Can I ask for your daily diary of COVID?

[princesspeppax]

On day 1 of symptoms, positive result and feeling totally rubbish can I ask a rough timeline of when symptoms peaked? When they started declining? When you felt better? My head is in overdrive right now and after a very very cautious year of following the rules and now still catching the virus, so very upset!!

I know obviously not everybody's experiences are the same but i'm hoping reading some others timelines to get a rough idea

Day 5 and 10 were the worst for me and its taken me 3 months to feel fully better but overall not as bad as I thought it would be. Wishing you better soon x

My symptoms were consistent really. Started feeling a bit warm in IKEA. Didn’t think much of it. Felt a bit hot later that day, checked temp, no fever. Next day, had a pretty bad headache & felt coldy. Was due to see my mum in our bubble so decided to double check. Continued to feel coldy. Test came back 24 hours later as positive. Days 3-9, sinus pain, headaches on & off through the day easily managed with paracetamol. I felt pretty tired. Very cold like, congested kinda thing. Day 10, felt like the end of a cold. I continued to work & look after two kids under 4 quite easily throughout.

Day 11, freedom! Spent all day walking round an outdoor Christmas event with the kids. Felt pretty tired but OK. I’ve been fine ever since.

I’m grateful it was mild.

It's very different for everyone so unfortunately you just can't know in advance. I know that's really unsettling and for me not knowing how bad it would get or for how long was one of the most scary aspects.

Some examples though:

DH's colleague (who my DH caught it from) was a bit fluey for 3 or 4 days and then felt fine.

DH was quite rough from around day 3 to 14 with head cold symptoms followed by gastric problems. After 2 weeks he started to feel better and gradually improved. He was ok to go back to work after 3 weeks.

I felt like I had inflamed sinuses and had ear ache for the first week and by day 8 felt much better. I thought I was pretty much over it. On day 9 though I woke up feeling exhausted and extremely nauseous. That went on for another week and was very unpleasant.

It took a further week to very very gradually improve and feel better.

All 3 of us recovered ok though and didn't need hospital treatment and didn't have breathing trouble at all.

Take one day at a time. Get lots of rest, even if you feel you can do more - you don't know what the next day might be like so save your energy.

Get a pulse oximeter. We found it reassuring to be able to check oxygen levels.

I hope you feel better soon and your symptoms are mild.

I'm day 1 too.
DH and eldest DC have tested positive too.

I'm like you in overdrive at the moment.
I work in a hospital and see the worst case scenario and can't seem to be able to rationalise at the mo.
Hope you feel better soon.

Day 4-7 were the worst for me and my husband (we had very different symptoms and were about 3 days apart)

Almost like once it's fully hit it's worse but gets better after a few days

You poor thing

Body aches and runny stools

Exhausted

Headaches and some tummy ache too

8 weeks on and still exhausted

The anxiety about what might happen was far the worst, I was lucky with a mild case.
Day 1 - achy body
Day 2 - 4 - cough started, aching muscles.
Day 5 - runny nose, felt like a cold, felt confused and a bit out of sorts.
Day 6 - lost taste and smell
Day 7 - definitely the worst, went back to bed for a few hours.
Day 8 - started to feel much better, became fatigued easily, cough was getting better, all other symptoms started to subside.
Day 10 onwards - still some lingering symptoms, but nothing worse than I would have with a normal cold, taste and smell started to come back.
I'm 5 weeks post covid now, I still have a lingering cough but otherwise back to normal.