Symptoms getting worse - anyone else?

[MooPointCowsOpinion]

I’ve been dry coughing for a few days now, not really felt like I have a temperature, just decided to ride it out and look after myself. This morning I have started coughing up gunk, my chest is even tighter and I get out of breath really quickly. I don’t want to be a burden on 111, and my own GP is closed. I am still ok to ride it out and look after myself aren’t I? I’m young and healthy usually and I don’t want to take up any resources for those who need it.

What these two posters are going through in the UK, on their own, with no medical help is appalling.

I agree.

It's been horrendous for both of you and terrifying that you have been left to struggle. I would like to give you both some kind of civilian award.

For other posters to then come on and say it was ok for them is insulting

Oh don't be dramatic. It is important to reiterate that the vast majority of sufferers will NOT NEED medical attention. This is a fact, whether it fits with your narrative on here or not.

There are beds available in most hospitals across the UK and no health service would ignore anyone who was gasping for air. Giving oxygen is not the same as being on a ventilator and at this stage there is plenty of oxygen available.

It is annoying when fact doesn't fit an agenda, isn't it booboos?

I think the point @Tonyaster is that moo and I havent needed oxygen, we were anxious that our symptoms were distressing.

If i presented at the GP with loss of feeling in my legs OR coughing up blood OR anxiety to the point you’d take unprescribed medications for relief OR dehydration to the point of not being able to stand etc etc etc

Then all of those things would be investigated by a doctor. For moo and I we have been met with “stay at home”. Oxygen is the only thing permitting an entry to hospital, yet our other symptoms have been exceptionally distressing. Whilst our experiences dont marry with your own “I felt worse with a tooth abcess” please respect that this thread has served moo and I as a reassurance in desperate times. Because unlike your experience of feeling relatively okay with it, we have at times felt as though we would die, and the fact is we were greeted with “unless you actually are dying you have to stay home.”

I have had clots on both lungs in the past. Packed off home with blood thinners and “a fingers crossed they dont move to your heart” to wait out therapy at home. THIS experience has made me more ill and more frightened.

You cite how the majority of people wont need medical help which is true. But there is a sliding scale of people; Dead! ventilated, respirated on oxygen......people like moo and i hovering at breathing difficulties/difficulty managing at home, mildly suffering at home, bit of a cough and barely noticed i had it and asymptomatic!

Please do not undermine mine and moo’s experience and the respite this thread has served us purely because it doesnt tally with your own. You make it feel as though unless we were in hospital our experienced arent valid...and frankly both of us at points were ready to go.

To everyone else who has shown us empathy and best wishes thankyou. It is true many people will sail through this like prince charles! And many others unlike Boris who can get into the hospital, although struggling at home are being told by our GP’s, paramedics and 111 “honestly you REALLY dont want to go to hospital”.

Tonyaster it's annoying when people don't understand simple logic.

Yes, most people who get this will get over it by themselves. Yet some people who get this will need medical attention. Clearly it is difficult to differentiate between the two. During less difficult times, medics err on the side of caution. Now they have to do the opposite and take risks with people who are left at home without appropriate medical supervision.

Even if you have trouble understanding intellectually this very simple argument, you should at least have the emotional intelligence to understand that this, a thread about people who are suffering, is not the place to keep harping on about your reasoning problems.

Maybe you are unlucky with where you live? I have three friends that have been taken into hospital with breathing difficulties over the last fortnight and they didn't sound as unwell as you. Hopefully you will get seen soon.

booboostoo is very keen to underline how bad the NHS has been and how odd the UK system is. I think it was important to underline that that isn't the case.

And yes, my tooth abscess was worse, but that was horrific. I felt very ill with suspected cv but I didn't have your underlying health conditions so wasn't as worried. I hope you feel better soon.

I often wonder where the Catch22 of if you can't talk in a complete sentence you need hospital treatment, versus living on your own and needing to wait hours on the phone to just get through, would realistically leave you?

Most hospitals might have enough oxygen and beds at the moment - but are they actually available to someone who could be treated soon enough for it to actually help?

Not much point in only admitting people who are too far gone for it do much good. Could the 50% survival rate be increased if people were admitted earlier, before they are so compromised they are at death;s door?

unlike Boris who can get into the hospital

Yes . I wish him the best as I do everyone, but all I can think of when they talk about him being in hospital for some tests is that many others are denied this comfort.

Are you feeling a little better @TheDrsWife? How is your daughter? What about you @MooPointCowsOpinion, how are you?

all I can think of when they talk about him being in hospital for some tests is that many others are denied this comfort

He is in hospital with breathing difficulties. Noone with severe breathing difficulties is being denied hospital treatment.

