Have you actually had covid, if so how bad was it?

[Closingtime94]

Hello,

Sorry about the weird title, I'm just a bit I guess confused - I live in the NW and we're a really high risk area but I don't know anyone personally who has had covid and out of our joint 800+ friends on Facebook no one has mentioned having covid (I know they may not put it on fb but people do tend to haha) and I just thought if our area was so high risk then you'd think you'd know someone who had it (don't get me wrong completely thankful I haven't had it or anyone I know has had it but it just seems odd) I'm still taking the risk very seriously and following guidance but I was wondering if you've had covid19 and what your experience was? (Or someone in the immediate family) you don't have to live in the NW or anything.

Please can we keep it to you personally having covid (or someone in immediate family) as I think these threads can very easily turn into "my grandmas best friends dogs previous owner had covid"

Less than a cold for me. Just the cough lasted three weeks and woke me up for a few hours every night so I was really tired. other than that fine . Same for my husband.

Oh also I'm on the shielding list and am immunosuppressed so ^^ maybe reassuring to people? Who knows.

I had it back in March. Got sick on Mother's Day :(

For me, first day I was really ill and in bed all day. I was having horrific fever hallucinations. I dreamt I was stuck to my bed and my son was next to me being sick, but I couldn't get to him.

The cough started after that and for the next 3 weeks I was exhausted and coughing. Lost my sense of taste and smell on week 3. I had a 48 hour headache too.

After day one though I was able to look after my two kids ... not sure I should have been but mum life right?

My husband just had the headache, kids just the cough

I think my DD had it in March. She had high temp, awful cough and severe fatigue. She has asthma and we contacted 111 who advised her to get checked at a and e. As no testing was done back then, we don’t know for certain but my DD definitely believes it was. She described the cough as being like no other that she’s ever had and for some days couldn’t even move from one side of her bed to the other such was her fatigue. It was scary to see how unwell she was.

We live just outside London in a fairly large town. me and OH had it. I was lucky, just had one day of fever then a cough that lasted 2-3 weeks and lost smell/taste for two weeks. OH was so poorly. He was in bed feverish, coughing, wheezing and mostly asleep or delirious for two weeks. He then lost smell/taste for 2 months. After his fever broke it took another two weeks before he felt able to leave the house he was so fatigued and breathless.
Our Toddler son also had one night of fever and a three week cough around that time so we assume he had it but unsure.

5 people in my immediate family have had positive tests. 3 seriously ill, 2 requiring hospitalizations and 3 still suffering now (obv not as bad as initially) despite having the positive tests months ago.

I'm in Liverpool

Dsis had it in March, coughing, temperature and no sense of smell. Still gets days when she's exhausted. Positive anti body test.

I had it end March/start of April. Felt unwell, no temperature, just "off". Had strange throat, felt like needles for just a couple of hours, then same in ears. Thought I might be getting a cold but it didn't turn into cold symptoms at all.

Started to feel better and then suddenly very ill. High temperature, shivers, shakes, dreadful aching pains in chest and shoulders and back. Was in bed a few days, started to cough but in bouts, not all the time.

Was ill for a couple of weeks, the temperature went down quite quickly, lots of fatigue, the aches up and down my back were the worse symptom. Difficult to breathe but more as though I couldn't get enough air (like being at altitude), not more than that. Taste and smell didn't go until well into being ill; it was fine one morning and then disappeared in the afternoon when I tried to eat something, it was so odd I nearly spat it out again. Tried smelling strongly smelling stuff and realise my smell had gone too.....that only lasted a few days, all fine now.

Afterwards I got tired easily for a bit, also had heart palpitations for a couple of weeks. Oh, and red-rimmed eyes.... All fine by May time. I had an antibody test in the summer and found I have a large amount of antibodies (may well be gone by now).

[quote myhobbyisouting]@nancypineapple how did you get a test if you weren't hospitalised? [/quote]
@myhobbyisouting we couldn't get a test for my daughter back in early March as even though she was admitted to hospital via A&E they were only testing those who had travelled directly from China and Northern Italy. The gov changed their criteria for testing in mid March and opened it up for all hospital admissions. The 20 others I know who had positive tests were from July to last week when testing was more freely available round here in North London.

I don't know for sure but I think I have had it at the end of last year. No tests available back then, we didn't even know of it's existence.
Dh got ill, was in bed for days with a fever and cough (having caught it from a colleague who had travelled back from Australia) I then got it, although I didn't take to my bed and continued to work, it floored me.

I lost my taste and smell, had a high temp, a banging headache constantly, except for maybe an hour after ibuprofen kicked in then it was back and my chest..jesus!
I'm asthmatic but it only really affects me when i have a cold or flu or if I use chemicals I know trigger it. At this time I could not breathe easily and twice I remember dh on the verge of ringing 999 because my inhalers just weren't helping. I have never felt that before. My chest still isn't right.
As I said I continued to work - between 2 sites and passed it to 5 people. 2 had a cold like illness, 2 a bit more ill, like my symptoms and 1 hospitalised with a 'pneumonia' like illness.

If this wasn't covid then I'm terrified of what it really would be like.

