The people who’ve Had It but been actually TESTED

[Bimbleboo]

Can we hear from those who’ve actually had it but as TESTED and confirmed cases? There’s a whole lot of ‘might have’ ‘think i have’ ‘potentially’ ‘sure I have’ and the only absolutely confirmed cases we hear are terrifying news stories and death counts which I expect is really impacting people’s fear of it. I don’t really think there’s much in the accounts of people who ‘think’ they’ve had it because so many symptoms are possibly explained by colds, tonsillitis, hay fever, migraines and.... anxiety (SO many symptoms people are having that they are completely convinced are Covid are very very similar to pure anxiety, understandably) I even think a lot of doctors and 111 calls are diagnosing based on symptoms , when it can so easily be something more mundane.

. It’s making me so fearful that maybe there is no ‘mild’ or ‘asymptotic’ to this at all. Just the horror stories. Although I am aware that’s completely irrational and incorrect.

I understand that it’s because so little testing is happening but I would so love to hear accounts from those who have actually been TESTED and know they’ve had it. Would anyone who knows they’ve had it (and by knows, I mean diagnosed with an actual test) care to share?

@GrumpySausage if you look at the Covid 19 tracker which based its findings on the symptoms of Covid positive app users they showed that:

“ 2,932 users of COVID Symptom Tracker both recorded their symptoms and have been tested for COVID, with 1,130 testing positive and 1,802 testing negative. We used machine learning* on this data to learn which symptoms are most predictive of a positive test. The most predictive symptoms, with most important first, were: anosmia (lack of taste & smell), fatigue, shortness of breath, fever and persistent cough”

My boss had it - tested via the drive through swab as her partner is front line NHS. She had some cold-ish symptoms on the Friday, but was working from home, was sick enough to be in bed at home Sat Sun Mon Tues, and was back working from home by the Wed. Took her another 10 days or so to feel back to normal, but no worse than (perhaps relatively mild) winter flu in her case

@HelloViroids thank you for sharing. I hope they are fully on the mend now xxx

I have it at the moment. I'm NHS frontline, tested positive on Thursday. The cough is quite bad and annoying but apart from one day where I felt a bit spaced out and weird (a bit like a post-migraine foggy head), I haven't really felt ill. I had a chest infection in January and felt way worse with that. Currently on day 6 and still coughing, but feel ok.

I had a video chat this morning with a friend who is a carer, who has had a positive test. She was quite ill with what we'd recognise as "flu" for 4 days and has a nasty sounding cough but she was very chatty and lively this morning, 10 days in. Her DH has symptoms now too and said he feels rubbish but again was quite lively on the chat.

@CharlieWeasley I hope you manage to get enough time off to recover fully in yourself. It makes me sad and worried to hear that some nhs staff with it have felt rushed back before they were fully well. Have many colleagues tested positive where you are? Xx

My DH admitted to A/E.All the docs said it looked like Covid but they still didn't test. If you get reassurance from just hearing from those with mild symptoms but positive tests so be it but you need to appreciate there are many more struggling at home with more severe symptoms without a test. Such is the inequality across the country.

Me. Tested at hospital and definitely confirmed had it. Seriously ill in hospital, but survived.

Casino,
as I’ve said several times, I AM aware there are thousands of cases not tested, but positive regardless. However, since there are also thousands of people convinced they have it/ have had it, who absolutely haven’t.. hearing from people who HAVE been tested has been super helpful for me, and I imagine others.
The thread is in no way scathing or accusing of anyone who’s not been tested. It’s not actually about those people at all.
There are many many many busy threads where people who are convinced they’ve had it are collecting experiences from each other, and discussing their situations at length. Debating their validity, looking for reassurance, discussing symptoms and some even giving advice (despite not being absolutely certain they are in a position to do that) so it’s not as though there isn’t already plenty of that out there.
I wanted to hear from people who’d been tested and I wouldn’t feel good jumping into those threads and continually posting HAVE YOU BEEN TESTED to try and figure out which accounts to read to find what I was looking to hear about.
I haven’t gone on there and told anyone whether I think they have it or not because I have absolutely no idea. And neither do they (scientifically, without doubt). It’s also none of my business.
Since that wasn’t really the discussion I wanted to have and those experiences wernt what I was looking to read, I just opened up a different one instead.

This is so interesting to read and thanks for all who have shared your experiences. I had a cold/chest infection in late February/early March, which I explained away as nothing more than a bad respiratory infection (I'm asthmatic and I get these somewhat often). It was probably a week or two of cold symptoms and then a bad chesty cough. I don't know if I had a fever (honestly, not sure I ever thought to check), but I did have about 10 days of having 'hot flashes'. A bad cough, but not dry, wet and chesty and I would just get really sweaty and hot randomly. I then felt better but had a weird recurrence where I felt really short of breath for a day or two. Not really short of breath as in dangerously so, but inexplicably for me (I'm asthmatic, but it's really well managed). I spent a day in bed and used my rescue inhalers a lot that week. I assumed it was a cold followed by a weird spike in hayfever, which caused my breathing trouble.

