Already had it?!

[MaomiMak]

I had a routine GP appt this morning.

There were a massive spike in horrible coughs and shortness of breath at the beginning of the year. Coughs that went on for weeks and they said we are seeing a lot of this and it going on for ages.

I needed asthma inhalers again.

With hindsight she said I've probably had coronavirus already. There isn't always a temperature with it and I didn't have one.

It was fine if I did have it. I'm fully recovered though it took weeks.

Its highly unlikely anyone had it outside of China before they notified they WHO on December 31st - if there had been that country would have done the notifications. The first case in China was early November - unless you were there you didn’t have it in January. There was a regular winter bug as there is every year and this year’s was quite nasty but not as bad as Covid-19 could be.

@maggiecate
I think you’re probably right - as a pp said - just wishful thinking.

I had a cough that went on for weeks and I felt awful along with it (slowly getting more and more tired as the weeks went on and I wasn't breathing or sleeping well).

This was the beginning of last year though... so I think that's just winter.

It’s very hard to say. Christmas 2018 I had a virus with all those symptoms, including a cough that went on for ages (I am not prone to chest things), temperature, extreme tiredness. Took 3 plus weeks to start getting better. Yet, it could not have been Covid as it wasn’t around then, so I would be very wary of assuming you’ve had it just because the symptoms are the same. That’s the problem when it presents similarly to flu viruses. An antibody rest would be very useful.

*test

We had similar in late Oct, I don’t think it was CV though, that’s just wishful thinking. Prob just something v similar or possibly the milder strain.

I had a horrible fever and sore throat in December, was like nothing else I'd experienced. My daughter then caught it. I'm really hoping that was it, I have asthma and diabetes and it terrifies me

I suspect my DD had it in January too, we recently had flown back from Tenerife and while Tenerife had no known cases, we did go through a crowded airport and all that entails. She was seriously ill and hospitalised, they couldn't work out why her temperature wouldn't come down and her blood cultures were inconclusive, but they knew she was fighting something viral. She had to have a drop and her kidneys suffered, I have never seen her so unwell, and her BF had a cough and temperature that lasted weeks. Both are now well, but I do wonder they fact the hospital couldn't work out what infections she had or why they couldn't get her temperature down

drip not drop :)

This is v unscientific but I do wonder if having had the milder strain would offer any protection at all to the more deadly one? It is interesting that some are getting it v mildly.

I think we had it 3 weeks ago.

DH works in a huge organisation with a lot of international colleagues, including many from China, who would have been home over the Christmas holidays through to mid-January.

He came down with a very bad cough, and then he had to stay home for a project while I went away for a ski trip with the kids and an older family member. While we were away the kids had a mild cough/cold, and then 3 days later (a week after being "exposed" to the children) the older family member came down with it and was very unwell for 2 weeks, coughing uncontrollably and unable to leave the house,. I was out for the count from the day we came home with bad breathing/coughing for a week. Not as bad as flu, mind, but I went through my inhalers in a major way. I have mild , well-controlled asthma.

The kids were pretty much over it when we came back, although my older child was coughing in school on her first day back and the school rang to ask had we been to Italy. We had not, so they kept her in.

So yes, I would say there is a strong chance that we, and many other broadly healthy families have had it and recovered, just putting it down to a "bad winter virus" BEFORE it became a big thing.

Yes of course it COULD have been just a generic bad winter virus.

Locally lots of people with a viral cough and fever that has dragged on for weeks, (plus two deaths of people I know from pneumonia in mid Jan, that of course may be normal for the time of year ).
I wish they would up the testing now.

It is interesting that some are getting it v mildly.

APPEAR to be getting it very mildly.

POSSIBLY are getting it very mildly.

None of us know.

I had the same - high fevers that kept easing then flaring up again, an awful dry cough that was exhausting, dreadful fatigue, breathlessness but I had this around Jan/Feb last year. So it wasn’t CV.

I think this time of year is bad for flu-like viruses anyway, which makes it very hard to tell if you actually have/had CV. Unless you’d been abroad in an area with CV at the appropriate time, it’s unlikely you had it.

