  a standard for me and colds, ever since years ago when I tried ignoring a chest infection and pneumonia, so I didn't go for a test. It cleared up. over two weeks later, Mrs Ham started exhibiting similar symptoms, it appeared too long a gap to have been infected from me, but who knows? anyhow, she had a test done. Two, actually. Both negative. My cough started to come back at the start of this week, the cough this time was definitely more of a coughing fit, and unpleasant as ****. So I hied me to a test centre yesterday and had my positive result this morning.

Symptoms are only the cough. No fever, no lack of smell, but that's bad enough.

Isn't the most likely explanation that the two bouts of illness were/are different things?

[Ham]

That's what is indicated by the tests, but it doesn't seem all that likely.

[hubner]

How do people think how they caught it?

[Marco Stefano]

This is my last day of incarceration following SARS-Cov-2 infection (symptoms started 5th, positive test 6th). I have severe asthma, but well-controlled with preventative inhalers, so was apprehensive to say the least. First 5 days were low grade fever and weapons grade headache, then tickly cough and bronchial soreness, now more like the aftermath of a good cold. No appetite at all for several days (and no eating), and some change in taste and smell later; a terrific bolognese sauce I had made over Christmas tasted like primary school mince from the 60s. 

Likely source was my daughter, through elite rugby training; she had it first, and my wife became positive a couple of days ago after trying to barrier waitress for us in bedrooms (she's a nurse). Son, partner and grandson also had it by contact before daughter's symptoms appeared. It seems very difficult indeed to avoid infection within the same household, even though we have all socially distanced within the house as much as possible since Feb 2020 (and I'm getting pretty fed up with no hugs or kisses for a year). All have similar mild symptoms, and feel very lucky.

Looking forward to a walk tomorrow no matter what the weather, my first trip outside the house this year.

[Ham]

The most likely vector in our case is our two year old grandson and nursery. We are in a borough that has 1 in 15 infected.

[Hot Flatus]

Not knowingly had it, although early March 2020 had a very weird cold with post-viral phantom burning smells and pre and post extreme fatigue.  In spread through the family like a...errr...plague. Needless to say there was no testing available.  I know quite a few who have had it, and all bar two reported very mild cold/almost nothing. One had Cudzovirus, and the other one didn't make it to hospital (cardiac arrest, obese, unfit, mid 50s)

From what I can glean from people on the sharp end one of the serious issues is 'happy hypoxia', whereby people at home feel ok, but their oxygen saturation has dropped to dangerous levels. The advice is....buy a pulse oximeter.

Anyway, hope you get through it easily 

[Cudzoziemiec]

One had Cudzovirus,

I renounce and reject any and all claims to this virus.

and the other one didn't make it to hospital (cardiac arrest, obese, unfit, mid 50s)

[Marco Stefano]

From what I can glean from people on the sharp end one of the serious issues is 'happy hypoxia', whereby people at home feel ok, but their oxygen saturation has dropped to dangerous levels. The advice is....buy a pulse oximeter.

^ This. Many people are admitted when their sats are very low; they can walk in, but it's too late and sadly they don't walk out again.

My wife bought one a year ago; we were checking several times a day during infection, and still are. Lowest I got to was 93-94 I think, which only just troubles the scorers in a hospital setting. She remembers paying about £13, now about £23 (of course) when she bought one for our son & family last week.

[barakta]

Yeah it is worth checking the baseline pulse ox while well and doing it when still or trying to get a good normal reading. Not all pulse oxes are equal, some seem to be quite shitty.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Both MrsC and I have had negative tests.

MrsC, after being ill for months, was diagnosed with 'long covid'.

Back in the early part of 2020, she lost her sense of taste and smell, tight painful chest, coughed incessantly for weeks. No strength or energy.
About a week after she fell ill, I got a cough, painful tight chest, immense, crushing exhaustion. Lasted less than a week for me.

Nearly two months after this, MrsC fell ill again. First off was no sense of taste. None at all. She chewed a raw clove of garlic and couldn't taste anything.

Coughing, coughing constantly. Day and night. Constantly exhausted. Two lots of chest xrays, a scan and consultant. Long Covid, treated with steroids, antihistamines, antibiotics. Took ages to recover.

[Ham]

Both MrsC and I have had negative tests.

Is that negative when you think you were really positive? The outcome seems to be such a lottery. A friend of Mrs Ham (in her patchwork group), younger with no (known) underlying health conditions was diagnosed on NYE and died on 7th  

[hellymedic]

My brother, who has business interests in the Far East probably had it early last spring. Several COVID symptoms and pretty unwell but tests weren't A Thing then and of only academic interest now, so Not Done. He says two of his progeny lost their sense of smell at some time. I believe they're all OK now.
An Israeli nephew and niece have tested positive. Niece was pretty well asymptomatic but had to spend a fortnight at a COVID quarantine hotel.
Mum's elderly friend and her daughter have been unwell but are recovering.
The (otherwise fit, septuagenarian) eccentric Science teacher at my brothers' school died after a battle with COVID.

[Wowbagger]

My brother is sure he had it. All the classic symptoms after a long train journey (Madrid to Shrewsbury) in March. He wasn't tested.

My daughter had all the classic symptoms too, in late Mach/early April and was really ill. I'm sure what she had would be described as a "mild" case but she looked utterly dreadful. She took part in a survey being carried out by Imperial College and tested positive for antibodies on 20th June. She was tested again on 20th August and no antibodies were present.

