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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To assume my cough is because I have a cold

293 replies

Redsquirrel34 · 20/09/2020 08:55

So since Thursday I've been absolutely full of cold. Streaming nose, felt a bit rough. No temp and no cough until today. I've woken and feel alot better in myself but can feel the phlegm at the back of my throat and it's making me cough! Not horrendously, just a short cough. I've been awake an hour and coughed 3 times. The cold was caught from my nieces, who passed it onto my daughter, then to me. And now my husband and son are all extremely snotty too.
Isn't this the reason why there's no tests? Because technically I have a cough I should get tested but common sense says it's a cold. I just feel it's stupid to attempt to test in these circumstances. If I had a cough out of nowhere or a temp it would be different. Aibu to put the cough down to a cold?

OP posts:
GetOffYourHighHorse · 20/09/2020 10:11

'There needs to be common sense but the government needs to increase testing '

Yes but it goes from one extreme to another. People here bizarrely and worryingly just deciding their cough isn't covid, yet others requesting testing because they just know someone who tested positive regardless of if they've actually got symptoms.

PixiePowered · 20/09/2020 10:11

I developed a cold around two weeks ago and woke up one morning with a phlegmy cough that was definitely consistent. I didn't hesitate to book a test and I'm quite glad I did as I've had this cough, albeit less consistent, for two weeks now and it's reassuring (for myself, my family and my colleagues) to know that I am not inadvertently inflecting them.

U2HasTheEdge · 20/09/2020 10:13

Actually, reading this thread has changed my mind.

Their cough is a typical cough you get with a cold- occasional cough, clearing mucous. Not entirely sure if that fits with a consistent cough.

When they get up I will monitor and attempt to get a test if needed.

drivingmisspotty · 20/09/2020 10:15

My mum and sister keep pushing me to get a test but I don't fancy a 70 mile round trip to either be told there are no tests left and to find out my cold is just a cold... I'm 99.9999999% sure I do not have Covid!

This shouldn’t happen, though. As far as I can tell (from my own experience booking a test this week) ‘walk in’ or ‘drive in’ centre refers to the method of transport, not that you can just turn up for a test. All the tests need to be booked and you are given an appointment. It still could be 35 miles away but, as long as you book, you won’t turn up to find no tests. We booked on the website. It was very busy. I just refreshed the page every so often over about 2 hours and then got through and was given the option of a postal test. It was annoying I couldn’t do it instantly but it was possible with a bit of persistence.

U2HasTheEdge · 20/09/2020 10:15

*continuous cough I mean

nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut · 20/09/2020 10:16

Same issue here. I applied for a test but the only one I can get is 3 hours drive so a 6 hour round trip. Not possible for me so I'm just carrying on as normal and assuming its due to the cold.

PurpleDaisies · 20/09/2020 10:17

@nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut

Same issue here. I applied for a test but the only one I can get is 3 hours drive so a 6 hour round trip. Not possible for me so I'm just carrying on as normal and assuming its due to the cold.
You’re not even self isolating with your household?
Leafbeans · 20/09/2020 10:18

It depends on the cough, I was coughing perhaps twice over a 24 hour period, and just to clear phlegm, one or two coughs per instance. No temp, no continuous cough, no loss of taste or smell. It would be a waste of a test, but some schools and nurseries would insist on the parent having a test if the child had the same symptoms, which is a waste. If the government scale up testing so that everyone who needs one can access one then sure, any whiff of a cough and why not, until then (and it's the government's fault not that of individuals), it's good some people are still applying logic.

emptyshelvesagain · 20/09/2020 10:20

@nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut

Same issue here. I applied for a test but the only one I can get is 3 hours drive so a 6 hour round trip. Not possible for me so I'm just carrying on as normal and assuming its due to the cold.

Oh for goodness sake if you thought you needed a test then you must suspect covid. Isolate FFS.

Tarararara · 20/09/2020 10:20

I wish the govt would define what an 'episode' means. The coughing for more than an hour is clear - we've all been there (albeit with colds!) when you're lying in bed at night or in the morning and just can't stop coughing, so that's recognisable. But 3 episodes in 24 hours? I don't think that means 3 coughs (as they would have said '3 coughs in 24 hours' and I don't think it means a hugely prolonged period of coughing (as that would be covered by coughing for more than an hour, so would be redundant) so it's clearly somewhere between one cough, and an hour of coughing. That's a wide margin!

