Does anyone else suspect that they’ve already had CV last year?

[absopugginglutely]

I teach (primary) and the last week of term before we broke up for Christmas I literally had to drag myself to the finish line (I had cold symptoms)

Then, as soon as the holidays started, I became completely bed-bound, barely able to get out of bed to go to the toilet, ached all over, coughing- couldn’t eat, could barely sleep because I was so congested, couldn’t even look at my phone or listen to the radio for days on end, just lay still feeling horrendous. At one point, I thought I was on the brink of death I felt so rotten. I ended up having D&V but not sure if that was dehydration/ too many days of paracetamol/ ibuprofen on an empty stomach.

A week later, I was on the up but felt completely shellshocked by the experience and just thought it was bad flu.

Did anyone else have a similar experience and find themselves wondering if it was CV?

Every winter a proportion of the population gets bad flu. It will happen to most of us once or twice in our lifetimes. Even those immunised have a chance of getting bad flu of a strain not predicted by the immunisation. Any year a thread in March asking people if anyone felt awful with a fever and cough in Dec/Jan would illicit many positive responses.

You can't possibly have had it then, unless you'd travelled to Wuhan province

I was like this end of jan beginning of feb got sent home from work - I'm also a teacher. The cough was the worst part, at times I was coughing so much I couldn't get a breath.

The other flus etc are still doing the rounds
I've only ever had flu once when I was 19 , I'm 36 now . I thought it was going to kill me and sounds like what you described

Pressed post to early

Got told by docs it was a nasty bout of flu, antibiotics for a chest infection cleared it up in a weak. Wasn't that infectious as no one else in family or I was in contact with got it.

I’ve heard this said a lot but the logic dictates if this was already prevalent a few months ago there would have already been a spike in hospital admissions that would have been detected by PHE.

You haven’t already had it.

Week not weak

There was a terrible chest infection doing the rounds and some testing positive for pneumonia. It took 3 lots of antibiotics and steroids to clear mine and I'm still tired and short of breath
I think it's wishful thinking that we've had covid

Yes, me! I had loads of this weird sticky mucus that almost made me choke to death when i tried to cough it up - which was much worse at night / in the morning.

I think it is possible you got it, I don’t know why pp is saying it isn’t. Clearly people had it and were passing it on and travelling before anyone knew it existed.

However it’s likely you had fLu.

My husband had a week of a horrendous cough, mid jan.
He couldn’t catch his breath, he was weak, pale, having cold sweats, sore throats and unable to eat. At one point I thought he should have gone to A&E it was that bad. It was about 14days before he was fully recovered, but since then he has had a lingering cold, he has had rashes and funny tummy. So whatever it was, it really knocked his immunity and has made him totally run down

I live in the NW, there was certainly a very similar virus going around late December early January. I know a lot of people had it & 3 of my family had to have antibiotics to clear the chest infection that developed. My BIL who is 70 & in poor health had 2 courses to get rid of it. The town they all live in is now showing zero confirmed cases.
It’s probably just coincidence but possible.

I picked up a really unpleasant virus in America whilst we were there over Christmas. Flew back at the start of January still feeling pretty awful. Felt ill for weeks afterwards with a dry cough that just would not stop. Went back to work at a school still coughing.

It obviously wasn't coronavirus but pretty much the exact same symptoms. Fever, aches, dry cough and pretty breathless. There are so many unpleasant bugs over the winter period.

Over the Christmas holidays we had a horrible bug.
Extremely high temp, headache and a really bad dry cough that lasted for weeks. During the peak of the illness it hurt to move, if you moved it made you cough which made you head fell like it was going to split open. Both me and DH we really bad with it. However interestingly all 3 kids had a very mild version - high temp for half a day and then a bit of a dry cough for a couple of weeks but nothing that stopped them in thier tracks. As it was over Xmas we were all off anyway so essentially self isolating as we stayed in for about a week without going anywhere anyway!

I had a very weird dry cough that lasted for at least a month with uncontrollable coughing fits. Had to leave meetings, theatre etc because I couldn't stop coughing. Ended up in a high temperature and feeling wiped out for a week. If I had that now, I would definitely think I had CV. But it happened in Dec, so who knows.

Dh is convinced he had it about 6 weeks ago. He never gets ill, ever. All of a sudden he had a very high temperature (nearly 40) and then a terrible hacking cough that echoed around the whole house to the point he was nearly throwing up with it. Just awful. He was off work for a week. Then went back as fever went, just cough left. We will never know if he had it or not. I think it’s been around for a while now. Earlier than people think.

I wondered about this. I went to Germany just before Christmas and was really ill with what I thought was flu. But I thought it strange because I'd had the flu jab. I still have a sore throat and sinusitis, which I get after any respiratory illness, but I am more inclined to think it wasn't Corona.

I had an awful cough coupled with a high temperature that completely knocked me off my feet in January. After weeks of feeling terrible but waiting for it to pass I went to gp who gave me antibiotics and I felt better very soon.
So obviously just an ordinary chest infection not Coronavirus.

You can’t possibly have had it then unless you had travelled to Wuhan Province .

It’s perfectly feasible that travellers from Wuhan had already started spreading the virus around the world. The Chinese authorities were suppressing information about this virus for weeks before the truth got out.

I also live in the NW and our local school was really hit with very similar late nov/early Dec. It wasn't a bad cold, it wasn't flu it was different and very much as coronavirus is described. School was really affected, far far more than other years (nearly half my eldest class off one week) and majority of parents/grandparents got it and struggled to clear it for weeks. Again a number had chest infections that needed medical assistance but not hospitalised.

DH is convinced he has had it.
He developed a fever and a really bad dry cough in December which left him gasping for breath.
He still hasn't quite shifted the cough and despite several doctors appointments, an inhaler, peak flow monitoring, an X-ray and a breathing test the Dr said she wasn't sure what the cause was but it was probably just a nasty virus.
He does have a relation who visited China in early November but he's also spent considerable time with elderly and immunocompromised relatives who have had no symptoms so I think it's probably just a coincidence.

I’m convinced we may have had it in Jan but the timing and your symptoms do not wholly correlate - it’s not a cold, the defining feature isn’t congestion it’s the dry cough.

@Notso I’ve had the same, started with a weird sore throat (like almost strained), and a slight tickly cough, 36 hrs later, chills (was in bed with PJs, hooodie, socks and drasibg gown) and aching all over and terrible headache (similar to flu but not quite as bad) then sweats, then the cough really ramped up, it was dry and not at all chesty almost barking and uncontrollable, I was coughing for hours on end at some points. Started coughing up blood so had an emergency app but they said my chest was clear and the blood was from my throat from coughing so much. Took me a full week to be able to get out of bed, another week to be able to go back to work, then 3 wks after it started I started with chest pain, wheezy and slightly breathless. 2 courses of antibiotics - only slightly better. Am going to the open access at my hospital this morning for a chest X-ray which GP has requested. My Dad who has it is in the same boat. DH and DS had the cough but otherwise well, DC still coughing. DB has it bad but not quite as bad as me and DF. DM fine. The order and the symptoms match exactly - we have all had the flu vaccine too. I have never known anything like it with the coughing it was insane. DC started 16 Jan, DF 2 weeks later me 3 weeks later.

@Notso bloody big coincidence isn’t it! And I agree with @Lordamighty

We had an terrible cough after returning from rome but was months ago so I don't suspect it was corona.

The Chinese authorities were suppressing information about this virus for weeks before the truth got out

I’m not sure that’s fair. However it is clear it was spreading widely before any one knew there was a problem.