My sister lost her sense of smell in April but had no other symptoms at the time. Since then she has had a number of bad arthritic attacks as well as other symptoms and thinks she is suffering from "long covid". She wasn't tested.

Phyllis's carer Michelle and her husband Greg both had the classic symptoms from late March. Michelle made a full recovery. Greg died on 15th April. He was 54 with no known co-morbidities, although there has been a strong correlation with ethnic minorities suffering more. Greg was West Indian.

[TimC]

My brother and my nephew have both had it, with positive tests in both cases. My brother, overweight, late 50s, very unfit (yet a PE teacher!), had effectively a mild cold. My nephew, 22, very, very fit (was a first class Rugby player), was very ill indeed. He avoided hospital, but not by much. I think his Mum, my sister, scared the lurgy out of him. She is very scary.

[Nutbeem]

At the beginning of November I returned home from a Night Shift feeling a bit under the weather. Went to a Covid Test that morning & it came back positive.

 I felt a bit tired for a couple of days then pretty much back to normal except for shooting pains in both legs which needed paracetamol to let me rest/sleep, and a few snuffles. I was able to carry on pottering around the house and garage doing odd jobs.

It looks like my symptoms were in Cluster 1: https://covid.joinzoe.com/us-post/covid-clusters

I was back to work & out on my bike as soon as my isolation period ended and no long term effects.

Having been on duty, the colleague I was was working with had to isolate, the car & office deep cleaned, and patients we had visited needed to be notified.

As an aside I had my first vaccine dose during the week and now have interphalangeal joint pain and reduced grip in my hand of the injected arm. Joint pain is one of the possible side effects, so not totally unexpected & hopefully will settle down.

[perpetual dan]

I had an illness in February last year that I assume was it, but I’ve not had any test.

Symptoms were fatigue and a cough building on Friday; a weekend of fever, to the point of confusion, bad cough, sleeping lots. I don’t recall any change in taste or smell. Mrs Dan seemed to be about a day behind me in symptoms. Then a week off work with exhaustion and a cough, and probably another two or three weeks before I felt back to normal. I had, I think, two or three weeks off any exercise (I was trying to build to a half marathon).

This was a couple of weeks (as I recall) after a case in Brighton, where I work. I was taking commuter time trains most days, cafe for lunch and working in a largish office building. There were several cases at work in late March, so I don’t feel like I was in complete isolation.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Re households, the case I mentioned shared a small house with elderly, COPD conditioned father and his partner.

Neither of the other occupants were infected. The father I would expect to have been an ultra careful authoritarian!

[ian]

I had a bad cold that had a curious concordance with reported COVID systems back in Feb 2020 too (as did my wife, who had a couple of overseas trips at the beginning of the year), though to be honest, the symptoms are fairly generic for other respiratory viruses and there's usually plenty in circulation at that time of year, so it'll remain a curious coincidence. I've not caught it since as far as I know – come to think of it, I've not had the briefest sniff of a seasonal cold since this kicked off.

[SteveC]

<snip>
I've not had the briefest sniff of a seasonal cold since this kicked off.

Apparently the incidence of colds and flu this winter is well down. The fact we're all avoiding each other to a greater or lesser extent might have something to do with that.

[TimC]

I had sinusitis for 8 weeks before Christmas - I'm still knackered from it. No Covid-like symptoms, and I tested negative in the middle of it, but I must have caught a cold from some bastard for it to develop into sinusitis! It was a very unpleasant episode, and a remider that Covid isn't the only villain on the street just now.

[FifeingEejit]

I had a bad cold that had a curious concordance with reported COVID systems back in Feb 2020 too (as did my wife, who had a couple of overseas trips at the beginning of the year), though to be honest, the symptoms are fairly generic for other respiratory viruses and there's usually plenty in circulation at that time of year, so it'll remain a curious coincidence. I've not caught it since as far as I know – come to think of it, I've not had the briefest sniff of a seasonal cold since this kicked off.

I had something bad cold wise in January 2020, negative anti-body test in July but...
This seems to be a common story though, and it seems it was just one of the worse common colds.

<snip>
I've not had the briefest sniff of a seasonal cold since this kicked off.

Apparently the incidence of colds and flu this winter is well down. The fact we're all avoiding each other to a greater or lesser extent might have something to do with that.

Unfortunately the misdirected and deluded eejits are taking this as an indication of misreporting of the flu and therefore COVID must actually just be the flu... 

[rogerzilla]

Dry cough (which kept me awake) for about 12 hours, then back to normal.  This came on at the same time as SO's symptoms.  Mine never went further than that; she ended up in hospital on oxygen for 3 days, a fortnight later.  They weren't doing mass testing at the time; SO was tested just before discharge from the Covid-19 ward and the result was "inconclusive" although she had textbook symptoms.  She says they gave her the swab to do herself, so she didn't push it very far back (also, the virus may have pretty much gone by then).

We've both had mild viral/ENT symptoms on and off since, but nothing to worry about.

I had that mega-cold at new year 2020, as did a few people in the office,  I don't think that was Covid-19 but it may have been *a* coronavirus (three colds are caused by them) and conferred some immunity.  Alternative theory - we have some genetic resistance, since my sister worked on a Covid ward for months and was the only staff member NOT to catch it.  This virus certainly latches onto some people and not others.