Anyone had delta, but unvaccinated?

[BrokenArrows]

I've posted before about my extreme anxiety to get the vaccine. Every time I think 'ok, I'm going to get it' I panic a few hours later and think I'll be messing up my menstrual cycle forever (I will start a separate thread about that), and stress out about the potential for getting a blood clot (slim I know, and not my biggest worry until I start thinking about the people who have died from a clot). I also worry about the dozen or so women that I follow on social media who have lost movement in their limbs, or are living with spasms and tingly limbs and fingers as a result of nerve damage. The side effects are a constant worry. As is actually catching covid. I've managed to dodge it so far, but I've got a young child in nursery and another in school. He's had a few children in his class come down with covid, but so far he's managed to dodge it. I'm a bit stressed this evening though to know that his friend's dad has tested positive for it, but the child in his class will still be attending. I'm petrified of the vaccine, and of covid itself. My husband (also unvaxxed) is insistent that no healthy person actually dies o covid (I think this is a ridiculous statement btw, but last time I mentioned an article I read about a young fit and healthy doctor who died 9 weeks after contracting it and spending that time in ICU he got really angry with me and threw it in my face yelling at me calling me ignorant and that he's read many peer reviewed journals on the subject blah blah blah. My point I was trying to make to him was that many seemingly healthy people die, and perhaps they had undetected underlying health conditions. Maybe I do as well? He certainly does, but I'll give him credit that he has an amazing immune system and mine is not the greatest. A simple cold for me last 2 weeks on average which is quite frustrating.

Ramble over. What I basically want to know is - if you (or anyone you know) is unvaccinated (and willing to admit it), and you've caught covid in the past 6 months, how did you feel with it? On deaths door? In the ICU? Just a cough? Completely asymptomatic? I feel like we just hear about the unvaxxed people dying, but not how many have recovered, which I'm almost certain is more than those dying!

Sorry you're feeling so anxious OP

Myself, DH and DD all had positive PCR's and are all not vaccinated. I had a terrible cough, sore throat and just felt absolutely drained. DH felt drained and achey and DD just had a temperature for a couple of days.

Overall, at the time it was bloody rubbish and DH and I felt crap, mine more so because of how much I was coughing. However we were fine by day 10.

I have friends who have had different symptoms, a close friend had the tiredness but had sickness and diarrhea and no cough and another friend felt like she had been hit by a bus with body aches but no other symptoms.

I think everyone varies but the most important thing I found was to not believe everything I read on social media and in the newspapers.

Hope this helps x

I am 41 and unvaccinated, I had covid a month ago, only tested as my son did a lft after a headache and then tested positive on pcr too and I did a pcr as a close contact! I was shocked when after 5 days it was positive, i had a slight headache for one afternoon and otherwise would not of known I had it at all. I did loose my taste and smell on the 10th day of isolation though. Otherwise nothing else at all. All 3 children tested positive in the end and no symptoms in any of them apart from the headache in my eldest child!

Well 2 of my otherwise healthy but unvaccinated relatives died.

I did. I m 42 and due to the fact I was to get AZ I did not get vaccinated for the fear of blood clots (have family history of those). Had COVID in August therefore must be delta.
Very mild, sore throat first then lost my smell and taste for a few days. Nothing else.
Managed to get first Pfizer a month ago (luckily its what is mostly avail nowadays) just because of the introduction of vaccine passport.
But unfortunately nobody can really predict how you will respond to the virus

I had Covid back in about April. No idea if it was Delta, could have been I suppose. I had a rash on one side of my face, neck, shoulder, and chest which was very itchy and lasted for several weeks. I had sore throat, cough and awful sinuses, plus general tiredness. However, I had Covid quite some time before that right at the start of the Pandemic and that was quite different. So who knows whether that's why it wasn't so bad this time. No idea. I didn't have such awful headaches or chest pressure this time.

