What fucking fresh hell is this?

[Palmsun]

I came down with a headcold 4 weeks ago. By March the 29th it was much more than a headcold but not a flu either. It felt more like a sinus infection and I went to my GP. She said it was a chest infection. Gave me 5 days of antibiotics. I felt reasonably ok-ish with them but still sore and not well.

4 weeks from the onset of all of this and I am still not better. My cough has cleared but my throat is sore again and my ears are sore and I am still nearly deaf. And I am not getting any better.

This is not a normal headcold. Not any more.

It just won't go away.

4 weeks and counting. Does anyone else have the same thing?

For anyone who has this for a long time - do you think, does rest help?

I think this is likely covid. There's so many characteristics to covid. I know with the earlier covid, rest is supposed to be important and there has been plenty online from people saying when they push themselves too far, they have a setback.

I think I will over exaggerate my symptoms next week to work and take the week off to rest and recover and hopefully then I will get better once and for all.

My cough cleared quickly. I still have a slightish cough but it's nothing. It's more like choking on my own mucus type of cough and getting caught up in my own fluids.

I drank pineapple juice during my cough stage and also children's paracetamol. I was shooting syringes of syrup back my mouth.

A colleague had covid for the first time last year, about this time of year, when we were still testing. Residual cough, snot and feeling rubbish after testing negative. A pharmacist told her to take fexofenadine, brand name Allevia (over the counter antihistamine but stronger than the likes of piriton and clarytin) for 10 days and this, somehow, made her feel much better. Worth thinking about?

If I don't see an improvement by Saturday - I am going to start upping my game with over the counter stuff and just start taking packets of medicine at a time.

That's not upping your game, that's being foolish. You're only meant to take the stated amounts or there can be consequences. Too much vitamin C can have a laxative effect which can obviously dehydrate you which you don't need. Some things can cause serious damage.

There's nothing unusual about the same virus affecting different people differently. You said that you are depressed, that's one factor that can affect your immune system among many factors.

week 5 here, the cold bit lasted 2 weeks, the cough is lingering, and its fucked with my asthma, which is now not controlled for the first time in my adult life.. not even the 2 rounds of bloody covid got my asthma like this.

I think I’m about a week into the same thing. I developed a lovely new symptom of conjunctivitis today, so that’s delightful. I’m struggling to sleep with the coughing and it’s difficult to hear. I’m also very concerned that my pelvic floor will finally give up the fight due to the horrendous coughing.

DS1 started off with a cold, conjunctivitis and a minor ear infection two weeks ago. I’m really hoping that it clears up quickly for him and doesn’t linger as he has a very busy few weeks coming up at school.

DS2 started with a horrendous cough in early February. I took him to the GP and it’s likely he has whooping cough (despite having all his baby vaccinations), we are waiting on an antibody test to confirm. He’s still got a really bad cough.

I had what sounds like the same thing for seven weeks, finally shook it off butvam still very tired and also deaf. DH is still very ill, coughing most of the night, also deaf. No improvement.

Ah I had this in January.
It would not bloody budge! Everyday I thought I'd get better, then I got much much worse, then it finally went. It's absolutely awful and draining isn't it.

This shares some characteristics with COVID imo and there's been some comments saying it is covid. It's a nasty virus. It's considered mild in a medical sense in that many of us are not hospitalised but it's far from mild at home. It's never ending and many people here saying it's going on for months.

Why is this not being reported on? And people are expected just to keep on going because it's only a 'mild cold'. My fucking ass.

I am in work exhausted even though I slept last night and I am still nearly deaf.

I had colds before but I was able to do my usual cold remedies and they left within a week.

No idea if the hospital he works in are testing for it or not. They are not allowed to talk about it or even mention covid or they get told off, but lots of covid patients and still deaths.

I'm struggling to get better, felt great for 4 days 2 weeks ago then bad again. That to me is definitely covid. I'm working as a cleaner and there's no chance to rest. There must be a reason why there is no talking about this why is it being kept hush hush. It's wrecking people.

I'm 2 weeks in with the cold that keeps reappearing - felt so rubbish the other day did a covid test but it was negative.

