Covid twice?!

[pixietinsle5]

I tested positive for covid almost 4 weeks ago and was unwell mildly for 1/2 weeks then was fine. Over the last couple of days I've stated to feel a bit off colour but covid tests are negative at the moment. Is it possible to catch it twice this close together? I'm really hoping it's not covid again 😫

I did... well you don't really catch it twice. It resurges.

I tested positive 4th and 21st August (with negative LFTs in between). It's possibly a relapse. Don't panic though. have you been overdoing it a bit?

It will be the same infection. Although the LFTs were negative PCR would probably have still been positive.

Yeah, the 10 day isolation thing is a bit misleading. It makes everyone think Covid lasts 10 days and no more. sadly not.

A resurge or post-viral reaction is likely but it could be another virus or bug.

A resurge?! I didn't know this was possible 😳 what happens with a resurge? Am I about to feel really unwell again? I have been quite busy yes but I have a 14 month old so I was never really able to rest completely! (I have run around soft play a couple of times in the last week or so) I was feeling completely back to normal so I thought I was fine!

It just means you feel a bit crap again. It can be post viral, or a repeat of some symptoms. The virus may still be hanging around a bit, like it might if you had another bug. It doesn't mean you are going to be proper ill all over again. Unfortunately, I got bad gastro enteritis twice - which was nasty but that seems to be what my body wants to do with covid...

Don't get another PCR : it will be +ve!

But if you have a fever, runny nose, or vomiting/diarrhoea you must put yourself back in SI until better.

This sounds like Long Covid. In some people the symptoms flare up regularly after the initial infection. You may be lucky and just have one or two flares but it may continue for months/years. Rest while you’re feeling unwell and when you’re feeling better don’t go charging straight back into life all guns blazing because it will just make it worse in the long run.

My colleague had resurges for several months :-( triggered by overdoing things. This was March 2020 way before vaccines though. Hope you're better soon.

As others say, nhs worker, got covid 10 days before first lockdown, everytime I started to feel better and did anything, even a supermarket shop, symptoms would recur. Seemed to settle into every three weeks like a cycle. Long covid lasted..... Well til now really, still not completely back to normal but each 'flare up' was slightly less severe than the previous one. Couldn't work for a year. Best advice is to rest as much as possible if you develop that kind of pattern although there seems to be different degrees of long covid. One of my adult children, also NHS, was able to go back to work after initial but unable to do usual exercise activities for 9 months. It's a very weird virus!! Take care.

If you are double vaccinated, you are more likely to test positive for weeks afterwards. There is some research on this:

"The researchers were puzzled by the fact that there is a respectable number of people who are testing positive for COVID-19 by PCR long after the infection was gone. It was also shown that these people were not reinfected."

www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2021/03/16/mit-harvard-study-suggests-mrna-vaccine-might-permanently-alter-dna-after-all

@Mossstitch Sounds exactly like my experience. I got ill a few days before the first lockdown, felt rubbish for 2/3 weeks, then had relapses for months. Still getting them now in fact, but not as bad.

Each relapse has felt exactly like mini-covid. Same symptoms - everything from a fever and sore throat, through to a cough and headache. Nearly always triggered by exercise, but I have to do far more now to trigger it than I did initially.

OP, try not to worry - there’s no reason to think your relapses will continue! Most likely you’re just still recovering from the initial infection. Even when I was in the midst of it, it felt very up and down.

I had a similar thing happen to me a few weeks ago. Caught covid and tested positive after suddenly developing a fever. Isolated for 10 days, and came out of isolation as i felr fine again apart from losing taste and smell completely though. A week later i felt like i was coming down with something (now i rarely get sick and when i do its always during winter). I felt body aches, high temp, headache. A few days later i developed a cough ..which another week later still has not 100% cleared up. I am however testing negative and have done since i left isolation. Its weird. This was also my second time catching covid btw but first time was 7 months ago