Possible Jan/Feb cases?

[BuggaLugga]

First of all: Please don't give me a hard time - I'm obviously not relying on this but just wondering - and for context my DP works for the NHS so is at risk every day.

Back at the end of January my DD(10) was ill with temperature and a cough - it dragged on longer than usual and she is rarely ill. I then got 'it' and wasn't too bad and continued working but noticed I felt breathless. I went to my GP and she said my oxygen levels were okay and my chest sounded okay but told me I had a temperature and clearly had a virus. I do t really remember the other symptoms but so remember the breathlessness. I've not had that with a cold/flu before. The feeling dragged on for several weeks, I thought it may be anxiety as news of Coronavirus hitting the UK was coming through then, but it hasn't necessarily coincided with my feeling or being anxious.

A colleague at work got a similar thing with a similar feeling in her chest.

DP then got ill and ended up on antibiotics for a chest infection. It took him quite a while to improve but he wasn't 'scarily' ill, the cough was awful but it wasn't a dry cough. He wasn't right for quite a few weeks.

Lots of other kids were ill around the same time, and parents. It's a very big primary school and fairly international. don't know ANYONE connected to the school who has been ill since lockdown which seems strange (of course they may be keeping it quiet).

We live in a university city near London that attracts students and tourists from around the world, notably China and Italy.

As no one was being tested, who is to says some cases did not arrive earlier than originally thought?

Maybe wishful thinking but I wish we could be antibody tested (particularly with my DP working at the hospital).

Yes Oxford @Goatymcgoaty. And my DD's school has lots of kids whose parents are academics and doctors.
Doctor in my street who is working on COVID wards said said we were ahead of the general curve like London as well.

Anyone else from Oxford?

Also just realised both DD and DH have had flu vaccinations.

Shitsgettingcrazyyou haven't said when that came on?
😂😂😂

Doh.

End of Feb.

@Shitsgettingcrazy

@BuggaLugga that’s interesting about Oxford being ahead of the curve, am not surprised. I was in the city centre 2nd weekend of January, mixing with lots of foreign students and tourists. 8 days later I developed a killer throat, awful neck shoulder and windpipe pain, I kept running out of breath when talking, along with heartburn (an unusual combination). 8 days after that, had an awful bout of breathlessness, like my lungs had disappeared and I could only breathe in as far as the bottom of my windpipe. Oh and some roaming pins and needles.. It was so odd. Wouldn’t be surprised there was a link.

Oh and I’ve had a flu vaccine as well which didn’t protect me from whatever it was.

Hmmm @Goatymcgoaty we did some January shopping in Oxford too.
I hope and pray we've all had it in our household. I've not had breathlessness like that before with any cold or flu. Very odd.

@Goatymcgoaty although Oxford not too badly hit as it has a very large young student population a lot of whom have returned to their parents. Local hospital is managing well from what I hear from friends and neighbours who work there.

I read something interesting today. It was the article about ventilators that could possibly be of more harm than good because of the hard mucous in the lungs.

The bizzare virus I had mid December which lasted until the end of jan had me coughing up small bronchial casts (and a few big ones) - I’ve never, ever done that in my life. I have no health conditions and I’ve never even had a chest infection in my 40 years.

Ended up on A&E after a week or so of this illness where I’ve coughed like never before and I collapsed after a huge coughing fit where it felt like my chest ripped in half and I couldn’t I say more than one word at a time without gasping for breath.

A&E dr just said pneumonia and pluerisy and sent me away with pain killers (they didn’t x ray as they said it would only show shadows and my oxygen was 90%).

They just shrugged when I told them about the bronchial casts and didn’t seem bothered.

But it was odd.

Oh and I was living in London at the time, three time stops from Heathrow and worked in a mental health unit where they all had treatments and appointments at Northwick Park Hospital which had the highest cases/covid deaths, so not outside the realms that it was in circulation before Xmas that I could’ve had it. But I will never know. Dh caught the cough from me and had it for six weeks, dd had a week off school with a high temp.

I'm curious as I've had serious flu like hospital admission twice this winter despite the flu jab. I wasn't tested for COVID despite it being in the country at the time of #2.

I've posted the same on many of these threads. I'm convinced that my family had the virus mid February. We all gradually became ill after attending rounds of hospital appointments around west/east London for my youngest child. I was the sickest and suffered with shortness of breath (I'm asthmatic) followed by my 2 year old. He was waking up with a bizarre barking cough that subsided to a small dry cough after a week or so. I took him to see my gp after a night of coughing and wheezing , she said that with a cough and high temp it was probably viral but possibly asthma. He was fine a week later. We all felt exhausted for weeks after being unwell , my husband said he was falling asleep at his desk some days - he doesn't get colds normally and was pretty poorly.

