Covid, toes, and test

[FishOnPillows]

For the last couple of days I’ve had some odd lesions on the tips of a few of my toes. I reported this on the Zoe Covid app, and have now been invited for a test.

The thing is, I work full time in an essential role. Not public-facing, but still going into a place of work with other people. My employer have been very clear that if we have a high temperature or a cough then we are not to attend work. Even if we have a test and it’s negative, if we have symptoms then we still have to stay at home (due to the rate of false negatives from the test).

This is now putting me in an awkward situation. The last thing I want is to bring Covid into work if I do have it. But I have neither a cough nor a high temperature. And I would have to take time off work to go and have a test, so work would have to know.

I’m due at work in the morning and I’m stumped about what I should do.

[ihearttc]

It’s not Pompholyx it it? I get it every year about this time and it’s really bad this year for some reason. I’m going to phone doctors this week to try and get some steroid cream but I know as soon as I say I’ve got something weird on my toes that they will assume it’s Covid-19

[FishOnPillows]

Possibly, I’ve never heard of that so have just googled it. I have like a red/purple rash with a few lumps/blisters (I’m not sure if they’re fluid-filled or not). It’s just on the tips of my toes, and very sore when wearing shoes.
I don’t usually have skin issues, have never had eczema or anything. But I guess there’s a first time for everything.

[Mybrowneyedgal]

All you need to do is tell your employer that you have been asked to do a test by the Zoe app because you have lesions on your toes and they are investigating if they could be linked to the virus. It's highly unlikely you have it and not one of the main symptoms so you don't need to isolate. I was asked to do the same thing because of headaches, my results were negative. It will be for their data collection more than anything.
Honestly, your overthinking it

[whatsleep]

Go online and book a test now, it takes two days for results to come back. Let your boss know what’s going on. I’d think that as it is a known symptom and you’ve been asked to get yourself tested this would be enough to warrant you staying away from work until you know either way?

[FishOnPillows]

I still have absolutely no idea what to do. My employer are ignoring the tests anyway due to their inaccuracy, they’re going by symptoms - those symptoms being a high temperature or a cough.

I’ve looked and my nearest test centre is apparently at least a 45-min drive away, so it’s not going to be a quick pop out of the office to have it done.
And from their point of view, if I need a test due to symptoms, then why would I be at work?

My boss doesn’t get in until after I do, so it’s not like I can call him to check before I go to work in the morning - at that point I’d already be late and I really don’t have the annual leave nor time to spare. Plus he thinks a lot of this Covid stuff has gone past the point of ridiculous now anyway.

I’m at the point with this where I’m thinking I’ll just ignore it tbh. I don’t have a cough or a high temperature. I have headaches and I’m knackered, but I have numerous headache conditions so neither of those are unusual. I’m now very much regretting saying anything at all.

[Mybrowneyedgal]

Yea just ignore it, that's a great idea

[whatsleep]

I’m pretty sure they are not testing for their data, they are testing to catch people who are infected and get them into isolation.

Please book a test and go as soon as you can. Tell your boss you’ve been told you must get tested and will have to take time out of work to comply. It would be unfair to put your colleagues at risk. If your boss feels strongly enough about quarantine for people even if the test is negative, I find it strange he wouldn’t support you in following medical advice. your boss is living in a bubble if he thinks it’s nearly over.

Maybe phone 111 and get advice from them as to whether you should quarantine?

Remember that most people have mild symptoms so your tiredness and headache along with the

[picklemewalnuts]

There's a significant possibility you have it. That's why you've been invited for a test.

Why would you dismiss that?
Having sore lesions on the toes is quite unusual- I have pompholix and yes, it does have to start sometime but to start now, right in the middle of this when you have had no other prior skin conditions...

The thing is, many people have no symptoms other than loss of taste or smell. Would you ignore those?

Don't ignore this either.

[whatsleep]

Posted to soon!

Skin thing Could be covid

[HarrietOh]

I’m on the app too and last week typed in I had several hours after exercising where I was wheezing. Very unusual and I’m not asthmatic. However been fine since. The app asked me to get tested, however the online system doesn’t recognise me as a real person to send an at home test and like you, the testing centres are quite a drive away! Can you get the at home test?

[TJH130]

Just to provide a bit of balance, as I posted on one of the many other toes thread a colleague of mine, his son last week had the dreaded "definitely Cronavirus we're all going to die" so called Covid toes and they were tested, Negative result.

