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!