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Original poster

Covid isn't always "just a bad cold"

55 replies

MamaorBruh · 05/03/2025 19:24

I know it's an emotive subject for some, but last week I caught Covid - I tested as I was seeing my best friend who is pregnant and I felt shocking plus lost taste so I wanted to check before seeing her.
Some people have practically mocked me for testing "didn't realise covid was still a thing/why have you even got tests/it's just a cold you're being dramatic"
Now, I've had a many a cold in the past but Covid (to me, anyway) is SO much more than that - i felt like I've been hit by a bus! My head felt like it was in a vice and I felt 100 times worse than whenever I've had "a cold"
I'm still poorly now, whereas with the colds in the past, I've recovered within a few days.
I suppose it just frustrates me that people assume everyone just suffers like it's "a cold" whereas, it can be much more than that.

OP posts:
wildthingsinthenight · 05/03/2025 20:41

@Aligirlbear
Covid can cause serious problems for people long term.
It has disabled me and I have mobility problems and live with chronic pain every day now since catching it.

Popfull · 05/03/2025 20:54

DazzyRascale · 05/03/2025 19:37

@Popfull and your second front just confirms it.

Bizarre 😬

placemats · 05/03/2025 21:09

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028nyt

Watched this last night and was sharply reminded of those who died from COVID, attended a COVID related funeral during lockdown and I'll never forget that. ETA: The link is about the first vaccinations in Croatia and is a Storyville documentary.

It's an awful insidious virus and recent figures show that NHS health workers have increasingly more sick days off than any other workers, including teachers.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Covid-19
ELDV · 05/03/2025 21:15

tillyandmilly · 05/03/2025 19:27

Not just a cold - my sister has anosmia after contracting it in 2020

I feel her pain as I have parosmia still.
getting better but it’s been a big thing.
Every time I have had Covid since the headaches have been debilitating so I totally get what you are saying OP.

Belaymehearties · 05/03/2025 21:15

As someone whose family member died from COVID I still find the whole pandemic denial upsetting. I had COVID for the second time in april last year and flu in January so of course it's still about! It never goes away, it just mutates and carries on ...

Kahless · 05/03/2025 21:21

RaininSummer · 05/03/2025 19:44

Stupid thing to say. Covid can be very nasty. Sometimes it's like a cold but other times it is truly terrible.

Show quote history

It's like people saying they have the flu, some will have a cold, while others will say "if you can crawl out of bed to pick up a £50 then you haven't got the flu"

Sometimes you'll feel shit, and sometimes you'll feel worse.

MoonlightMemories · 05/03/2025 21:22

Fully agree, many people to get it mildly and without serious or long-lasting consequences, but many people do become very unwell with it (I could not believe the pain I experienced with it when it was first circulating)....it was like it was attacking all my joints...and the headache and cough...it was worse then any kind of flu I've had before. It also then left me with longest COVID afterwards.

A couple of years ago I caught one of the newer strains that was going about, which was causing people to have some pretty bad gastrointestinal symptoms...I had awful vomiting, loss of sense of taste & smell and I very nearly called an ambulance at one point because of the amount of pain I had in my stomach and barely drinking/weeing for a couple of days....literally very nearly lost consciousness at one point because of it, felt quite muddled with it too. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to risk (not that I'd have been able to go out) giving that to anybody else, pregnant or not!

CottageGoblin · 05/03/2025 21:24

As someone who feels that they lost their baby due to contracting covid, thank you for testing and being sensible

LynetteScavo · 05/03/2025 21:27

I've had Covid three times and it was never like a cold. Fortunately I recovered well each time. I would still test if feeling unwell, just out of curiosity, if I could easily get a test. Why not?

Some people don't understand that Covid, norovirus, flu, etc are just inconvenient for some, but can fatal for others.

MrTiddlesTheCat · 05/03/2025 21:28

I think there's a lot of people who don't realise that like flu, every time you have covid your risk of developing Parkinson's in later life increases. It may sometimes feel like a cold but it definitely isn't.

placemats · 05/03/2025 21:39

I've never had Covid but got RSV last April and I was able to get about and didn't feel weak, but the coughing fits were awful, especially at night. I did wear a mask.

I've seen a lot of people in shops recently wearing masks.

SparkyBlue · 05/03/2025 21:41

We had some sort of flu recently and we've had never had anything so bad in the house previously, DD age 12 felt a bit off on the Saturday and went to bed early that evening and didn't actually feel able to leave her bed (apart from the loo) until Thursday. I've never seen her so unwell and I cannot remember feeling so bad ever in my life. We kept well away from everyone as I'd hate for anyone vulnerable to catch it. Three weeks on now and I'm still wiped out from it. Our gp has started asking that people wear face masks again .

placemats · 05/03/2025 21:44

I nearly died from Hong Kong flu as a child in the 6Os.

My sister, who is a retired nurse fgs, said that I could never get the flu again and that I have life long immunity. ETA. This is not true. Flu variants exist and even variants of the same flu you had. So you can get the flu again.

toffeeappleturnip · 05/03/2025 21:46

I had covid in 2023 - it was really debilitating. Started with pains and cramps in the whole of my legs for 24 hours, then 3/4 days of shivering and fever, then I slept 20 hours a day for another 4 days. Then I slowly recovered - 10 days in total. Took about a month to stop having 1 hour top up nap at 5pm after work.

