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My lungs....part 4

997 replies

Casino218 · 30/03/2020 09:47

Continued support for those who need a few kind words to help them through the dips.

Please do not come here to ask 'but how do you know if you haven't had a test'

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Spacecadetagain · 31/03/2020 12:37

@ofwarren ooh it will be interesting to see the result !

@longshot the crew last night said I’d be classified as moderate but they were sympathetic saying it certainly doesn’t sound mild and were very caring. They said they are seeing a lot of people who start off with vague symptoms and certainly this illness seems to wax and wane and it’s still normal it seems to be feeling rotten three weeks in

Runnerduck34 · 31/03/2020 12:38

Had telephone appointment with GP this morning, she said its sounds like a virus but cant say which one without blood tests. Said my dry cough which is slight, only coughing once an hour, wasn't sufficient to be classed as persistent cough. Recommended lots of rest and to phone back if symptoms get worse. She said it can take several weeks to get rid of a virus. Still got heaviness on chest, tight throat, getting breathless / tired easily and occasional dizziness, day 10 since cough started, but felt fine with just cough, day 5 of feeling chest tightness and breathless, feeling fed up as I cant do normal activities even though I know I'm nowhere near as bad as others .

Spacecadetagain · 31/03/2020 12:39

@Casino218 97 is fine . Also try relaxing and breathing from your tummy when you take it and you might find it goes up but 97 is perfectly ok so that’s good 😄

TheWooisStrong · 31/03/2020 12:42

Everyone, you will get better. It’s horrible while in the middle of it, but think of the comfort when you are out the other side and don’t have to worry anymore.

Casino218 · 31/03/2020 12:47

@TheWooisStrong thank you. Just hard to see right now but will get there.

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Casino218 · 31/03/2020 12:51

Thanks too @Spacecadetagain take care

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Zzzexhaustedzzz · 31/03/2020 12:55

Well, my nickname has never been so appropriate!
I’ve posted elsewhere.
I hope everyone is hanging in there.
I think I’m on day 20 if I go from the first hot temp and headache. It didn’t affect my lungs til day 7. Plus no coughing so I thought I was fine, worked and socialised as normal. Sad I wonder whether my sweet sucking habit disguised it.
I know when I’m ill and I’m not a hypochondriac. It’s been frustrating when others around me haven’t really believed how ill I am! Maybe they didn’t want to.
Definitely agree this is cyclical.
PLUS, don’t try to get doing too much too soon.
I did this on Saturday and regret it.
I’ve been on high dose steroids and amoxicillin (?). This has caused me anxiety because many have said it won’t work. I haven’t dared to read why. Immune suppression? But I needed the steroids to open my airwaves and the anti biotics have made my lung infection better, so far. There’s still some pain in my lower right lung.
I feel like I’m on the mend and coughing up the bacterial infection a bit.
This has been an emotional rollercoaster ride, I’ve stopped watching the news.

user34254356 · 31/03/2020 12:55

@spacecadetagain glad you managed to get some reassurance. I feel like calling 999 just to have a full MOT myself!!

@longshot that's great that you don't feel breathless anymore and more normal.

@casino218 i agree with others, you should ask your GP about your fever

It's Day 14 today for me, i am slowly getting stronger, managed to go to the garden today, cooked breakfast but now so floored that i am back on the sofa. Heart beat is racy again. @spacecadetagain did the paramedics mention anything about this, as a lot of us are getting this symptom and it does freak me out every time.

My productive cough continues. For those that had it, how long did it take to get rid of?

Also i have been taking paracetamol now for 2 weeks, is it safe to continue?

Spacecadetagain · 31/03/2020 12:59

@user34254356 you heart will race anyway when you try to do too much .. if it calms down when you rest . Don’t worry . A high pulse at rest can indicate your body is working harder but it would probably come with severe breathlessness etc ... we are all probably feeling s little stressed too and anxiety will increase pulse rates

notangelinajolie · 31/03/2020 13:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

notangelinajolie · 31/03/2020 13:14

Sorry I haven't worded that very well and my words have made me sound like a total numpty. Please ignore big chunks of that.