I know quite a few who had it, myself included.

I had it in March and I still have bouts of breathlessness and fatigue 6 months later. It wasn’t pleasant in the slightest but for me the worst bit was the pain & fatigue I felt not the respiratory symptoms or sore throat which were only bad for a week or so.

I had it in May
Saturday Mother of all headaches
Sunday headache gone and coughing not bad
Monday tested and cough carried on
Wednesday Lost taste and smell.
Thursday test came back positive.
Off work nearly three weeks coughing so hard and long I needed to wear a pad
Still haven't got my taste and smell back properly, once in a while I can smell then it goes again. Mostly everything smells like rotten meat and onions. Some things smell like a bonfire.
You think I'd have lost weight being put off food by the smell. but I haven't.

I had it early in lockdown in March. Started off aching all over on Mother’s Day then temperature arrived on the Tuesday. I developed vomiting and diarrhoea and such bad fatigue. Temp didn’t go below 38.5 for the next 12 days even with paracetamol. I never had a cough luckily but I have honestly never felt so ill before. In all I was off work for 3 weeks and it took me a while to get my strength back. I tested positive for antibodies in August.

My FIL was in hospital with it back in March. He was obviously very ill that he was hospitalised and then tested to confirm, however it was never 'serious' just like a severe flu and thankfully no complications. Full recovery.
My DH and DS were very ill around the same time but they were never tested but I would be certain they had it. Both very ill, multiple courses of antibiotics which did chuff all. DS fully recovered but DH still feels effects. He would normally be very fit, running, rugby etc but struggles to run his usual few miles even now.

I’ve had a lot worse colds. Just tired and headaches. Husband had chest pain and fever. Kids just a bit ‘off’. The one that always coughs coughed.
My colleague had lung changes and has only just got some sort of normality back breathing wise. She’s only 50 and quite fit.

Should add that we had symptoms in March. South coast. Antibody positive

I had it at the end of March-early April, and so did my mum.

I, in my early 20s, was pretty cripplingly ill, though thankfully didn't require hospitalisation. On-off fever for 10 days, horrible sweats, exhausted, every symptom in the book EXCEPT for a cough - just crippling, crippling lung pains that meant I couldn't even stand up straight properly on the rare occasions I had to get out of bed.

Mum, in her early 50s, lost her sense of taste and smell but that was all!

I had mild flu like symptoms for a week. Then lost smell and developed burning lung pain and breathing problems which lasted months. Lungs still aren't right (I used to exercise alot) can only walk for exercise. Smell is still intermittent. The rest of the family had it reasonably mildly although 2 had slight intermittent breathlessness for a few months.

I had it the first week of April. A pretty grim few days but left with shocking exhaustion.
Unfortunately I know a lot of people who've had it. Most survived. Some didn't. I'm NHS.

I'm north west and had it last month. I feel ill, but nothing like I couldn't handle. I took
Paracetamol and stayed in bed for nearly a week. Symptom was mainly a really bad headache when I moved, never had a headache like it. I only told close friends/work. I didn't let social media know; I didn't want everyone to know

My parents and my brother had it in March (dad was tested as he was hospitalised, so safe to assume my mum and my brother had it too as they were all ill within a few days of each other with similar symptoms). Mum and brother felt quite ill, bedridden, but coped at home. Still not quite back to their previous levels of fitness (both are runners so pretty fit and healthy) but otherwise fine now. Dad not fit and healthy, almost died from it (weeks on a ventilator), still not fully recovered but fit enough to start a phased return to work next week.

@Fuckityfucksake

I don't know for sure but I think I have had it at the end of last year. No tests available back then, we didn't even know of it's existence. Dh got ill, was in bed for days with a fever and cough (having caught it from a colleague who had travelled back from Australia) I then got it, although I didn't take to my bed and continued to work, it floored me.

I lost my taste and smell, had a high temp, a banging headache constantly, except for maybe an hour after ibuprofen kicked in then it was back and my chest..jesus!
I'm asthmatic but it only really affects me when i have a cold or flu or if I use chemicals I know trigger it. At this time I could not breathe easily and twice I remember dh on the verge of ringing 999 because my inhalers just weren't helping. I have never felt that before. My chest still isn't right.
As I said I continued to work - between 2 sites and passed it to 5 people. 2 had a cold like illness, 2 a bit more ill, like my symptoms and 1 hospitalised with a 'pneumonia' like illness.

If this wasn't covid then I'm terrified of what it really would be like.

And this is a why people should not continue to work when ill whether it is Covid or not. I imagine the person who ended up in ICU would have been grateful if you had stayed at home instead of working with the symptoms you describe

Sorry 'hospitslised' not" in ICU'. Pretty bad nonetheless

I'm in the nw and my best friend works in a mental health hospital. Covid went through the wards like a train and she said some of the patients and staff were very ill with it. However no one died. I asked how ill she meant and she said ranging from being in bed for two weeks not even speaking or eating, coughing all the time, to needing oxygen.
I was sort of dubious about covid before she told me this.

@lifesalongsong what's the other thread for Covid NW love? Just want to jump on it