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"

[ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes]

Ooo interesting. I only had it for about 24 hours, and then only really when I was eating - thought there was something wrong with my food to start with. Then just zero smell/taste for about 4 weeks.

Poor you!

[ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes]

Sorry to hear that littlepond

[isitorisntit]

Yes. Me. Younger than 40. Generally very healthy. Thought I was going to die. 6 months recovery. Chest/breathing still not right (feel like I've developed asthma as a result- xray thankfully said no scarring). Taste/smell not anywhere near normal. Memory. Eyesight and hearing affected still as heat/skin sensations.

You do not want covid.

[GoodbyePorpoiseSpit]

Had it in April - in bed for four days then no sense of smell. Still having heart palpitations but otherwise well.

[SabrinaTheTeenageBitch]

For all the people who have had it - does it feel different? I know it can be as mild as cold symptoms but is there something in your body that recognised it as something you hadn't dealt with before? I think I possibly had it in March but didn't have the traditional symptoms (very dizzy, fatigue comparable to early pregnancy but worse, tight chest and horrendous heart palpitations) This lasted for two weeks, gp told me it was anxiety but I can't explain why I just know it wasnt

[CringeInwardly]

For all the people who have had it - does it feel different? I know it can be as mild as cold symptoms but is there something in your body that recognised it as something you hadn't dealt with before?

For me it was that taste in my mouth. I've had many horrid things ranging from glandular fever to sepsis and i've never had anything like that horrid taste I had with covid.

[Babdoc]

Had it in March/April. Hospitalised for 4 days. Still ill six months later. Breathless at 100 yards, lungs keep filling with fluid, waking three times a night with hypoxia - I have home oxygen for the worst nights. Fatigued, weak muscles, intermittent cough.
Was previously very fit - hadn’t been to a GP for ten years. Non smoker, healthy weight, no comorbidities.
Surviving the initial illness is just the beginning with Covid. There are 60,000 patients like me in the UK already, just from the first wave. There will be thousands more this winter.

[ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes]

Sabrina yes to me it felt like a new thing, the opposite to colds which feel like the same illness every time.

I was fatigued too. You may have had it, seems like it’s different for everyone but perhaps equally novel?

[SabrinaTheTeenageBitch]

@ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes

The palpitations were awful, my heart was racing constantly and then there would be a pause and a huge thud. This went on for days. I've suffered from anxiety for years on and off so I wasn't surprised when the doctors immediately assumed that but it just felt different. Like my body instinctively knew something was happening that it hadn't encountered before. So odd how varied the response is, we all generally experience colds/flu in a similar way more or less. This seems like a complete lottery

[OneMoreWish]

I'm in NW. my mum tested positive last week. Only tested as course leader had tested positive and told group. Four women in group now have it.

Mum had headache of all headaches one day and thought her cup of tea tasted off twice the next day. She feels like has flu at moment but only day 8. I'm worried as hell as she is one the identified vulnerable people so I'm scared waiting to see if she takes turn for the worse...

[OneMoreWish]

And we haven't put it on social media as my mum is a private person.

[EvaHoffman]

• 4 colleagues died from it (not elderly, no underlying conditions)
• 1 neighbour died from it
• 2 good friends seriously ill in ICU with it. One of them still unable to work or socialise as he is constantly tired and breathless 5 months afterwards
• countless friends with symptoms between February and July but not able to get tests

I live in London

[poshme]

How have people got antibody tests?

I think I've had it but there were no tests at the time...

[LaMarschallin]

@SabrinaTheTeenageBitch

For all the people who have had it - does it feel different? I know it can be as mild as cold symptoms but is there something in your body that recognised it as something you hadn't dealt with before?

In my case, no.
If I hadn't been aware that I'd been in contact with it I wouldn't have even noticed the very minor tickle in my chest.
And that didn't feel different from any other cold/hayfever.

Because I knew I'd been in contact, I was on the lookout for symptoms, but it wouldn't have registered as anything particular with me otherwise.

[NRatched]

Did anyone else have a specific weird taste in their mouth the day or so before losing smell/taste? I describe it as sort of chloriney, like breathing in pool water

No, but I tasted blood all day the day before..which was really odd. As if I had bit my tongue, but never found any actual blood. DH apparently tasted a weird chemical taste though.

How have people got antibody tests?

We (maybe stupidly as it wasnt 'needed') paid for a private one. 70 quid each at the time. Were just curious though really.

For all the people who have had it - does it feel different? I know it can be as mild as cold symptoms but is there something in your body that recognised it as something you hadn't dealt with before?

It was a weird feeling for me, it felt like the last time I had flu (proper flu, not a cold..and 'worse' for the exhaustion but lasted a lot less time. Last flu bout had me laid up for almost 2 weeks) but, something felt different. I cannot really explain that but both me and DH said at the time it was like flu but it didn't feel like flu at the same time. Losing smell and taste confused me too but my mum says shes had that with colds, I have never had that before this.