I am dreading my DS getting the cold that is going around his school as, like me, he gets cold symptoms for about a day and then it goes immediately to a persistent cough lasting a week or so. No tests available here so he'll need to be off school.

VoyageInTheDark · 20/09/2020 10:26

DD has a new cough and a snotty nose. Everyone is telling me it's just a cold but I couldn't get a test and it just feels like it would be irresponsible to not self isolate. So that's what we're doing even though I think everyone thinks I'm being neurotic.

WanderingMilly · 20/09/2020 10:27

No need to get tested, honestly. You have had a cold, you can feel the phlegm at the back of your throat which is 'making' you cough. A COVID cough doesn't feel like that, it's a continuous dry cough which feels "automatic" ie. not for a reason, it's sort of automatic and continues for a while (an episode).
There is nothing in what you describe to suggest you have any COVID symptoms, it's a cold.

sage46 · 20/09/2020 10:29

I got same symptoms, definitely a cold.

PurpleDaisies · 20/09/2020 10:29

Covid coughs can be wet and phlegmy @WanderingMilly

It is really irresponsible to be spreading misinformation.

LittleBearPad · 20/09/2020 10:29

Seas of snot here accompanied by the occasional cough. It’s a cold. People do know what they feel like with a cold.

PurpleDaisies · 20/09/2020 10:29

@sage46

I got same symptoms, definitely a cold.
How can you possibly know that?

No health professional would make such a pronouncement based.

LemonTT · 20/09/2020 10:31

I suppose this is one for the Covid doesn’t know it’’s......debaters.

Does Covid know if you have a cold or always get a cough in September or that your nephew had a cold last week.

Generally doctors will triage in possible outcomes, assuming the most obvious diagnosis. Hooves mean horse not zebra.

With Covid they triage out. That means you eliminate it even when it not the most likely diagnosis. The reason being the risk of community transmission is sufficient to warrant the cost and inconvenience.

I

Oohmegooliebird · 20/09/2020 10:33

Ummm a study published in the lancet reported that nearly half of children with COVID that ended up in intensive care had 'upper respiratory' i.e cold like symptoms before diagnosis. Please bear this in mind when 'diagnosing ' your cough.

GetOffYourHighHorse · 20/09/2020 10:36

'DD has a new cough and a snotty nose. Everyone is telling me it's just a cold but I couldn't get a test and it just feels like it would be irresponsible to not self isolate. So that's what we're doing even though I think everyone thinks I'm being neurotic.'

Neurotic?? Its incredible isn't it. I'm repeating myself now but its no wonder covid is escalating again if this thread is anything to go by. If you have a new persistent cough then isolate and get a test! No one cares if its 'phlegmy' or 'tickly'. Is it new and persistent?!

Stompythedinosaur · 20/09/2020 10:36

I think the rules are clear and people with a cough should be getting tested or isolating for 14 days, even if they think their cough is related to a cold.

The spread of Covid is accelerating, I imagine because of people deciding the rules don't apply to them.

When you decide to break the rules and go out when you have been symptomatic, you are putting other people at risk, and it isn't fair.

SkaraBrae · 20/09/2020 10:36

Criteria for the cough is v unclear in my opinion.
'Continuous' is either coughing for over an hour or 3 times per 24 hours- what it one time though?
How long do we have to cough to count it as one time?

I know my post sounds dense but I genuinely find it confusing.

SkaraBrae · 20/09/2020 10:39

Problem is, symptom description is so basic it's very hard to decide if one fits some of the criteria.
I was (out of curiosity) checking symptom descriptions online and found an American medical site that categorically stated that if symptoms of cold weren't accompanied by a cough or a fever it couldn't be COVID.

Oohmegooliebird · 20/09/2020 10:39

@skarabrae yes it is difficult I agree, but presence of cold like symptoms shouldn't make us assume that it isn't COVID. If people are worried enough to consider getting a test, you need to isolate

Oohmegooliebird · 20/09/2020 10:40

I should say presence of cold like symptoms in addition to cough or fever

Oohmegooliebird · 20/09/2020 10:41

Our guidance is that cold like symptoms alone don't need a test.

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