Anyone else got this ‘cold’ that is more like flu but probably not flu, but won’t go away?

[BigButtons]

I am into my third week of it now.
first week pouring mucus, glands up , feeling wretched,lost voice etc
Second week started to get even worse and was put on antibiotics for bacterial sinus infection. The antibiotics need to be taken 4 times a day in an empty stomach so I barely have time to eat anything as a consequence 😩
Third week The mucus is finally drying up but I am left with an awful cough from post nasal drip and feel utterly exhausted and sleep all the time. Body aches and shivers too.
what the hell even is this bug? It can’t just be a cold. I know two other people with it and all of us have similar stuff- lasting over 3 weeks and all have needed antibiotics.
it’s not like any cold I have ever known but also not like any flu I have ever had 🤷🏻‍♀️
if can piss off now though. Moan over.

I'm 2 weeks in and feelI turned the corner on Saturday and am much better today.

I'm about 9 days in, it started with my youngest child, then me, then DD and now DH - we're all in varying stages of shit-ness!
I'm about to start taking immunosuppressants, I guess that may be offf the cards for a
While 😵‍💫

I tried to get through it for a month before going to the GP (sinus infection here too), but it hung on. One of the things helping is a steroid nasal spray. The stupid cough is finally going away. The antibiotics didn't seem to do much except give me stomach trouble.
Hope you're over it soon!

Caught it around 16h December. Ears were bubbling and cracking inside. Then throat got sore, then felt like razor blades, then my sinuses became painful and throughout I've had on/off vertigo. The fatigue was unreal. I still can't clear one of my Eustachian tubes and my GP said these viruses can take 3 months to clear up. It has often felt better for a day or two, then returned.
I have been prescribed a steroid nasal spray to try and help clear out my sinuses and ears.
I'm self employed (part time) and only took my 'razor blade' throat day off but how others are managing I don't know. Someone has suggested it could be a Covid strain?

We've all had something in the last few weeks. Dh first, then Ds, then me and finally it got dd.

Dh and Ds have had cough, so hard it's made them throw up. Not much cold symptoms.

Dd and I have had cough and cold symptoms. And feeling queasy.

It's going to be 2 weeks for me on Wednesday. Still got a runny nose and the cough. Hacking cough. So boring.

We've all been fatigued.

BUT I have almost totally lost my taste and sense of smell. I love cooking and have no idea if anything I've cooked tasted ok. I love perfume and can barely smell it. Please let it come back soon.

Ds2 been ill for over 2 weeks now.

Suffering with it now. It is like a really bad cold with very sore throat sinus pain shivers feel freezing but not temperature no appetite. I had to leave work and am in bed. That never happens.

Week 4 here, 3rd lot of antibiotics and steroids. Turned into pneumonia and sinus infection.
Feel awful still.

I’ve had it since Christmas and it turned into a chest infection which required antibiotics. I’m still not back to my normal activities because of exhaustion and breathlessness. It’s been a terrible lingering virus for a lot of us.

I'm one week in, and while the mucus stream and sore throat have eased, the fatigue is worse than ever.
Dr Google seemed to suggest pharyngitis which normally lasts 5-7 days, but most people on here are suffering a lot longer.
The last time I felt so all round shitty was with Covid.

I am on week three with just a little cough and snot left but the fatigue is off the scale. I don’t think I even felt this bad after my first bout of Covid. I am literally dragging myself around and having to nap after I do anything strenuous. Working from various client offices for the rest of the week and genuinely concerned I will literally just not have the energy to move by the end of tomorrow.

Sorry there are so many of you suffering with this.
i had wondered about a covid strain because it is defo not a cold and last time I felt this fatigued was when I had covid first time.
yes- that fatigue is horrendous. I struggled on at work for 2 weeks ( primary school). It even seemed to be getting better after the first week. I signed off sick last Friday because I couldn’t get out of bed.
Now into the third week and all I want to do now is sleep. Is it a post viral fatigue?
I hate staying in bed but I literally have no energy to move. My house is a shit tip.
My appetite is poor. A friend also has it and she says she has lost half a stone.
i have half term next week and am really hoping that there will be a significant turn around by then.

I get no rest at night due to the ridiculous hacking dry cough. It’s pulling muscles and my head feels like it is going to split open when I cough. Nothing comes up any more.
I have found that taking solpedeine helps reduce the cough reflex- if anyone has some hanging round the house it might be worth giving it a go?

