Viral/Cold not Covid-19

[nancybotwinbloom]

All week since about last Sunday my chest has been tight, with some back pain, Developed a snotty nose on the Friday just gone , followed by hot flushes, sore throat, lethargy, loss of appetite on Saturday, cough on Sunday with loss of smell and taste, still with sore throat but the chest pain has gone then today I'm still snotty, coughing terrible, literally exhausted and still hot.
I had a COVID-19 test Sunday and got a negative result today.

Has anyone else had what I have had and if so what is it? I've never had a cold this severe lack literally wiped out. It feels like a cold but worse

Had anyone else had this and how long did it last?

[whatswithtodaytoday]

I've had terrible colds before that floored me, pre-Covid. They usually last about 7 days? Plus another week feeling a bit wrung out and knackered.

Hopefully you'll start to feel better soon.

[nancybotwinbloom]

Thank you. Maybe I gave just been really lucky and never had a bad cold before.

Feel absolutely terrible. Like you say maybe by Friday I will be better.

[taybert]

Well, there’s a 20-30% false negative rate for the swabs so it could still be Covid. I’d probably have another swab. Otherwise sometimes viruses make you feel terrible, generally after a week if you’ve still got a temperature it’s worth calling the doctors.

[Todaythiscouldbe]

Me, DH & DS have something very similar, all tested, all negative.
DH works in a medical environment and, for some time, the doctors and nurses he works with have been concerned that the constant handwashing and sanitizing -albeit necessary - would leave us all with no immunity to general bugs and viruses. I think we need to prepare for a lot of illness over the winter.

[mindutopia]

My understanding is the test is most effective in the first 5 days. NHS not to test after day 5 and just to self isolate. It’s possible you missed the window for testing if you didn’t test til this weekend.