A positive test- my journey so far

[CovidClara]

I have really struggled to find a description of someone with CV19. So here is my story (so far). I received a positive test back this afternoon.

Friday. I went out to the pub with 3 family members from 2 households. This is significant as my adult DD who lives with me also has CV19 and this is the only time that she has left the house for 2 weeks and so it looks like that may be the transmission point. We are in a tier 1 area.

Tuesday. I wake up with a splitting headache. I am prone to sinus problems and I thought it was that. Take ibuprofen during the day which numbs but doesn't remove it. Have a really sore throat start during the day. My DD wakes up with what she describes as a cold.

Wednesday. Slight cough, mostly dry but some mucousy. Headache continues and throat is really sore. DD still has a 'cold' and a very very slight cough. I decide to order a test online- for home testing. We dont really feel ill- this is like a very mild cold.

Thursday. Feel a lot better. Throat hurts, headache continues and light coughing. Sneezing (so it must be a cold) . Regret ordering a test as we are fine. I dont think I have had a fever, had a few moment of feeling hot maybe. DD says she feels a bit hot. We dont have a thermometer to check.

Friday. I wake up with almost no smell. Still got a headache. Throat hurts (but really very mild sore throat). The post comes and no test arrives and so I book drive through test for me and DD. We have to do it ourselves in the car- I am very skeptical that I have managed to swab correctly.

Turns out the home tests had been delivered by amazon and left behind the bin!

Friday evening I feel really cold in bed (but I live in a cold house so not unusual). Still no smell back. Headache has gone

Saturday. Feel a bit tired in the morning. Sore throat has gone. Have a slight cough. Woke up with a bad headache that took hours to go. Saturday pm- feel fine- spend 3 house gardening.

Saturday evening. I receive a text/email with a positive result. 4 hours later my DD gets a positive test result.

Turns out another person who was in the pub with us also developed a 'cold' on Tuesday and is now booked for a test tomorrow. So all 3 people got symptoms on the same day. The 4th person says they may have had a cold last week ??? but they are fine now.

DD symptoms now are: slight irregular cough. Sore throat gone. Can still smell but a bit reduced. Sneezing from time to time. Odd taste in mouth.

My symptoms are now. Low level headache, slight cough, slightly tickly throat. Sneezing from time to time. No smell, reduced taste.

At this point this is like the very mildest of colds. Lets see what happens now.

OP, your symptoms sound similar to DS - he thought it was a cold, then started to lose his sense of taste & smell & booked a test. Positive.

He is 18 and a new student though - thinks he got it from a mate at Uni, but obviously he's been in close contact with quite a few people.

He & his flatmates are being good and following all the Test & Trace advice re self-isolation they've been given, and contrary to what you might see on the media, their uni has been sending decent food boxes. Luckily he's in self-catering accommodation.

These are the symptoms I had, I’m just getting better now. Sore throat first, then what felt like flu, I slept for two days, it was/is a chesty cough, Lost smell and taste but I was very congested.
I did a pretty poor job of the swab due to the throat pain but it was negative. I really think it was a false negative now.

I also had on my worst day, a horrible burning feeling in my lungs which was intense. I spoke to the Covid nurse on 111 and they said it sounded a lot like Covid.

So this morning. Sunday

I have been up for 2 hours and havent coughed at all yet. I feel fine. I have a very slight heavy feeling in my head and a sickly throat but that is it

DD has lost her smell.

We both sound slightly croaky when we speak. We both look a bit heavy/full around the eyes (hard to describe)

We got a text from contact tracing with a link to fill in contacts- anyone we spent time with in the 48 hours before symptoms began. So oddly that doesn't include person 3 or 4 and so if they have it there will be no link between our cases and theirs which seems short sighted.

[quote MrsJackRackham]@Tanfastic masks were worn at all times in the pub but I did sit for an hour with my colleague for a drink after with no masks as we were seated. The pub follows all the rules very strictly which is why I think no customers were affected/ infected. Full track and trace contacted after. We both worked 6 hours and pub was busy.
@CovidClara yes very similar, my colleague was very mild. Sore head and tiredness only. He's in his fifties and a smoker.[/quote]
That's interesting thanks for replying.

