Anyone else shocked about how ill they felt with covid?

[Justwingingit2005]

Hey all

I tested postive last weekend.
I have been shocked how poorly covid made.
Being sick.
Stomach pains.
Nausea.
Whole body aches.
Fever.
Tiredness oh so tired.....
Runny nose
Headache
Cough
Lost of taste
Sore eyes

OK, so I'm no marathon runner but I'm mid 40s and no other medical conditions.
Healthy weight. Fairly active.

I suppose I was stupid to think I'd just bat this off like a mild cold.

I have posted about this before. I had all those symptoms and more.
I think that the severity of covid takes many people by surprise.
It seems many people barely notice it the symptoms are so mild, the media promotes the idea that in "most" people it's a mild illness and so many people who say they've had worse colds lead us to believe that unless you are vulnerable and elderly you won't be too bad.

So if you are unlucky enough to get more than trivial symptoms it's quite a shock.

Most of us are used to colds which are miserable but short lived and not debilitating. Proper flu that puts you in bed is worse but most people haven't experienced real flu. Covid in my opinion is far worse than flu.

Medically I think it's classed as mild if you don't need hospital treatment but really in a healthy adult you have to be pretty poorly to be admitted to hospital.

I was really shocked at how ill I felt, I didn't know you could feel that poorly and I've had flu.

Me! I had those symptoms too but they changed every couple of days - the worst was the sudden breathlessness after coughing for a week... I had a trip to hospital at that point. It was genuinely the illest I've ever been... My DH on the other hand had a slight cold and loss of taste.

Were you fully vaccinated when you had Covid?

Is it because of the press description that caused your surprise do you think?

It’s an absolute fucker of an illness, it’s a killer, it’s severe and it has long term consequences which are life changing.

I’m doing my utmost to avoid getting it.
Masks, SD, avoiding large groups, ventilating rooms at work with open windows. I do not want it.

I think you can probably see my point.

I agree OP. I'm fit and healthy (normally!) and this is as bad as the flu I've had before. Had a nice case of bronchitis after the flu too. Hope that doesn't happen this time.

I was quite unwell, but essentially in line with a bad cold plus additional fatigue that was very unpleasant. Day 12 now and feeling almost back to normal, but I still have no sense of smell. In some ways, I was less ill than I had anticipated, but I was quite anxious about it overall. I'm sure that the vaccines helped a lot.

The thing about covid is that it seems to affect everyone very differently. Some people have it very mildly, whereas for others, they are quite ill with it. There doesn't seem to be any reliable way of predicting which group you'll end up in.

Double jabbed, felt terrible for 3 days, tired so so tired, head cold, lost smell and taste etc, took 10 days to feel any better, BUT this time last year I had no immune system thanks to the chemo after the surgery, after finding a lump at the beginning of lockdown 1. I am sooooooo grateful I didn't get it last year. I dread to think of the outcome, or even how I would have felt without the double jab

Hi OP- yes I'm afraid it really floored the three of us. Absolutely not the "just like a bad cold" that was being peddled in line with all the Freedom Day narrative.
I've had bad flu as an adult and Covid so much worse, brutally so. I'm a month on now and still feel crying tired constantly and have a lot of side effects, really unpleasant and very debilitating. Also very emotionally draining which is very unlike me...
I really hope you feel better soon x

I'm an over 60 nhs worker in acute hospital, getting up very close and personal with patients. Usually don't pick anything up, never had flu but boy does this virus have a sting in its tail. I had every symptom on the list, some of them for months. Now whether that was because of the viral load I got from a procedure that would now have you in full PPE (not just the paper mask, pinny and gloves we wear with all patients now) or whether I would have been that ill anyway I'll never know. At the time it was very new and PPE hadn't been recommended and tests weren't available (March 2020). It appears to be ramping up again in my hospital and I don't mind telling you I'm terrified of getting it again! A colleague on same ward and same age ended up on ICU for weeks and neither of us could work for over a year. And I would have been listed as mild as didn't go to hospital!

Threads like this really frighten me.
On one hand I want to believe I will have it mild but if mild is only a way of saying you didn’t go to hospital then it’s not really “mild” at all.

Glad to find this thread. My symptoms started Friday 8th. Have occasionally felt like turning a corner, but never lasts - think l feel worse now. So incredibly tired and hot and cold by turns, random aches, cough. My last day of isolation is tomorrow, but fairly certain l need another week off work (which in itself is stressing me out). Hope you feel well soon OP.

