Anyone else convinced they had coronavirus back in December 2019/January 2020?

[Ashleys63]

Back in December 2019, I developed a continuous cough, that after 2 weeks, led to breathing difficulties and severe fatigue - I literally couldn't walk up the stairs.
After various medication ( which didn't work ) my GP eventually put me on steriods, which thankfully helped, although It took about 4 months to fully get over it. I had never had anything like it before in my life, I hardly ever get colds let alone something like that.

I suggested to my GP back in the Summer ( 2020 ) that maybe it was C19 I had had? but she was adamant it couldn't possibly have been as C19 wasn't in the UK until end of Jan/early Feb. I'm not convinced.
Was anyone else really Ill back then? I know winter is a time when lots of respiratory illnesses 'are around, but its such a coincidence.

I think maybe I had it in 1st week February. Awful awful conjunctivitis, really high temperature, splitting headache in bed really unwell for 4 days. Also upset stomach. I'd been in London the weekend before at a big indoor event and also travelling around on the tube. It wiped me out for almost two weeks and struggled to get back to normal. No coughing though.

My brother-in-law was very ill in December 2019 with what we thought was flu. He was admitted to hospital in the end due to pneumonia. Fast forward to December 2020 and my sister and nieces get Covid.... but he doesn't.

Obviously we can't be certain but we suspect it probably was Covid

Yes! Totally convinced. I remember saying to my boss that I could hardly stand up, I felt that unwell. High temp, sore bones, cough, sinuses that have still not settled.....

Yes, my husband

Absolutely classic symptoms, in hindsight

I think we did around end of jan start of feb. My dp had a week off work and he’s never off sick, docs sent him for two chest X-rays and blood test but just showed low vitamin d, they weren’t testing for COVID at thst time. I had a few days where I could barely move and a cough that lasted for about a further 2 months. I used to wake up in the night and be sick from coughing.

I had what I thought was an awful flu mid December 2019. High fevers, headaches, fatigue and an awful cough. I was a mess and in bed for days. The cough gradually got worse until I felt like I couldn't breathe. I ended up at the doctors who gave me steroid inhalers and antibiotics. I've long wondered if it was Covid or just flu, but I'll never know for sure. One of my children had a mild fever and was poorly for a day and my husband and other child didn't catch it.

A friend of mine possibly. Terrible cough, temperature, loss of taste and it took months for her to get well.

End of January, all in the household ended up off work/school with a 'flu' that was noticeable for the loss of taste and smell.

It sticks in my mind as I had just been advised by my control freak manager that she was delaying my move to a new role outside of her control; and I then had to phone her up and convince her that I was genuinely off sick and it wasn't just sour grapes.

I had something like that in December. I heard on the radio a doctor saying that there were a lot of cases of OC43, which is a coronavirus but is not generally tested for, so I assumed I had that.

I'm rather hoping that it provided me with some immunity to Covid, not that I would rely on that.

I’m pretty sure I did in the first week of February.. sore throat, then aching and high temp (not really affected by continuous paracetamol and nurofen) followed by loss of taste and smell then onto relentless dry coughing - so much I was vomiting and had difficulty breathing. The coughing, lasted 4 weeks, even with extra steroids from the doctors.

I’m asthmatic and my inhaler dosage and strength has been increased significantly since this illness and my breathing still isn’t back to where it was.

I was in Florida Christmas 2019 and picked up a really nasty respiratory illness. Felt so unwell. A couple of months later as Covid was becoming a bigger news story, I was still struggling for breath some days and had lost about a stone in weight. In February, had to see the GP. Ended up having a chest X-ray. At the time the GP asked if I had been abroad recently but America didn't really ring any alarm bells.

Realistically it can't have been Covid and it must have been a nasty flu virus. But when the pandemic hit, I did question for a short while (as I had been abroad) whether there was any possibility it could have been.

Yes, December 19. Actually thought it was pneumonia, lungs so painful I couldn't turn over in bed and total fatigue.

DD went to London at the end of January to visit her girlfriend. A week later, all of us (me, DH, DD, DD's girlfriend) suddenly became ill, on the same day. It was the strangest thing - we were fine one minute, then it felt as if a wave of illness washed over each of us, it's the only way I can describe it. Within hours of each other. We were all absolutely floored pretty much immediately - sudden loss of taste/smell, agonisingly painful legs, crushing fatigue, migraine, a weird severe sore throat but on one side only, dry crusty red eyes, fever, and hacking coughs. We started to improve after about five days but then it hit us all again in the same way, but harder. Me and DD got better over the next week or two but DH became very unwell, didn't regain his taste and smell, and could hardly breathe. Eventually he went to the GP in early March (he never goes to the doctor!) - he was asked if he'd recently been to China but that was the only reference made to Covid. GP listened to his chest and said it sounded congested even though DH's cough was dry and not productive. He was given antibiotics and sent on his way. He was off work for 3 weeks he was so unwell, and didn't fully recover until early April.

DD's gf was still ill in mid-March, too, but not as and as DH - a lingering cough and fatigue.

DD's gf is Malaysian and had just returned from Malaysia after the Christmas uni holidays. They have lots of friends from China/Malaysia etc who had also just returned, who they met when they were in London. We're convinced we've all had it.

Yes. In Dec 2019, DD and I came down with fatigue and awful coughs, both at home for a while as we could barely move with the tiredness. I am CEV and my cough lasted for months, I also suffered with breathlessness. Both DD and I ended up at the doctors as we couldn’t shift our coughs easily, both given steroids and antibiotics. Doctor said it must be a very bad cold. Around the same time, my elderly in-laws fell ill with fatigue, coughs and my mother-in-law had breathing difficulties. She still suffers with a slight cough and tight chest over a year later. Either a horrid virus or COVID.

I had an antibody test, and definitely had antibodies. The only time I had symptoms was December 2019 / January 2020. So I either had it then, or was asymptomatic. There is quite a bit of research that suggests it was circulating in summer 2019 if not before that. The "first detected case" is not the same thing as the "first case", and why on earth would medical staff go looking immediately for a new virus when faced with a few people with flu symptoms?

I had a weird flu that kept coming and going over 3 weeks in January 2020. I was shattered and completely lost my sense of taste and smell, and we were all joking around about it in my house with DP giving me his hot chillis to taste. Couldn’t taste a thing.

I finally got put on antibiotics for sinusitis which I’ve had often but they didn’t work for ages which is unusual. Typically they kick in after 48 hours but I got through the whole week of supply and only a few days after that did I start feeling better.

I’d been at a NYE party with a couple who’d been travelling around Europe, and I got my first symptoms about Jan 2. Don’t know if it was Covid but the thing about losing taste and smell really seemed an odd coincidence as I’ve never had that before with previous flu or sinusitis.