This is reassuring to read OP, I am experiencing similar- I tested negative but my kids came back positive, they are young so no real option of distancing with them so highly likely I’ve got it and just tested too soon. If we hadn’t tested we would be carrying on as normal (no classic symptoms) and no doubt super-spreading... we definitely need to hear more about what it looks like beyond the worst case intensive care/ventilator situation.

Bolshy surely the likelihood is to have caught via son if it was in his class? What was the timeframe?

So in my area there were 22 cases in the past 7 days and 14 in the next area. I live 1 street from the border of areas and so live in 1 but would spend anytime out of the house in the other (park, pubs, shops)

I did notice as we drove the mile so to the test site on Friday that there were a lot of children not at school. Teenagers walking round- so I assume collapsed bubbles.

Same here. Dd sent home from school week last tues due to contact with positive person. Fri slight headache. We went out all day sat and dd said she still had a headache and was going to bed. This is where she remained for three days apart from booking a test at the walk through centre. We had to lie and say she had one of the main symptoms. Shes 13 and swabbed herself. Dh went with her but she didnt want him to do it.

Positive result came back the Wed by which time she was better.
Only symptoms were headache, lethargy, slightly warm. I wouldn't normally have kept her off school for this.

We only got her tested because dh and I work opposite shifts in a factory and have contact with about 500 people. I'd hate to be responsible for that outbreak.

One thing I would say. Dd watches the news with me, we talk about it, shes a bright kid and can understand what's being said. When we gave her the positive test result she cried. She was scared. She knows for 99% of people it's not an issue but she was scared.
The scaremongering from the press is damaging. We need to reassure our kids they're not going to die. I thought we'd done this.

My son is 12 and I think he'd be scared too if he was positive.

I tested positive this week. I, and the hospital staff, didn't suspect Covid due to my symptoms. It was a routine test for being in hospital for other investigations. Though now I'm positive the other symptoms slot in, plus a developed a cough after the result came. I've probably had it a week or more before the result without knowing - I was ill but not with the big 3.

Interestingly the swab the nurse did was less intrusive then when I did it myself, especially my throat.

Rowgtfc

I can understand your Dd being scared.
I'm 47 and the result scared me. I'm clinically vulnerable so have obviously heard the horror story versions. Whilst I have felt very grim I haven't gotten any worse for a couple of days so that feeling has abated now.

This is so reassuring to read. In a weird way!
I work in healthcare and swabbed routinely, I was swabbed Wednesday. Result returned positive yesterday. We are now isolating.

I am 28, I live in a tier 1 area too. Have had a headache for 4 days, nothing unusual I am prone to headaches and my job has been quite high stress lately so have put my headaches to that. Things taste a bit off today, but I can still mostly taste & part of me suspects everything tasting funny is purely psychological? I have no fever, definitely no continuous cough, my throat is a little sticky but not "sore" and I wear masks for 13hours a day on shift so it's always a bit sticky lately 🤷🏻‍♀️ I do have a bit of runny/blocked nose but it's October, and again, I wear masks all day.

I am waiting on the results of a reswab, everyone around me is convinced it's a false positive?

I also tested positive with what everyone thought was a cold! I was really run down. My only symptom that made me test was losing my sense of taste and smell all of a sudden! Smell still isn't back over a week later

My pregnant dd tested positive last week and we are still waiting for our results. My symptoms have been identical to hers- headache. Loss of taste and smell (completely). Sore throat but not badly. Neck and back pain twinges. Tiredness/fatigue.
Worryingly I have been patient facing in the 48 hours before testing- with vulnerable patients and other HCPs and yet I am on day 5 waiting for results... ridiculous.

Regarding Track and Trace:

On Wednesday, a person at work was urged to get tested as he looked awful and was coughing. He tested positive. We were all emailed asking who'd been in the staff room (eating lunch so no masks) with him on the Weds.