[picklemewalnuts]

It's important to get tested for the data, as well. As TJH mentions, you may get negative and that will inform whether toes with no other symptoms need to be tested in future.

Don't bother with the app if you aren't going to use it properly

[FishOnPillows]

Thought I’d update this. I went into work on Mon and mentioned it to my boss, he said go and have a test so I could report back what it was like!
So I went Monday morning, and the army guy there noticed I had my work ID badge on and said I should be self-isolating until I get results if I had a cough or a high temperature, but I said I don’t! So he asked why I was there, I said because of my toes. Which confused us both tbh, but he figured I should be self isolating if I have any symptoms (except toes aren’t an ‘official’ symptom...) Called my boss to tell him and it confused him too.

Boss asked SLT, they told me I then had to stay off site for 7 days, regardless of my test result, so I managed to work from home the rest of the week.

Got a Negative result come through on Tuesday.

My toes are getting worse though - red/purple, swollen, with 0.5-1cm and deep blisters spreading. Skyped my GP Wed, he prescribed antibiotics, but so far they’ve done nothing.

Then yesterday DP suddenly developed a bit of a temperature (37.7, up from 35.5 the day before), felt tired and dizzy. So now he’s going for a test today to rule it out.

[whenwillthemadnessend]

From what I've read the toe thing happens last when the body is recovering and clearing the virus so it might well be negative anyway. My son had this in late March and I'm keen for an antibody test. But I guess it will be ages before we can get one.

[Cornettoninja]

I’m glad you went in the end @FishOnPillows. It’s really important for them to be able to gather data on this really new disease if they’re ever going to understand it. I hope this puts you in a category for priority antibody testing when those are rolled out widely.

I have to say, I’m not understanding why so many people were ‘confused’ along the way to you getting your test. You had a reported suspected symptom and were tested accordingly. In an ideal world these tests should have been happening on the same scale much earlier in this pandemic; perhaps we’d understand more about early symptoms then.

Imho the propaganda has focused so much on the fear factor to get society on board with what was needed to get control of the numbers it’s lost the edge in getting people to cooperate with the importance of breaking chains of transmission and treating rarer symptoms with caution. I suspect that this was what the poorly communicated ‘alert’ meant in the governments last covid slogan but this is precisely what needs to happen to reopen society effectively.

[FishOnPillows]

The confusion is coming from having “high temperature or a new cough” drummed into everyone’s heads over the last few months. Policies are written to reflect those symptoms (since updated to reflect loss of taste/smell). Nobody I spoke to had heard of toe lesions being associated with Covid!

Will be interesting to see DP’s results. He hasn’t left the house at all in over 2 weeks, so if it’s positive he either caught it before then or from me.

I did feel awful the week before my toes started, but tbh it was my period week, and endo means I always feel awful that week. 😅

[whatsleep]

So now that leave you in a tricky spot as if you are to assume you’ve not had it, now your husband is showing symptoms you should, by rights, isolate yourself for 14 days! I wonder what your boss will make if your current situation. Sorry to hear your toes are getting worse and not better, hope you both feel a lot better soon

[GiantPinesAhem]

It sounds to me like that you've probably already had it, so will no longer test positive – issues with extremities 10 to come during recovery rather than when infectious from the things I've read anecdotally. So, if your DP has got it from you and you're already past the infectious stage then you won't need to isolate any further. If he tests positive, then I would be wanting an antibody test in another week or so for yourself just to confirm.

[FishOnPillows]

That’s the worry I’m having now - if I’m supposed to isolate for 14 days, that’ll be 3 weeks in total. I can’t keep carrying on with self-isolating periods (I doubt anyone can!). I can wfh for a few days, but need to go on site regularly.

I also note the government advice has changed from specifying a temperature above 37.8C to just ‘a high temperature’ - well DP’s was 37.7C, so not overly high in general and not quite at their limit! But then his usual seems abnormally low. Although it does seem like these days we can interpret the rules to mean whatever we want (given the Cummings fiasco).

I’m now just hoping his result comes back by Monday evening. If it’s negative then we can just ignore the whole thing. If it’s positive then I’ve no idea - with timings it’d seem more likely that he’d actually caught it from me.

It’s all a bit of a mess, and I can completely see why some people are getting fed up of the whole thing.