I have gone nuts and paid someone to come to my house and do an antibody test on us

[LaurieFairyCake]

Can't take anymore not knowing so I've paid £260 to bike out a test from a lab and wait while we stab ourselves and return our blood to the lab

Dh thinks I've gone a bit batshit but I couldn't take anymore

Disclaimer : it won't affect my behaviour in line with current government guidelines

And then a lot of people who have been asymptomatic have tested positive. It seems very unpredictable.

But, it's impossible to catch a virus without developing antibodies, because the antibodies are how your body cures you of the illness. If you didn't develop them you'd die.

You can carry the virus without getting the symptoms that's why the lockdown is for everyone not just people who are coughing.

Maybe the tests are flawed - which to be honest I think they are. It’s a tricky one to test as everybody is already most likely to have had corona virus at some point in their life

I know some people who tested positive. One very unwell, her husband mild symptoms. Ill during March.

Another friend who was absolutely convinced she had it in January tested negative.

Actually some people are thought to fight off the virus with innate immunity such as t-cells and don't develop antibodies. That's thought to happen particularly in the young.

I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. I ordered my test and it arrived a few days later. I posted it back yesterday so will see what comes back. I actually found the blood draw really easy I warmed up my hand used my ring finger and placed the vile on a chair so had my arm in the downward position. It collected pretty quickly and I had to use pressure to stop it bleeding.

I had a continuous cough for around 2 weeks in March with other mildness symptoms. I really thought I had it but now seeing all the negatives I’m not sure.

That appears to be true cathy. It is well documented that some people have a natural immunity to certain types of infections. This can be seen with noro and rotoviruses.

I paid for 2 antibody tests from blue horizon, I did mine first and got a negative result (posted Monday and result Friday morning) my DH sent his on Friday and got a positive result this morning. We both had an achey "cold" in feb so I'm hoping that mine is a false negative and that we can assume our 4 year old and baby have all had it but I know it's not a given. It won't change anything other than him not having to worry about catching it.

I was positive.

I am v rarely ill, can't even recall the last time I went to the doctor! So I knew I had this in March. I had the cough, the tight chest, the fever - was breathless for weeks afterwards. I would have been amazed if the antibody test came back negative!

dp was also positive. He caught it from me 3 days later in March.

We didn't test the dc as even though they are over 18, neither wanted their fingers pricked (!). Neither of them got it after us so we can only assume they had already had it as I find it hard to believe that they didn't pick it up from us when living so close together.

I am surprised the OP hasn't had her results back yet.

Unless I missed an update?

@ReturnOfTheTriffids when did you do the test?

@HowFurloughCanYouGo

Yes we are assuming that those who have had Covid all develop antibodies.

Quite a few studies have shown patients with known positive Covid who don’t undergo seroconversion and so are antibody negative on these tests. There is ongoing research into whether some people are using a T cell response to clear the disease instead or other factors.

@Gncq

It’s unfortunately actually quite a bit more complicated than that. There are various types of antibodies and there are other defences as part of the innate immune system.

I've just sent off my abbott test. Was easier than I thought although i bloody knocked the sample over and had to refill it.. which was fine as my finger bled for england. Hopefully I'll have the results by the weekend.

I've done mine too. I bled like a stuck pig

NotAnotherUserName that's really interesting. Can you show me where you have read this? I'd like to read more about that.

Well I'm very jealous of everyone with their super bleeding fingers 😂

@onlinelinda we did it at the start of May

@HowFurloughCanYouGo

There is a lot of work ongoing in this area and at the moment most of it is preprints. Here is an example:

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042382v1.full.pdf

Stronger antibody response was associated with delayed viral clearance and disease severity.

In other words, if our family had covid, my results would possibly show negative because I had such a mild response but my kids would likely show positive because they were very unwell for a longer period?

I really need to get my sons results back!
I'm so impatient.

Thanks to PPs for the info on timing and interesting, @ReturnOfTheTriffids your timing is similar to mine. I'm so sure I had it I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a test . I had cough, fever, loss of smell and taste and altitude sickness type breathing problems and sore eyes. But although I had bad fatigue and a cough for a long time after, none of the other symptoms lingered eg I wasn't short of breath for ages. My lungs never 'hurt' like a lot of posters on here. Maybe I wasn't ill enough

Help! I bought the Abbott test and got it today. Try as I may, I haven't got more than a drop of blood from my finger. What do I do??

@NotABeliever did you wash hands with warm water first. I did this.. made sure I was hydrated and then kept my hand down by my side for about 5 mins before hand. After pricking my finger I massaged the blood down. It wouldn't stop bleeding! I used the side of my pinky.

Thanks that's really helpful!