As a result, 8 people are SI. One is a close colleague who sat more than 2 away from him in the staff room, for half an hour on Weds.

Now, on the Tuesday, the day before he tested, I sat less than 1m away from him, both eating lunch, for at least 15 mins as did a few others. Different, much smaller staff room, an alcove off the work area. One of the others has subsequently told me she told him he looked ill on that Tuesday as they were working together. I was working in a nearby but different area.

I asked my line manager why only the Wednesday people had to SI, not Tuesday's as he was evidently positive, then, as well.

She said it was because he'd only become symptomatic on Wednesday, but surely The Advice says anyone in contact 48 hours or less before the symptoms appear should SI? Thus Monday and Tuesday?

Sadly, I know why they are re-writing the rules as they go along. If they SI'ed all those people, a mid-size hospital would no longer have a functional Radiology department....

Anyway, we are all now going to be tested across The Trust over these 5 days, so the Contact thing is moot.

@Isadora2007

My pregnant dd tested positive last week and we are still waiting for our results. My symptoms have been identical to hers- headache. Loss of taste and smell (completely). Sore throat but not badly. Neck and back pain twinges. Tiredness/fatigue. Worryingly I have been patient facing in the 48 hours before testing- with vulnerable patients and other HCPs and yet I am on day 5 waiting for results... ridiculous.

Yes, that is ridiculous! I've been up close and personal with vulnerable patients, too, since what I now believe should have been called A Contact.

Where I was swabbed Wednesday, the NHS system says I should have started isolation on Thursday. But they didn't email across my swab results until Saturday morning! Now all 6 of the double hander patients I assisted Saturday morning have to be isolated (care home policy). And I did the school run with my DS Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and DH was working all those days aswell. Nightmare.

It’s troubling that so many people posting symptoms and then positive tests have had headaches, sore throats and cold symptoms when none of these are on the official list of symptoms you’re allowed to test for

Thanks for the thread, I was feeling so wasteful for ordering a test now I don't.

I have a banging headache and quite achy and chilled. I feel a bit throaty/eary and tired but I've definitely had worse colds.

The reason I ordered a test (almost by accident) is that I bought a coffee at an outdoor coffee place and was a bit shocked that no one was bothering with masks in the queue but thought, oh maybe cos it's outside. I started feeling grotty by that evening.

Anyone who started off just feeling coldy, does it develop into something more serious or do the people who have a serious case start off bad?

@Tanfastic

My son is 12 and I think he'd be scared too if he was positive.

My DC is singing along to music today (quite untypical). They tend towards the anxious and I think that after months of uncertainty it is a relief in an odd way.

EmilyDickinson Totally agree. My DS was massively exposed to the virus at school so is self-isolating and has had no symptoms but my other child now has a cold and I have that run over by a bus feeling - so confusing...do we test anyway or go about our normal business. My gut instinct, because of the level of DS’a exposure, is to test but that would be going against the rules as we don’t have THE symptoms - so confusing 🤷🏼‍♀️

Really interesting reading other people's experiences, my DD15 tested positive last week, first day headache all day, day 2 sore throat and mild temperature (38) day 5 felt breathless, she has 4 siblings and none of us has any symptoms until today, my youngest DD10 and I both have a mild cold, lots of sneezing yesterday but haven't left the house for 7 days, do you think we should get tested? No social distancing at home, very hard with a child who feels poorly

@hellisotherpeopleandhorlicks

Can I ask which online test you ordered? Thank you

I hope it stays mild for you both

What do you mean?

@MissSmiley

Really interesting reading other people's experiences, my DD15 tested positive last week, first day headache all day, day 2 sore throat and mild temperature (38) day 5 felt breathless, she has 4 siblings and none of us has any symptoms until today, my youngest DD10 and I both have a mild cold, lots of sneezing yesterday but haven't left the house for 7 days, do you think we should get tested? No social distancing at home, very hard with a child who feels poorly

Yes, you meet the criteria. You have symptoms after being exposed to a known case of Cv19. I would order tests.