PS l'm double vaccinated and really careful about taking precautions.

Sorry @Iwannabelikeyouohh I didn't mean to frighten you, it still stands that 99% of people getting it will be OK, out of about 50 younger nhs workers I know who got it (two of whom are my adult children) the majority have had flu like illness and back at work after a couple of weeks. I only know of one other like me still off work after a year and my colleague who ended up in ICU who obviously got it off the same patient as me as we started with symptoms on the same day and we are both older and overweight. I am extremely glad that it hasn't affected younger people as badly.

I had covid in November and it was like a cold with added headaches & no smell/taste.
Got it again 2 weeks ago and it was more like a flu. Headaches worse, smell/taste went again. This time though I've was so tired, still am, really achey and felt a lot worse.
I was double vaccinated between the 2 bouts. I'm assuming that it would have been much worse this time if I hadn't been.

Also last time all 4 of us got it, this time the 2 children didn't.

Me. I had fallen for the "if you're vaccinated it's just like a cold" stuff.
That's how it started but not how it stayed! DH had to go to hospital with low oxygen, and now a month in is still breathlless on minimal exertion and oxygen levels still fluctuate a lot. Admittedly he may have been ventilate, or worse without the vaccine, but it's really knocked him for six.
I didn't have any respiratory problems really, but sky high temperatures, diarrhoea, joint pains and indescribable tiredness. I think it is the most ill I have ever felt.
W're both middle aged and have no relevant underlying medical issues.
One of my teenage sons has been pretty ill too, but the other wouldn't have known he had it if he'd not tested.
It is almost like we have all had different illnesses, but obviously we haven't. It is all very strange and difficult to understand.

Just for balance, it was pretty mild for me, a bit nauseous, lost appetite, temperature for a couple of days and then loss of smell and taste for a week. I was up and about throughout really. Flu in my early twenties was far worse, put me in bed for a fortnight , ended up with bronchitis and took a long time to stop feeling tired all the time.

dd2 and I both have covid at the moment.

For 2 days last week I felt so ill, that I would happily have jumped off a cliff to make it stop.

I was aware at the time that I wasn't clinically seriously ill, in other words I knew I was in no danger at all, but the combination of freezing cold and shivering, with terrible nausea and throwing up every 4 hours was horrendous.

It improved massively after those first 2-3 days, and now, on day 6 I just feel a bit rough and under the weather.

I'm double jabbed and so thankful I didn't get it before I was vaccinated.

and I forgot the splitting headache part too.

I'm still recovering. One week post Covid and I'm exhausted. Tight chested too. I can't cope with doing much. I'm in my 50's.
Our ds 15 was up an about after a week completely recovered.

I'm fully vaccinated too.

Sorry you were all so ill. I'm absolutely dreading getting it.

I'm doubly vaccinated and tested positive yesterday morning. Expected it, though, as we've had it in the house all week (husband and teenager; teenager brought it home from school) and the rest of us had been testing every morning and trying to stay away from them.

Really, really hoping it doesn't take me out; I'm over 50 and was looking forward to getting a booster in about 6 weeks.

Can anyone give an idea of what day they started to feel really poorly after they tested positive?

I've had it twice, both before I was vaxxed. First time I felt ropey but not ropey enough to go bed completely so I kept dragging myself through the week. This was pre testing so I didn't know until I had an antibody test later. At least if I'd had flu it would have completely floored me and put me in bed so I wouldn't have been unknowingly spreading it around. I still feel guilty about the people I might have come into contact with and made very ill.
The second time was just before Christmas and was a sore throat and nothing else.
It's such a weird illness

Both myself and DH who.is 52 felt awful. My symptoms were very painful legs and feet at night I really didn't know what to do with them. Runny nose, sneezing, cough, loss of taste and smell. Terrible chest pains and each day I felt worse. Finally at day 8 started to feel better. I got out of bed each day at 7am as have youngest in high school. I felt ill 9 years ago having chemo for bC but covid was horrendous so can sympathise. I'm now day 12 and ready to go back to work tomorrow. I still have no taste and smell is limited. I occasionally have chest pains throughout the day and will cough but not as much as during covid. We were both double vaccinated in June. I've just received antibody results and I have them.