I remember us all discussing how we felt ill but it was an odd feeling as the symptoms didn't fit anything else we'd previously had.

Oh and I also had a week long headache as part of my symptoms , I had to keep my temperature down constantly.

Interesting. My BF reminded me (on a video call) today that I had pains in my chest as well when I was ill in February - I'd forgotten that as they have gradually gone away. Like a burning pain around my sternum and the bottom of my lungs together with the breathless feeling coming and going. I thought it might be emotional/anxiety related.

The government wouldn't want it getting out of it was circulating earlier as already being criticised for slow action!

Interesting @ForeverRedSkinhead and when you think of the amount of flights coming into the country every day including from China how can they know it didn't come over sooner if there could have been asymptomatic carriers?

Same in our house the week before Christmas. Kids missed a day two of school because of headaches, raised temp and extreme fatigue. Only the adults had dry cough and shortness of breath and other flu symptoms on top of this. I even experienced a loss of taste and lost my appetite completely. My DS had mild pneumonia. It took weeks to recover and get our breathing back to normal. This strain of flu was doing the rounds in the community. I remember talking to the pharmacist about it. I have heard the same reports from the USA. A lot of ppl tested negative for the winter flu and suffered from a severe respiratory illness. Obviously nobody was tested for Covid-19 back then. Could it have been a slightly less aggressive strain of Coronavirus back then perhaps?

Could it have been a slightly less aggressive strain of Coronavirus back then perhaps?

This is my theory. I was very unwell with a temp of 39 and I was having hallucinations, horrific continuous dry cough that lasted weeks after and made you gasp and choke, zero appetite with loss of taste. It was the sickest I've ever felt and I have it on record because I had to see one of my consultants and they gave me strict instructions not to take my meds or overdo it until I was fully recovered.

Exactly @BuggaLugga , it's hard to believe that the virus hasn't been in London longer than it has been stated.

In late Jan our whole family were ill with something that you absolutely would presume was covid if you had it now. Cough was so bad I threw up on myself and wet myself on a few occasions. Never felt so unwell.

DH who is a funeral director commented to me around the same time period that he had a few deaths from pneumonia who didn't fit the typical profile (elderly or otherwise susceptible) but of course it wasn't being looked into at the time so goodness knows

I had a virus at the beginning of January that started with a high temp, aches and then morphed into a horrible cough and general malaise. It lasted for ages too. My boss and her daughter had it at the same time. I know I caught it from my dh who just had the cough and then shook it off very quickly (lucky git). I’m 99% sure it wasn’t coronavirus and it would be wishful thinking to assume otherwise, although if I had the same thing now I would probably think it was it.

@MissDollyMix are you willing to say where you are?

DS was poorly mid February with a high temp that wiped him out for a few days and then a continuous cough which went on for weeks. His gp sent us to A&E as they were concerned as he is type 1 diabetic. This was when hospitals were only testing people coming back from China or Italy. Because we hadn't travelled he wasn't tested.

I then had similar, but less of a cough and a shortness of breath which has only just gone. I (used to) go to the gym daily but walking up the stairs left me out of puff.

DD, DH and mil has the same.

@Pippapotomus interesting, where are you? If you don't mind saying?
I spoke to a friend who is a doctor today and has been working in the COVID wards. She was ill around the same time us us, got a terrible cough and was really quite poorly, and she thinks it's possible we all had it then too.

End of Oct. Severe pain breathing turned into a month of coughing. Horrific, choking coughs. That illness dragged on into the new year.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8231753/Coronavirus-started-spreading-early-September-not-originated-Wuhan.html

With the timeline pushing back with each new piece of research, I wouldnt be surprised if a less contagious version has been around for a while, perhaps circulating student areas and areas of frequent international travel.

I wondered if I've had it. I got a sore throat that came on very suddenly followed by a cough the next day. That night I was shivering and just couldn't get warm. Felt rough for a few days and lost my appetite which never happens. I went back to work after being unwell for about 5 days still with the cough but it took another week or so before I felt like myself again. This was the first week in February. DH got the shivers a few days after me but didn't get anything else. What threw me was how quickly it came on. I thought it might just have been a cold but I had no other symptoms.

We had similar week after half term (20th Feb?) after being in France at half term. DH very poorly but not tested as not Italy. In university city around an hour from London. Not many cases here though. Wish we knew. Still have lingering sore throat

Oh also DH has the flu jab, too