Casino218 · 31/03/2020 13:15

@notangelinajolie totally agree. I doubt so many of us would have grasped for comfort from each other ( which has been amazing) if we had access to robust government advice. It's not like we are the first country either. Surely there was advice and data coming out of China and Italy.

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onlinelinda · 31/03/2020 13:15

You worded it great 😄

ofwarren · 31/03/2020 13:17

Has anyone got any advice.
My husband is 30 and smokes and he is starting with the cough now.

Is it best he moves to some form of nicotine replacement? He has a vape too but I can't imagine even those are good for your lungs.

SchrodingersKitty · 31/03/2020 13:27

Day 21 for me. I ran an online seminar for two hours yesterday and then had online book group for a couple of hours in the evening. In the middle of this I started coughing uncontrollably. Today throat is very sore. I also managed to put my back out this morning by twisting and reaching behind me while sitting on the bed. So there's that as well.

Symptom-wise - still coughing more than I have been over the last week, some chest tightness. Don't feel as well as a couple of days ago.

What I am REALLY anxious about - and could do with some reassurance from others who've had this a long time, is if we are really sure this IS corona virus. I explained DH's situation earlier in this thread. He has been told he has to go to the hospital cancer centre tomorrow for a lumbar puncture. He is really worried about catching it there as social distancing won't be possible. Until discussing it with him this morning, I hadn't realised that he really doesn't think I have corona virus, since the symptoms have not been those highlighted by the government (ie: my cough was not 'new' as I already had a chest infection through most of Feb; I have had mostly low rather than high temperature). I passed any doubt about this at least a week ago, but it has made me wonder. The GP I spoke to around day 14 was pretty sure it was.

I am now worried that if this is NOT cv and he does catch it at the hospital I am in the worst possible shape to get it. I am also terribly worried about him getting it if his immune system is lowered, and if he does have lymphoma (by no means certain at all). He did have a week of on-off symptoms of extreme lassitude, brief headaches, general fluey feelings (he went to bed for a couple of days), but hasn't had anything for a week. I was very hopeful that that was him getting it, as he never gets respiratory aspects of usual viruses.

To try and recap my symptoms over the last three weeks (going back over my posts):

I am 55 and have asthma which is mainly set off by chest infections, to which I am very prone.

Days before: Beginning in late Feb I had a hacking, spasmodic cough which was setting off my asthma. Saw doctor in early March and she thought it was viral but since she heard crackles in lungs gave me antibiotics for secondary bacterial infection. I was just beginning to feel better and cough reducing but not completely gone when new symptoms started.

Day 1. Odd swollen scratchy throat with a feeling like something was stuck in it.
Day 2. Same throat thing. Repeated episodes of diarrhoea much of the night.
Day 3. Sore throat plus a flash of temperature and very hot red face lasting for about an hour.
Day 4-7. I self-isolated. Additional symptoms of chest tightness - round the bra-band area, with some back pain. Swollen neck glands around now. I first posted on the first thread on day 7 as I was showing signs of breathlessness when climbing stairs. My peak flow rate was fine and has continued to be. A few more hot-face flushes.
Day 8-10. Tighter chest and more aching and prickling in lungs mainly on left. Intermittent - some days feeling better then worse again. Chills, particularly in legs. Muscle aches and weakness. Breathlessness.
Day 11. Sinus symptoms - very stuffy blocked nose. Otherwise feeling notably better.
Day 12. Slept less well than usual (had been sleeping very heavily). Woke feeling hot and shivery. Peak flow slightly reduced. Coughing quite a bit more. More wobbly and 'fluey' feeling than at any point up to now.
Day 13. I felt better on getting up and for first hour or so after. Just coughing. Spent morning working then sick and dizzy and more lung pains and breathlessness.
Day 14. Feeling worse. Heart racing. Shaky. More coughing and more breathless. Muscle aches and weakness especially in arms. Temperature 36.4 rather than the 35 of most other days (but don't trust my thermometer). Tried to call 111 and doctors and got cut off. Very panicky. Eventually got call back from GP who thought it was very likely to be CV and prescribed antibiotics in case of a secondary bacterial infection.