MIL came up during this despite being warned not to (shes very..needy. Human contact is not something she does well without at all) and she ended up with a tickly cough for 2 weeks right after. We got her an antibody test booked too when we did ours, just with the timing but she didn't actually have it. IF what she had was covid its quite curious as she is someone who you would class (eve from a look) as very high risk. Elderly, multiple medical issues, very very frail as its hard to get her to eat anything, etc. And it (luckily, if it was that) just presented as a slight cough, while it laid up me and DH (33 and 35, he has slight asthma, I have medical problems but nothing that would put me 'at risk', its a chronic pain condition) for days. As I said, 3 kids live with us, and none showed any symptoms at all, but every single illness we have they catch any other time so I assume they 'got it' too, but didn't want to put them through a blood test obviously (not even sure if they do them on kids, never checked!)

Was an odd time, especiall hearing on the news that the 'first' person in the UK with covid was in February or whatever they say. I say bollocks. If it was in Wuhan in Autumn last year, it was here days later tbh. Ontop of this, there were LOADS of people in this area ill around the same time, from late December right through January a fair few of my neighbours, parents of kids at the school and people I know were ill and symptoms from ones who told me sounded similar. Where 'normal cold/flu season' doesn;t generally hit 'everyone' at the same time!

[Blue565]

Bad cough, tight chest and a bit of a wheeze (from the coughing I think) and fatigue.

No fever (that I noticed and tested under 36.8 the few times I did it)

[Porcupineinwaiting]

Had it in March, I was ill for months. Dh and ds1 have had worse cold- if they hadnt got ill just after me we'd never have suspected they had it.

For me, it was totally different from any illness I've ever had. Wide range of bizarre symptoms and getting worse in the second week rather than better.

[rc22]

@absolutelyknackeredcow I had the sensation that my body was fighting hard.
I was also absolutely ravenous throughout and ate everything in sight yet when I got on the scales on around day 8, I had lost 4 pounds.

[rc22]

@absolutelyknackeredcow I had the sensation that my body was fighting too. Never had that with cold or flu.
I was also ravenous and ate everything in sight but when I got on the scales on around day 8, I had lost 4 pounds.

[Jrobhatch29]

[quote SabrinaTheTeenageBitch]@ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes

The palpitations were awful, my heart was racing constantly and then there would be a pause and a huge thud. This went on for days. I've suffered from anxiety for years on and off so I wasn't surprised when the doctors immediately assumed that but it just felt different. Like my body instinctively knew something was happening that it hadn't encountered before. So odd how varied the response is, we all generally experience colds/flu in a similar way more or less. This seems like a complete lottery [/quote]
I had a week of really bad palpitations in april plus chest pain. The palpitations were exactly as you described. I also had a sore throat. Doctor said it was anxiety. I've had anxiety since I was a teen and it was the first time in my life I've had palpitations. I'm convinced it was covid. I've had on and off bad throats and chest pain ever since and this week palpitations again. Doctor treat me for silent reflux and said if that didn't help would organise tests. Now he's decided it's just anxiety again

[MadameBlobby]

I have not been tested but I have wondered if I had it in late Feb.

I had a horrible bug and (bearing in mind that Covid wasn’t a big thing in the news then so it didn’t cross my mind) I said to my husband I didn’t know what this bug was as it was so weird and I’d never had anything like it. It was like a combo of the cold the flu and the norovirus but not as bad as actual flu.

I started with a sore throat, then fatigue, the temperature, a cough, horrid muscle aches, nausea and diarrhoea. My sense of taste was also dulled. My husband said my snoring sounded like someone playing a kazoo and it was weird as I wasn’t bunged up with mucus.

I have also had an issue since then of smelling things that aren’t there, either something burning or tobacco usually. I have heart palpitations but I had put it down to being peri menopausal. I guess I will never know but if I get any of the symptoms again I’ll need to isolate and test.

My mum was ill after me and it had also gone all round my work. One of my sons was ill for a day and the other was fine as was my husband.

[lazylinguist]

I never had a test, but I'm pretty sure I had it back in March. Sore throat which wouldn't go away, and fatigue, heart racing and felt weak if I exerted myself even slightly. Got a bit better, but then had an eye infection and almost total loss of smell and taste, with a mild cough. Lasted weeks altogether, but I never felt dangerously ill. No breathing problems etc.

[lazylinguist]

Oh and I don't know anyone else personally who's had it. I'm in the NW too, not in a local lockdown area, but 10 mins from the county border with one.

[80sballetgirl]

I tested positive this week (along with husband, son & girlfriend - we believe DH brought it from his work).
I am very wheezy/coughing, headaches, fatigue, joint & muscle ache, no smell or taste at all (hate that!), slight temperature.
First symptoms last Tuesday, still feel very rough. Husband improving.

[CantDoMessyBuns]

I have a colleague and two friends who had it and it was pretty much like a bad flu that lasted 2-3wweks, then full recovery.

I work in education and we’ve had double figures of 16-19 yr olds test positive in the past month, all with very mild symptoms (the cough first, then cold symptoms).

However, I also know (personally know - one friend aged 47 with diabetes and one relative aged 64 with no other health conditions) who had it and died .

I’m in London.