I had delta just as it was emerging and typically got a positive test the day before my first jab was booked.
Overall I had a really mild case. Felt like I had a hangover and my cough wasn’t particularly bad. I did struggle with breathlessness when I went back to work after isolation. I lost my taste and smell for about 8 weeks and I now have parosmia….very distorted smell and taste. Most foods are absolutely rancid now.

Not me but someone I know who had no other health problems died of covid a couple of weeks ago, he was apparently too busy to get the jabs and has left a wife and three children behind

But obviously there are un jabbed people who get covid and don't die, I'm not quite sure what you're after

My friend had it back in July. She is 40, no underlying health issues, fairly active (does a lot of walking) although she is a bit overweight but not obese. She spent 9 days in hospital on oxygen. Once home she had to be careful not to exert herself too much as she was still quite breathless and tired very easily. She’s fine now though luckily.

I know of a couple and their kids that are not vaccinated, and have it right now.
They are all poorly, but not hospital poorly at the moment.
Funnily enough, both parents didn’t believe Covid actually existed.

Get vaccinated OP. Here's an article by an ICU doctor - he opens by citing the case of a healthy man in his 20s.

A colleague of mine caught it a while back just before her first vaccine (she's quite young and delayed it due to various circumstances) she was unwell for months before being rushed to hospital with what turned out to be clots in the lung caused by her covid infection. If hadn't been caught there and then she likely wouldn't be here however she's still incredibly unwell months on, been re admitted with further suspected clots so it's certainly not just the vaccine that causes this. Another colleague chose not to vaccinate and has been in hospital for months also. She's older, not been on a ventilator but constantly struggles to breathe, is a shadow of herself as unable to eat and having to spend most of her time lying in her stomach as her body gets a bit more oxygen that way then on her back. CV double vaccinated colleague has it just now and has what she describes as a head cold. It's know this is circumstantial but gives some perspective on your specific fears

I had covid in June when I was heavily pregnant (mixed messages back when I was pregnant stopped me getting the vaccine) I was ill for 2 weeks all the usual symptoms but nothing sinister.

The point is - you just don’t know how it will affect you, therefore any response you get on mumsnet is irrelevant to how your body might react with it.

I’ve taken the vaccine now and had zero side affects.

I'm in ireland. We have a 93% vaccination rate and the lowest death rate in the EU. 50% of our ICU capacity is being taken up with people in the 7% of unvaccinated (mostly young and healthy) adults.

I had it, not vaccinated and don't think I had it any worse than my friend who had it the same time as me but was vaccinated.
I had a slightly sore throat, headache for a few days and really tired for a couple of weeks. Also lost taste and smell for a couple of weeks.

Didn't make me regret not having the vaccine lets put it that way!

I've not looked into it too much but I bet there are a lot of people who are double vaccinated and die but you won't hear about those. I had covid recently ( double jabbed) partner also had it ( single jab and suffers with asthma ) and I was more poorly than partner.I had the usual flu symptoms, achey shivers ect lasted about a week.
I guess it really just depends on your body how you will react to the virus. if your fit and healthy it's likely you will be fine.

I had it in September and I’m unvaccinated. Felt pretty grim for a week, didn’t get out of bed a lot, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as times I’ve had other cold/flu bugs. Lost my sense of taste for a week and my sense of smell still isn’t quite back to normal but is more or less there.

I have various friends who have had covid in the last few months, some vaccinated and some not, in my small sample group there seems to be no difference to how ill they got, with everyone I know it was just a mild illness.

Look, Covid is endemic now. I've been in contact with 3 positive cases in the last week alone and that's only the ones I know about. You WILL catch it at some point if you are unvaccinated (and possibly even if you are vaccinated).
You need to decide which is the least worse scenario - getting vaccinated or catching Covid.

FWIW my husband had it a few weeks ago. He was quite poorly with chills etc. Still can't taste or smell anything and his symptoms keep reappearing randomly. Don't underestimate long Covid.
Personally I'd rather have the vaccine than what I've seen from him.

I worked in ICU previously and I have lots of friends that still do. 4 people I know have died from covid - all aged between
32 and 41- none took regular medications 3 of them were very fit sporty individuals all died before vaccines were available. Vaccinate yourself.