I do now wonder if it could have been covid. I work in Central London in an NHS clinic (but in clinical research, not a frontline provider, so not tested), but I work with people who are immuno-compromised and in the 'shielded' group. I've been working from home since mid March as all our clinical trials have been suspended until this has passed (I'm also in a vulnerable group myself, so haven't been out in over a month now). I had sort of assumed that there was no way that's what it could have been, but I do kind of wonder. Glad to hear that all of you are better or on the mend now.

Thanks OP, I have a 'highly suspected' case and I've wanted one of these threads too! My GP is sure I have it but I can't be certain, it's very frustrating.
Before anyone gets excited about antibody tests, arent they being done on NHS staff who have already tested +/- to see how accurate the tests are? I don't think they are testing the people with them, they are testing the tests?

@Quarantinequeen I got excited seeing people mention them but I think you are absolutely right. They are obviously being offered to NhS staff after a confirmed positive, because in theory they SHOULD then show valid positives for antibodies. I guess it’s the only way we have of human trial validation of them. Probably quite a good idea. Strange it’s not being mentioned in the press that they are working on them? I’m kind of gutted we aren’t hearing more about whether they are being found to work or not. Maybe it takes time!

I've had it. Symptoms were exhaustion, lack of smell and tatse, migraine (I get those anyway, so I expect the virus triggered a couple), indigestion, tight chest, chills, muscle aches and cough, and I also couldn't take a full breathe without coughing, and brief runny nose.

Interestingly, I was ill with sore throat, cough, chills, indigestion, muscle aches and fever about 3 weeks before the onset of worsening cough and all the above symptoms. I don't know if it was two seperate things, or one thing that just lingered then flared up.

Ps. Yes I was tested last week (result came today) and found positive.

Can i ask how worried you all felt during being ill?

My partner sat next to someone at a dinner party who tested positive 5 days later - then my partner (and me ) ill a week later . Temps , v sore throat , bad aches , fatigue , weird low mood and v b bad headaches . Ticklu coughs that came and went . He’s 53 I am 46

My dad had a positive test. He's 75 and on long term steroid treatment, has diabetes, high blood pressure, is very overweight, had a mild heart attack and had stents put in. He also had two brain surgeries to remove a huge benign pituitary adenoma which had destroyed his pituitary gland. He then had radiotherapy. He is on a rake of tablets everyday due to all this. He caught it from a fella sitting beside him who was coughing on the plane back from Spain on Friday 13th of March. We know this because he and my mum who's 77 have been cocooning since they came back. He had no high temperature just a bit of a cough. I think the fact that he uses a Cpap machine saved his life as he also has sleep apnoea. My mum just got a call at 6.30pm to say that she has tested negative. She was only tested at 3pm on Wednesday this week instead of last week as the HSE fecked up and forgot to put her as a priority. She had a sore throat, diarrhoea and nasal congestion but no high temperature. She had a lumpectomy just before all this started and was told it was definitely cancer just before they went to Spain. She was phoned on Monday to say she needs 9 sessions of radiotherapy but is afraid to have it done with everything that's happening. The hospital she would be attending for this is 50 miles from them.

Just curious how high temperatures were in younger people who tested positive. My dad seems to fit in with the theory that older people don't get pyrexias.

Know 3 people who tested positive, all were tested as they ended up in hospital, all in the early days of the pandemic in the UK. One returned from a conference abroad, he was hospitalised but didn’t end up in ITU took about 3 weeks in total to get back to normal. Other couple had been in Italy on holiday both ended up in ITU both mid fifties she was worse than him. He’s still off work and I think she is too.

@Hollyhobbi I’m so sorry to hear that. So your mums test was likely a false negative? I hope they are both recovering well. You must have been so worried if they are both vulnerable. :(

Hi I tested positive 9 days ago,Only real noticeable symptom was loss of sense of tatse and smell which made me get tested. A little cough bit chesty and headache joint pain two days before but really not to bad walked 3 miles with my dogs wouldn't have known till my smell went,I am so grateful I haven't been worse

My DF was tested in hospital three weeks ago and was positive. He was in hospital for a ruptured peptic ulcer and had heart surgery two years ago and has been very frail ever since. He is not in good health.

He was tested after developing a slight dry cough and has had no further symptoms.

@Mallowmarshmallow oh gosh he sounds very vulnerable if so frail . I am so glad that he developed mild symptoms and not severe. Is it likely he contracted it in hospital? I imagine that must be happening a lot which is why people are avoiding going if at all possible. But of course that’s leaving a whole host of other things unchecked. I hope your DF is managing to get all the care he needs for his other difficulties and I’m glad it sounds like CV hasn’t developed into a serious form for him.

Family member has tested positive In hospital ( they are in for something else) he has only had a fever in the week since testing positive and is the very high risk group but no other symptoms

@Bimbleboo. I'm afraid that my mum has had it but due to the delay in testing she was negative by the time the test was done. So not a false negative. The problem is we don't know if she had it or not. She still says she is not going near the hospital in Dublin for the radiotherapy! My dad developed symptoms on the 19th of March. His gp increased his steroids and put him on antibiotics as he wasn't sure if he had a chest infection or Covid 19. After he had a think about it he referred him for a test and then the criteria for testing changed and it looked like he wasn't going to be tested. Hence the delay in my dad's test as well. They are still cocooning at home in any case.