I had it for 3 weeks,a fortnight later I caught it again for 10 days,finally better.was awful,sinuses and mucus the worst and then the bloody cough,didn't go to the Dr as was expecting to be turned away with the usual "it's a virus,antibiotics are no good"

Are you using a steamer? I find it really helps to do that several times a day and especially before bed. I've got one from boots but you can make do with a bowl of hot water and a towel over your head.

Also try and sleep propped up.

Yes- taste and smell went for 2 weeks. I assumed it was because I was so blocked up. I can taste and smell again now.

I had a nasty bout of something, whilst I didn't see the dr, others I know did and it was hMPV. Antibiotics will not help as it's a virus. Took me about 10 days to shake it but others I know were I'll be 4 or more weeks (I tend to shake things quickly)

Absolutely pissed off with it, just started to recover, minor cough and it has literally all come back again, I feel rotten. And there seems to be nothing you can do to make it go away! Unless anyone tells me otherwise.
Do you reckon it is a covid based thing? I thought nothing from China lasted long

If anyone starts being sick after a Few Weeks look up the symptoms of whooping cough because it's going around again

I just tested and it’s covid.

I’ve had it just over a week and each day I feel worse. It feels a lot like when I tested positive for covid a few years ago, but the mucus is awful and the cough is so bad. I’ve completely lost my voice.

I’ve found my people. A month ago I was hit with flu symptoms out of the blue, proper in bed, shaking chills, absolutely body wracking cough, headache, fatigue to the point where all I could do was move to the loo and back to bed, anything more and I would tremble with exertion.

It then turned to a chest infection and I had antibiotics for that. I had a full two weeks off work, went back but really struggled for a further two weeks. On Friday I started to lose my voice and had a day with low level fever again. Back to GP who is now sending me for a chest xray and bloods as he’s baffled that it’s lasted this long.

He says it may be that I’ve caught something else on top or the virus has caused a bought of bronchitis or mild pneumonia. I’m still coughing so much and my chest is tight. I was wheezy on listening in.

Has anyone else had this? It’s never ending!

Every year I seem to get something like this. Every year I get handed some steroid nasal spray….
Two of the worst times I can remember:
My husband and I were going out to a concert, a lengthy war poem my Dad taught me as a kid had been put to music and I desperately wanted to go. I was feeling shitty and choking back Sudafed extra strength, which wasn’t working. Instead of going to the concert DH was so concerned he took me to the local A&E. I don’t remember much about it my face and head hurt like crazy, but apparently it was my sinuses.
In 2022, I was coughing so much I had a constant pain in my left side. My eyes felt dry and sticky, and I think I went through every steroid nasal spray that the local doctors could throw at me. I was back and forth coughing, sniffing, choked up to the doctors, I had a rack of pills and bottles and drops and nothing would shift it. It was even suggested that I should be tested for allergies. Then is stopped. But the doctors never said ‘You have ‘……’ they just chucked drugs at me and seemed to hope something would work.
I do wonder why they keep giving me the same ones when nothing seems to work. I always point out that I had this one before, but if seems to be ‘oh well, we will start with this, this time….’
IT DOESN’T BLOODY WORK!
In 2010 I was told I had Eustachian tube dysfunction and had grommets put in. The grommets were both out by 2017.
From the minute I had the grommets put in the ear infections started. The sinus pain started when I had the worst infection relating to the grommet that was still there and so did the rounds of steroid nasal spray.
To give the medics their due for the one in 2024 I did get a chest x-ray and spirometry test in addition to everything else. They were fine and didn’t shed any more light on it.
And it’s back again!
I’m actually quite happy to see this thread. Now I don’t entirely feel that it might just be my messed up anatomy/physiology.
So far this one is in its infancy, just about three weeks, I have hardly made a dent in the Sudafed and the Vicks yet and my cynicism about doctors and their steroid nasal sprays hasn’t yet turned into a desperate need to get rid of this thing.
Sorry for the rant!
I hope we all get better soon!
I’ve tested for COVID each time during the pandemic and neither my husband or I has ever had it. I’m stumped. Has anyone been told what it is?

Yes I'm still not myself it's been horrible

Yes exactly same symptoms.
Almost better now 3 weeks