NotaCoolMum · 05/03/2025 21:49

Popfull · 05/03/2025 19:25

Bloody hell
I had to check this thread wasn’t 4 years old

I’m assuming you didn’t have family or friends who died alone due to COVID

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 05/03/2025 21:51

When I had covid, I didn’t feel particularly ill - it was like a bad cold - u til my oxygen saturations fell low enough that I had to be taken to hospital, where I spent several days on oxygen, following which I got long Covid. I’m still suffering from long covid to this day - it has limited my life and my mobility to the extent that I now get disability living allowance, and can’t walk any distance.

So while it might not feel serious, it can be properly nasty. I wouldn’t wish long covid on anyone. And I had had my first dose of the vaccine too - if I hadn’t, I could be even worse.

newrubylane · 05/03/2025 21:52

MamaorBruh · 05/03/2025 19:24

I know it's an emotive subject for some, but last week I caught Covid - I tested as I was seeing my best friend who is pregnant and I felt shocking plus lost taste so I wanted to check before seeing her.
Some people have practically mocked me for testing "didn't realise covid was still a thing/why have you even got tests/it's just a cold you're being dramatic"
Now, I've had a many a cold in the past but Covid (to me, anyway) is SO much more than that - i felt like I've been hit by a bus! My head felt like it was in a vice and I felt 100 times worse than whenever I've had "a cold"
I'm still poorly now, whereas with the colds in the past, I've recovered within a few days.
I suppose it just frustrates me that people assume everyone just suffers like it's "a cold" whereas, it can be much more than that.

I've had suspected COVID recently (didn't have any tests but had all the classic symptoms, it felt exactly like when I've had COVID previously) and it's taken me a solid two weeks to fully get over it. I'm still coughing a bit and slightly snotty. Most ill I've been in years.

stayathomer · 05/03/2025 21:59

Like any virus it can be horrendous, fairly mild, something in between or even asymptomatic.

This. The thing is also if I test for Covid it’s to see what I have as opposed to a ‘I shouldn’t meet up or go to work’- I wouldn’t visit my mum or go to work with any sort of a bad cold or bug either.

madaffodil · 05/03/2025 22:00

I had covid about 18 months ago and I still don't feel right.

Aligirlbear · 05/03/2025 22:13

wildthingsinthenight · 05/03/2025 20:41

@Aligirlbear
Covid can cause serious problems for people long term.
It has disabled me and I have mobility problems and live with chronic pain every day now since catching it.

And so has flu or other virus’ for those with immunosuppression - not just Covid and I can speak from a position of understanding having had to protect my husband not just from Covid but many other virus’. So my original comments stand - any virus can be harmful / damaging to those at risk not just Covid

wildthingsinthenight · 06/03/2025 09:53

So why are you querying OP being cautious about Covid if you have experience of shielding?
I haven't said that other virus' aren't harmful. I'm very aware they are.
OP is talking about Covid and testing and I have experience of long lasting problems which is why I commented.

She said herself her friend didnt mind her coming over feeling a bit poorly until she mentioned Covid.

Delatron · 06/03/2025 10:02

I think as Covid keeps circulating and evolving (latest strain seems pretty bad) people are realising it’s not just a cold for many. And nobody is safe really. I have post viral fatigue from a Covid infection in Nov. I’ve gone from running 25 miles a week to having to cut my hours at work by 50%. I can’t exercise. And there are many who are far worse than me.

Covid can be a vascular disease and this is where it’s different to a cold. It gets it to the blood vessels and cells and can cause lots of inflammation. This can impact brain, heart, lungs. And cause over 200 symptoms. Many are suffering long Covid. Millions are out of the work place with it. We need more research on treatments. It’s very similar now to CFS and ME. Women aged 40-50 are the main group who are suffering.

So I would advise people to test and if you have Covid avoid others and also rest and don’t push through. If you have 10% of getting long Covid with each infection and we are getting infected most years then do the maths. Being fit and healthy with a good immune system won’t help. I’ve not had so much as a cold for over a year.

My last Covid infection a few years ago was so mild I barely knew I had it… this one very different.

zingally · 06/03/2025 10:05

The thing with covid is that it seems to have such wildly different affects of people.
My first round with it was March/April 2021. Started with 24 hours of a real streaming cold, which quickly disappeared, and was followed by about 4 days of general malaise. Personally, the flu I had that autumn was far worse.

Then I had it again in June 2023 and it presented like a 36 hour stomach bug. But my sense of smell was RUINED for absolutely months after. Everything smelt like over-ripe/decomposing fruit well into that autumn and beyond. It was probably a year until everything settled down. And it's only in literally the last couple of months that I like the taste of butter again.

ButterCrackers · 06/03/2025 10:07

You did the right action to test. Many people are idiots sneezing and coughing out everywhere. They don’t care. You tested and thank goodness. I hope you are better soon

JaninaDuszejko · 06/03/2025 10:33

75% of people who get flu have no symptoms.

Colds are caused by hundreds of different viruses, the main families being rhinoviruses, coronoviruses, adenoviruses and enteroviruses. ALL those viruses (along with flu) can cause no or mild symptoms in most people but can have life threatening complications. For example, DS has asthma and has been on oxygen in hospital regularly due to colds triggering his asthma, but he's never been poorly with Covid. Pneumonia can be caused by all those viruses, and some bacterial infections.

Covid is still relatively new and so causes more severe symptoms than cold viruses that have been around a while but that will change over time, just like we no longer get 50% of people dying of measles (the death rate when the virus first emerged in the Old World and again when it was introduced to the New World).

FWIW @MamaorBruh I'd not have wanted to see you with a cold when pregnant, I really struggled to shake off colds when I was pregnant. So the Covid test was unnecessary, you should have delayed seeing your friend even if it was only a routine rhinovirus infection.