@madroid I think that sums up how it has been for moo and i, there are other posters who have been able to attend a “covid clinic” to get triaged etc. When we were still testing, people were admitted on oxygen and posting from their hospital beds. Moo has explained up thread that when she was seen by a paramedic they told her openly “you’re just not bad enough yet” thats a frightening pill to swallow when in normal circumstances we’d all be telling her “you need to get to A&E now!”

On youtube there are tons of videos from American people, and even the british couple from the cruise that were in Japan holed up in isolation rooms getting regular observations and monitoring/oxygen etc to just help them. The message moo and I have had is “no you’re not gasping enough sorry”

Incidentally last night i slept a full night. I dont have any tremors etc or unpleasant feelings as yet. Gonna try to manage a short walk in the garden. Today is day 14. As yet Ive not managed to even make myself a drink/be out of bed etc etc. So im hoping today I turn the corner 💕

So glad you've had a good night's sleep Drs, very good sign. Hope today is improvement for you.

Bless you both.xx. (Ignore the debates!!) Keep posting on here ladies. I hope things improve. Please feel that you can continue to request medical support.

Having read your posts I think to myself how scared I would be if it was me or my child in this situation and a paramedic told me my child’s breathing wasn’t bad enough yet to go to hospital. Under normal circumstances we wouldn’t even be having that conversation.

Hi girls, virtual hand hold from me. I think about you regularly. Even my DH is keeping tabs on how you are doing. It sound terrifying to be so sick and feel so abandoned.

Tonyaster it's such bad form to come onto a thread where two women are supporting each other and getting support from others and minimise it all. You're not walking in their slippers so if you have nothing nice to say we are not interested in all the hospital beds you reckon are free and how bad your abscess was. None of this is helpful, you are just derailing a thread.

Drswife and MooPoint, most of us are wishing you all the best that your recovery is swift. I think there will be a lot of people with health anxiety at the other side of this.

I had a sleepless night of coughing, it just got so out of control, I couldn’t find any rest or peace. I’m not moving at all today, still coughing constantly but I’m hoping that if I stay really still and don’t aggravate it, I might recover faster and manage to sleep. It’s been 3 and a half weeks and I thought I was getting better, I’m trying to be positive but I am running out of hope now.

Moo & The DrsWife, please do update us whenever you can. I wish you two a speedy recovery. It must be horrible to have to experience all of these and can't get much help from NHS. Maybe you need to constantly harass 111 or 999 and try to let them admit u to hospital. U might feel reassured if staying in hospital?

I am experiencing my first truly good day today. No horrible sensations in my body, I slept well and I have no rising panic. I know from other threads that it can dip and out.

Sorry @MooPointCowsOpinion that you’re having a particularly bad time again. On the lungs thread 6, @babdoc has reported that after 13 days of struggling at home, they sent her an ambulance to a ‘Covid unit’ and she says that her care and relief after 13 days trying to manage at home is so comforting to her.

For me, I think my breathing issues are resolved (residual chest pain) but if you are struggling please please call when you need to. I know that its disheartening when we have been knocked back so many times. Sending you big hugs that are truly heartfelt. Xx

Bloody hell Moo this is dragging on! Are you sure you don't need antibiotics?

Glad to hear that drswife.

I might need them, it’s definitely changed from the cough it was before to something stronger and more likely to be productive rather than dry. I was thinking of ringing the nurse today but I just couldn’t get the energy up to do it, or even coach my husband to do it as I can’t talk very much. Everything just feels too exhausting.

Moo and Drswife. Just to say that you should ignore anyone who tries to minimise your experience :(

I read your experiences in tears because I haven't (touch wood) had COVID-19 (yet), but I have problems with my innate immune system, which mean that I frequently have some of the symptoms you are describing. In the last fortnight, for example, I had a spiking temperature (103 degrees F), uncontrollable shivering and shaking all over my body, and was unable to move my right arm due to a milk duct that had blocked overnight (I'm BFing).

To anyone who has never been uncontrollably shaking and shivering, who has never had a temperature that spikes by 2 degrees C in 30 minutes, who has never had tingling/spasms due to neurological immune effects, or who has never had projectile diarrhoea (that often comes on in minutes) with an immune flare - it is absolutely terrifying.

I'm really sorry this has happened to you both :(

I have the utmost sympathy.

Take care and stay safe :)

So glad you are feeling better Drs.

Oh no Moo, that is a very long time. I am on day 22 and only coughing a tiny bit for an hour or two in the evenings. I think you need to try to get medical advice on this, it is going on for too long.

Moo why not write it down for dh?

Glad you are having a better day @TheDrsWife46 I think of you and Moo and am so wishing for you both to feel better ASAP, what an ordeal all this is, having to suffer largely alone.