Day 15. Felt better than day before since I had just given up and gone to bed. Still coughing, tight chest, lung pains, exhausted.

Day 16. Same as day 15.
Day 17. Up for first time in three days. Lungs still tight. Coughing a bit less. New symptom: solid, hard feeling across top of chest - from collarbone down. Increasingly this area felt very cold, like a block of ice. It stopped me sleeping and I finally managed to only with two duvets, two hot water bottles, a jumper and a shawl.

Day 18. Icy chest receding. Cough increasingly productive (though not as much so as many people).

Day 19. Slept really well and woke up feeling that I could breathe to the bottom of my lungs for the first time during this. Then half way through afternoon developed a different cough - high in windpipe and wheezy. Back to bed.
Day 20. Up and working from home. Still have wheezy cough. Well enough to teach live online session in afternoon. Very bad spasmodic cough started from about 8pm.
Day 21. Slept ok. Woke with cough but less bad than day before.

DH (71) had symptoms of extreme tiredness, etc from my day 11 on and off for about five days. DS (20) had a sore throat for about a day. I've tried to isolate from them but I'm sure I wasn't able to do so completely, and didn't at all in the days before day 4, when I would have been most infectious.

So, my impossible questions for which I really need reassurance - does it sound, on balance, as if I have had it, and does it sound like my DH is likely to have had it mildly?

Sorry for such a long post. Hope the symptom list, at least, is useful to others.

Zzzexhaustedzzz · 31/03/2020 13:28

Absolutely Notang...
I too have queued on 111 - 4 times this week.
I feel this could’ve been much better managed.

Zzzexhaustedzzz · 31/03/2020 13:35

Shrod... This is why testing is essential. So sorry, this must be so hard.

mymoonmyman2020 · 31/03/2020 13:35

@longshot sorry you’ve had the night sweats too :( I’m day 9, I think

Just managed a nap and healthy lunch, small victories ...

Casino218 · 31/03/2020 13:51

@SchrodingersKitty personally I think you've had it but without a test none of us have 100% assurance of that. Your symptoms fit with the rest of us. Many of us have been told by our GPS or 111 visits that they think it is CV.

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tangledyarn · 31/03/2020 13:59

This virus really is the gift that keeps giving not been able to get out of bed again today, just feel really poorly again, it's so frustrating!

Porcupineinwaiting · 31/03/2020 14:03

Trying to get to speak to a doctor. 111 are insisting on sending the paramedics because of the weight on my chest/difficulty breathing . Cant seem to find a way out of this spiral.

tangledyarn · 31/03/2020 14:06

@schrodingerskitty I dont think anyone can tell you for certain, but I've been told I have it by 2 gps and the 111 nurse, it's written on my sick note, so I guess they must be pretty certain.

Spacecadetagain · 31/03/2020 14:07

@SchrodingersKitty Your symptoms seem so similiar to everyone else’s and when I described my symptoms to the ambulance crew they said they seemed classic from what they were seeing and that two of their crew had just gone off work with identical symptoms to me

jolufc · 31/03/2020 14:09

Hi everyone. Not in the UK at the minute and struggling where to turn for help then remembered Mumsnet.
I have no temperature or cough but noticed a tight chest over the past 3 days. Should I be worried? Mild diarrhoea a few days before the chest pain started but nothing else. Hope everyone is improving

SchrodingersKitty · 31/03/2020 14:10

@tangledyarn, @Casino218: thanks. The symptom I'm not exactly sure I've had is the one which started the original thread - burning in lungs and the elephant on the chest. I've had the strange sore throat and lots of lung pain and tightness and bubbling but I wouldn't describe it like that. I also haven't had the nerve sensations that are bothering some people a lot at night. The problem is about how we all describe our symptoms, of course, and what we focus on, as well as different levels of severity.

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