Sore throat, runny nose, and very dizzy/tired. I've just got today to get through at work, then 5 days off, so really hoping it will do one after I rest up.

I'm into week 6 of this. First two weeks coughing loads and really tired but clear mucus. Third week woke up feeling really shitty, achey, chills then fever. Green mucus and lots of it. Went to docs and had 5 days of AB for chest infection. Awful week, fever, snotty, sore throat, the lot. Almost 2 weeks now since finished the AB and feel much better than I did but still got a sore throat and cough. Doc says it's viral, my chest and throat are clear. Did a Covid test at the beginning and again this week both negative. Wonder if I'd done one the week I had the chest infection if I'd have been positive.
Have taken notes of all the remedies recommended in this thread. Just wish I felt better!!!

It's Covid, hard to test at the time the test will work because it takes a week or so to start to worry about it.

Rest is absolutely the best thing and pushing yourself is the absolute worst. My v healthy BIL had a collapsed lung when he went to play tennis to celebrate getting over the cold he'd had for 6wks. Two friends have had pneumonia.

It's not health professionals who think Covid is just the same as a cold, the impact on your life is closer to real flu.

How can it be covid if I tested every few days for the past 2 weeks when I had it and it was negative all times?

It is a nasty virus, that’s what the doctor said.

Why is this not being reported on? And people are expected just to keep on going because it's only a 'mild cold'. My fucking ass.

Because viruses have always had the potential to do this. You've probably caught many others in the past which you recovered from easily but other people were the unlucky ones those times!

Oh this doesn't sound good, I started with it on Tuesday, I thought I had turned a corner this morning, I just keep walking in to different rooms to sit down, watch TV and sleep. I'm just cooking dinner, sitting down and feel like I could go back to sleep again. We have friends that have had a virus ongoing since Chriatmas, they are still struggling to shift it.

I had something similar for weeks and went to see the paramedic at our GP surgery. She diagnosed it as post nasal drip 🤢 and suggested I take anti-histamines which really helped.

Yes! I have a 4-5 days of feeling normal-ish then rough again! Blocked nose, achey, random temperature spike, cough, sicky feeling. My DD has had if too, we're 3 months in!

I'm about to start week six. Been through all the "I think I feel better... oh wait no I don't", I still feel chesty but today is the first day I've not felt like I'm dying.

My daughter is coughing so much she can’t sleep and keeps being sick from coughing. She also has sore throat and a temperature and weird aches and pains . It’s so horrible

By taking too much vitamin C, you actually stop the body absorbing it completely for a period of time. It’s turns off the transporter mechanism in your gut until the concentration goes back to normal. Just stick to the recommended dose.

I've had a similar thing a couple of times over the past year. Lots of people at work currently have this. So sorry you're suffering OP. I had to have 2 courses of different antibiotics, a couple of chest xrays, 3 blood tests

Yep have had it since first week of January. It went flu type illness, turned into chest infection, turned into sinus infection, felt like Covid, felt slightly better, non stop tickly cough for two weeks, chest pain / infection came back. Had antibiotics, felt better, came back again few days later, horrific sore throat where I couldn’t swallow on one side. Saw doctor after 10 days of it, told it was viral. Had it for another TWO weeks, no sleep and pure throat pain. Went back to the doctors and of course it disappeared that day. Still clearing my throat every 5 mins and coughing but on the mend now.

I work in a GP surgery. Yep. 50% of all 8am calls are now this. I think people are more panicked after Covid. They're more convinced they have long Covid. They read stories like Kate Garraway's husband dying. They're not sleeping as well as they did pre-Covid. They're fatter and less fit and healthy after all the lockdowns. And it's been a long, cold, damp winter. Maybe make a goal to be as healthy and active and sleeping as you were in the summer of 2018? Your general level of fitness really does impact all the minor winter illnesses and your ability to cope. This is a completely non-medically trained viewpoint - just the reality that everyone now phones the doctor and requests antibiotics instead of reaching for the lemsip and expecting to feel really rough for a week. And you know, right, that antibiotics kill good gut bacteria? And weaken your immune system? But Covid taught us to be scared of the common cold.

Yeap had it since Christmas comes and goes now just a cough sore ears and mucus in throat which i cant shift, loads of people got it.