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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I’ve had COVID 19, and it’s been here a while?

426 replies

VivienScott · 26/03/2020 19:04

After Xmas I came down with what I thought was a terrible cold. Dry persistent cough, terrible fever, worse than I’ve ever had to the point I was delirious, difficulty breathing, though not pneumonia. Saw out of hours and they check oxygen levels, chest etc, said I was ok to be home, but I was not first case they’d seen like this and there was “something really awful going round this year”. Consequently had to see GP who said he’d had to hospitalise a lot more people than normal for breathing difficulties.
It all sounds exactly like coronavirus, it really felt like something dreadful to the extent I deliberately kept myself from others more than I would with a cold. I honestly believe it was, but it’s way before it was supposed to be in Europe let alone here in UK. What do you think, AIBU to think it’s been here longer than we’re aware?

OP posts:
Barmaid101 · 26/03/2020 19:05

I’ve seen this quite a bit and I hope that it’s true so then hopefully this can all be over sooner!

Bubblemonkey · 26/03/2020 19:09

I’ve said this a lot on Facebook. The Facebook Doctor Brigade say it’s all bullshit though. I’ve definitely seen people say the same, been tested for the flu & it’s came back negative 🤔

ScottishMummy12 · 26/03/2020 19:10

Yes I think it has been longer than we are being told. All of my household where really unwell with the symptoms of corona virus over the Xmas holidays. This was unlike anything we had ever had before. We also all ended up with inhalers. A few nurses from the hospital in Glasgow have said they had patients with it back in December.

ScottishMummy12 · 26/03/2020 19:11

@Bubblemonkey In my household we all got tested for the flu and we all came back negative as well. I am one hundred percent convinced it was Coronavirus.

bridgetreilly · 26/03/2020 19:12

Yes, there was definitely something going round with a very persistent cough this winter. It seems very unlikely to me that it was COVID-19, though. Virus geneticists can tell when it mutated which was late November or early December. It would have had to spread very quickly to get so widely across the UK in December-January. And at the point when it was being identified in China, there don't seem to have been any identifications of it here. And it wasn't having the same serious illness effects as this is.

Thymelord · 26/03/2020 19:13

What I find strange is that all the people who reckon they've had it all say they were really really ill, yet the vast majority of people who have actually had an official diagnosis have mild symptoms.

GirlCalledJames · 26/03/2020 19:14

If you think it was in the UK then, where were the extra deaths?

Selfsettling3 · 26/03/2020 19:14

Patient zero in the U.K. is believed to have been mid January. Don’t forget all the usual flu and cold viruses have also been doing the rounds.

Newgirls · 26/03/2020 19:18

There is an Oxford uni study just published saying it’s been out a while and prob half the uk population have had it. With it being in China since Nov of course it was here earlier. We have daily flights from all over the world inc Italy. It wasn’t being tested and many of those who would have died from it would have been elderly.

I know a few people dotted around uk who have it and haven’t been abroad this year.

I think gov def know this but we need to self not isolate to reduce the peak so will ‘break’ this to us in a few weeks.

We will still get our peak and need to self isolate etc but I think the issue will be how to get back to normal without the uk having enough testing?

GirlCalledJames · 26/03/2020 19:19

Do you think that nobody notices if the number of people dying of viral pneumonia suddenly increases dramatically?

Honeyned · 26/03/2020 19:21

My mum had exactly your symptoms in January aswell. Chest xrays done and ct scan and doctors said 'wow you have been poorly', we were wondering the same

EmeraldShamrock · 26/03/2020 19:21

My BIL swears he had it too around Christmas, I don't think he is right. ATT my DS had an awful viral flu, so did a friend. I believe it was another flu virus. Coronavirus is spreading to fast and very contagious unlike the Christmas bout. I think 9 people died in Ireland in December of the viral flu it was a bad dose.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 26/03/2020 19:23

My sister was incredibly unwell over Christmas. Went from flu to pneumonia to pleurisy. I honestly thought she was going to die. As soon as I heard of this outbreak I was convinced that was what she had had.

slipperywhensparticus · 26/03/2020 19:24

Since when did they swab test for winter flu?

And why, if it's been around for do long and so many people have had it, is there a Strain on the NHS now? Surely the nhs would have been crippled staff been sick and concern raised by the nhs sooner?

Newgirls · 26/03/2020 19:25

Girljames - agree - you’d think there would be records but if someone was in due to heart issues then maybe that was put as cause of death?

Darbs76 · 26/03/2020 19:26

Wouldn’t the death toll and infection rate be an awful lot higher if that was the case? It was probably a nasty flu / cough

Ohdeariedear · 26/03/2020 19:26

OP I had the same to the point of the Out of Hours doc commenting that this years flu was a bad one and he’d seen lots of people with similar and it could take a few weeks to get over it. DH had the same. I was as tired and sore and feeble as when I had glandular fever and the cough....it was murder. That was in early Feb.

excitedforbaby9 · 26/03/2020 19:28

It’s funny because i posted on here back in Jan/feb seriously worried about my husband. He had the most horrific cough and fever which soaked sweat completely though the mattress. He was incredibly poorly, never seen him like that in the 11 years we had been together. We had discussed this, it was the same symptoms.

GirlCalledJames · 26/03/2020 19:28

In all the cases? How convenient. More or less likely than that the virus just wasn’t there then?

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 26/03/2020 19:29

Someone on radio 4 said the lack of deaths meant it can’t have been the same virus, basically,

PinkiOcelot · 26/03/2020 19:29

A couple of weeks before Christmas dd1 was really Ill with cough, bad chest and temperature. DH then became ill with the same thing. It went on a good couple of weeks. DD is convinces she has had Coronavirus.
DD2 and I didn’t come down with it.
The DH of friend of mine was really poorly about this time too as was one of his colleagues. It turns out her husband had returned from China. Certainly makes you wonder.

Pulpfiction1 · 26/03/2020 19:31

They said today that people had been picking it up from the Austrian ski reports and bringing it home as early as beginning of Jan.

It may turn out it has been here ages and didn't even start in China.

Pulpfiction1 · 26/03/2020 19:32

Someone on radio 4 said the lack of deaths meant it can’t have been the same virus, basically

Increased deaths could be due to the virus mutating.

DartmoorChef · 26/03/2020 19:33

I truly believe myself and dp had it in january. I want the test so that i can find out.

TheLadyAnneNeville · 26/03/2020 19:35

I too believe I had it in December. I was bed bound. No cold symptoms just extreme cough, breathlessness, unable to get out of bed, choking for breath. Ended up on steroids, inhalers and antibiotics. I’m now awaiting (though obviously, I don’t expect an appointment any time soon) a hospital appointment for investigation into persistent breathlessness and remaining cough. Three months later I STILL cannot get a full breath into my lungs.

Whatever it was, I’d never experienced anything like it before. DH had it and was well after 4 days. DS had it and was in bed for a week. I had it and am still not right. No underlying conditions.