You’ve had vaccines as a child and you’ve given birth twice so you’ve had many medications and probably taken contraception pills that are a far far higher risk of blood clots than the vaccine.

Currently in icu 64% of patients are under 60 and 12% are under 40. Only 8% have undying health conditions. Over 85% are unvaccinated mostly because they are of the same opinion as your husband. ICNARC data ( Google it)

If you wear a seatbelt why wouldn’t you have a vaccine? Chance of a road accident is minimal but you’d never dream of not strapping your child in.

Genetics and viral load will be the deciding factor on your immune system and will decide your fate if you are unvaccinated. Men make up the a majority of those who end up in icu why ? Do they take more risks? Is it genetics? We believe men are more likely to carry genes types that give severe symptoms. Surviving the disease and getting out of hospital does not mean returning to perfect health - many have horrific long term fatigue and breathing issues etc; avoid going in in the first place.

If you buy a lottery ticket you believe that you could win it. Despite the chance being slim. Likewise most people get flu like symptoms with a few days in bed and you would be unlucky if you got super sick but would you like to gamble on being the 1/10 who gets sick or the 1/100 who is in hospital is the 1/1000 who without any vaccine ricks up in ICU.

I assume your husband didn’t do science past 16 but I’d vaccinate myself and know plenty of women who’s other halves have no idea about the fact they and their older kids are secretly vaccinated.

“ We have a 93% vaccination rate and the lowest death rate in the EU.”

Not according to this

www.statista.com/statistics/1111779/coronavirus-death-rate-europe-by-country/

I'm not vaccinated, had COVID end of July, spent most time in bed to isolate from my family so I didn't pass it on to those that hadn't had it (also not vaccinated and they didn't catch it). I felt a bit rubbish and a bit nauseous but no worse than a normal bug, I have certainly been worse with colds. I do think it depends on how your body responds, my friend is fully vaccinated and caught it last month and was much worse than I was. Although I am not vaccinated I will probably end up getting it one day as I feel we will eventually be forced to for one reason or another but I am reassuring myself that although there are many horror stories of vaccine side effects, especially in women, many have had it with no problems what so ever (although still not reassuring enough to make me get the vaccine voluntarily!)

My friend's got it currently. She is 40, a smoker but otherwise very fit, and unvaccinated. She's continued to work from home throughout, but has had a fairly constant headache since the original temperature spike. She is already planning to meet me at the gym on Friday when her isolation has finished.

@Fruitygal

Thank you for a sensible post with real data and analogies that make sense.
Very rare on here!!

4 out of 5 of us had it a month ago and now our fifth family member came down with it. All unvaccinated. Four of us are grown-ups (with two teenagers) and a 9 yr old.

I have to admit that myself and the children were in pretty good nick already leading up to covid, as we've been taking a lot of good quality vitamins and supplements for the past nearly two years having done some investigations into our healths previously.

My DH is slightly overweight and, during all that time, was happily watching us from the sidelines as we changed our lives around, but wouldn't do much about his own lifestyle.

Well, he ended up being the only one with a bad case of the delta variant of covid. I was personally over and done with it in 5 days (headache to begin with, 3 days of temperature and two days of coughing). The two youngest barely noticed being ill and our eldest (17yrs) was similar to me, but she's still coughing after 6 days.

I'd say, start building your immune system now, eat well (cut out sugar, reduce carbs and dairy), sleep well (!!!) and exercise a little (well, as much as you can looking after small children) and you'll be absolutely fine!!!

DH and I had it. Both felt the same - all the symptoms but mild, like a cold. We likened it to a hangover - not nice, but not noteworthy. Recovered within about 8 days. Kids also had it but were asymptotic.

There you go OP a random on the Internet with no apparent scientific background says cut down on carbs and you'll be fine, based on her exhaustive survey of....her own immediate family. Why waste your time reading actual scientific research? Could have saved lives and a fortune if rather than developing a vaccine we all just stopped eating pasta.