I understand your thinking though. It would be great to have already had it and not realised.

DF had a horrific virus, he was hospitalised, they did many tests trying to find out what it was. We thought we were going to lose him. He was on Oxygen for weeks. Hid temperature was so high he was delirious. He had the flu vaccine.
So yes I think it’s possible.

SchadenfreudePersonified that was badly worded, I meant in China, not here

My son's consultant said the same about us over Christmas when we spoke last week. I rang her for advice of the "should I buy a bubble for him to live in indefinitely" and she gave me great advice of the don't panic variety.
As we haven't seen her in a while due to them and us cancelling an appointment last year, she asked how he is doing now he's at secondary.
I told her we had had quite a bad attendance pattern over winter, but school very supportive. She asked did he have flu/chest infections and I mentioned how, the week of Christmas I had needed antibiotics due to some really quite awful virus, akin, strangely to the exact symptoms we are now told to look for.
She knows I'm very rarely ill and even less inclined to go to the GP. I felt awful but not flu awful
Very dry throat, felt like I could drink the tap dry in fact. Cough so heavy I couldn't breathe and was given an inhaler. So bad I couldn't lie down at night although I was so tired I couldn't sleep as I was coughing so bad I was nearly sick. Sweaty as hell. My lungs and ribs ached and under the arms.
She asked had I been abroad or been in contact with anyone out the ordinary and I remembered my neighbours (Chinese family, very basic English when they moved in, young boys of infant and Primary age who had better English than mum and dad and would ask us if they needed help with stuff which I didn't mind. They had her parents over, then his brother and sister, and I chatted to them for quite some time as they were commenting on my Christmas decorations).
It came just before Christmas Eve, and went New Year's week. As soon as it came, gone just leaving a little mild cough. DP got it but milder than me, and DD had a tiny little cough too. DS had his steroid in case but still was unwell for two days.
She said, look, I'm not saying definitely, but I think it's highly probable you had it, and possibly caught it from next doors family.
Im very about it and am not taking any chances in case but anyone else I've mentioned it to has all said sounds like you had it and didn't know.

SchadenfreudePersonified people who have actually been diagnosed

Dh never gets sick but he had a dry cough that lasted for weeks in early December, we put off family staying with us as it was so bad especially at night. No temperature so he dragged himself to work every day ( he's probably a super spreader )

Wow, this is uncanny. I could have written many of these posts myself. From October to January, I had a horrendous, debilitating cough, wheezing and breathlessness. Waking up multiple times in the night either gasping for breath, or sweating/freezing.
I am mildly asthmatic but prior to this, used my blue inhaler maybe once a month. During that period I was using it about 10 times a day! Repeated trips to the doctor, every time I was told no sign of infection, it's viral, it's normal to have a cough for 6-8 weeks etc. By the end of January I was at the end of my tether as hadn't had a full night's sleep in 3 months. Luckily saw a different doctor who prescribed 5 days of steroids and a Fostair inhaler. I've been ok since then. I was literally saying to my friend yesterday, I wonder if that was what I'd had. I guess I'll never know, but it does make me wonder.

They said the same to me. I had ‘pneumonia’ and a persistent cough for almost 2 weeks. As I have asthma I went for my routine appointment and they said it’s possible it was actually coronavirus.

This was mid November

There has definitely been a stupid number of nasty coughs this winter, we've all had 4 , I was the only one to only catch 3 of them and I and ds1 have asthma. Dh never gets coughs but has had all 4, number 3 was really bad and he was coughing for weeks.

I think it's unlikely to have caught it unless in the last month. Just had one of the other nasty viruses.

I had something like people are describing here. But I had it in September. So either I'm Patient Zero, or there are several nasty respiratory viruses around this year...

"She said, look, I'm not saying definitely, but I think it's highly probable you had it, and possibly caught it from next doors family."

Or, another virus, from another source. Basically speculation. Perhaps slightly more informed speculation than all the people happily retrofitting their symptoms to this illness.

It would be great if we'd all had it and had built up some population immunity. It would be, frankly, fantastic. Until anyone develops a test for that we just don't know.