Those who refer to Covid as a 'cold' - have you actually had it?

[UndertheCedartree]

This is genuinely not goady. I'm just trying to distract myself (spiking fever with Covid).

There have been a few people in real life who have referred to Covid like this. One was back in Summer 20 and when I told him I'd been hospitalised with I due to breathlessness he suggested I was just having a panic attack!! Everyone who has referred to it as a cold (to me irl) has not actually had it. It seems a lot on here too refering to it as a cold or 'mild' illness have not actually had it. Mild means you don't need to be hospitalised afaik - not actually mild like a cold. They often seem to believe they have had it with no symptoms (maybe that helps them not be anxious about catching it) - not that that stops you catching it again of course!

I have to say it can feel a very lonely place when you see your DC so unwell and you are feeling dreadful yourself and people (who appear to have no experience of actually having the disease) are going on about how mild it is and we put up with colds we should be able to put up with this!

However 'mild' someone might have this I would not wish it on anyone.

First time (before it was cool) it was a lingering crappy bad cold. It sucked but I was majorly run down anyway. And in the grand scheme of thing it wasn’t that bad anyhow.

Second time - very meh. I’ve had far far worse. Only needed one lemsip.

I’ve had covid twice. The first was a very mild cold. That was pre-vaccines. The second time I felt pretty shit, I had a week off work. But I’d still say I’ve had colds that have been similar. I had this ‘super cold’ recently & was floored. Negative PCRs & lateral flows. It was a cold. But god I felt awful. Just as bad as covid.

It is like a cold for most people. A cold on various scales from mild to the worst, more flu like colds. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Obviously not all. Some people are really ill, some people die.

Got it now and it's Just nasal congestion symptoms

@Prokupatuscrakedatus

Some people do not notice much - some are gravely affected. I had flu - about the worst 10 days of my life - I recovered but I could have died or ended up with a heart condition. I had cancer - I survived, but I could have ended up dead like my DM. A neighbour one winter stepped out of his front door and was killed by falling ice. These are the normal risks of being alive. There are no guarantees and hiding won't help.

Omg that's horrific. Like something from final destination.

But you are right, covid isn't the only danger.

@ColettesEarrings

My husband had a relative die directly from it in April 2020, and our son had it seven weeks ago with nothing more than a runny nose and itchy eyes for 48hrs a few days after testing positive asymptomatically. It's unpredictable and that's the real problem - it is less than a cold for some, it kills others, has every effect in between, and others are asymptomatic throughout. I don't know what else you want us to say, we've known this since the begining.

I agree completely, @ColettesEarrings - and I’d add that you can’t tell who is going to get the lingering after effects - long covid. I didn’t feel terribly ill, even when I was in hospital - just tired and breathless - but here I am, 8+ months on, still under its thumb.

@UndertheCedartree - I am taking a multi vitamin but I will get some vitamin D too - thank you for the recommendation.

I had a slight sore throat.

@PodcastFunFair

Me and dh both recently had it what we experienced was similar to a mild cold but 2 of my friends had it at same time and had severe flu like symptoms all of us doubled jabbed.

It's definitely interesting how different every body seems to react! I had it at the same time as a colleague (pretty sure I caught it from her as she'd recently been out for a meal, and tested positive first, then I had been working closely with her before she tested!). I was unvaccinated, as I'm choosing to wait until after my pregnancy to get the vaccine. I had it so mild, like a very minor cold. She on the other hand (albeit only one vaccine) was very poorly and had to have longer off work.

I am late 30s and caught covid in July so probably the delta variant (or other). I was absolutely fine, only tested as children and husband tested positive. I felt a bit ‘off’ like I was coming down with something … but I never actually came down with ‘it’ if that makes sense. My husband had like a bad cold for a few days , eldest son coughed a bit and felt off for few days other two kids were mostly fine

Desperate to end my isolation tomorrow, and it's not been the worst "cold" I've had this year. A couple of days of scratchy throat going to sniffy. Day 5 yesterday I spent 3 hours digging and weeding in the garden. I've felt more poorly from AZ1 and the booster.

The thing with colds is they have a range of effects. Some are a minor inconvenience. Some are annoying to battle through. Some floor you, make you take to your bed and take a while to recover from. For a small proportion of people they can trigger serious, potentially life-threatening complications like pneumonia.
They can trigger post-viral fatigue.
One in my teenage years went to my ears, perforated my eardrum and affected my hearing to some extent.

Society accepts colds as an occupational hazard of life and they are generally mild, but can also have serious consequences.
As Covid mutations have got milder and people have improved protections from vaccines and natural immunity, the comparison of a cold has become more applicable. I wouldn't want to knowingly give DM a cold because as she's got older, they've become harder to recover from, and they make life tough for her for several weeks.

It's not necessarily dismissing Covid, it's recognising other hazards that we accept without too much thought.

Me: Alpha in 2020. A&E admission twice in 8 days, with drips and anti-nausea stuff that is more usually given to chemo patients. I think this was due to passing barely enough urine to dip a test in 24 hours . Don't think I have ever been that ill. Followed up in same year with kidney scans.

DH: Nov 2021. Passed out cold on the floor. Heart rate and BP so off kilter that he had to be strapped in a chair and carried downstairs on arrival of an ambulance.

Both early 40s, vaccinated when able, not vulnerable, and no dramatic reactions at all to other viruses in the past. A real sense of having no control over 7-14 days of your life and (possible) future.

@BogRollBOGOF - I misread your post as saying you’d spent 3 hours digging and weeing in the garden! That seemed like a very long wee.

I had it a month ago, no symptoms at all. DD has it currently, blew her nose a lot for 24 hours but nothing else. DH only symptom has been tiredness. DB this week had classic cough and loss of smell/taste but SIL only has loss of taste. Only DB would have been ill enough to have been off work.
.

Very mild for me and two ds’s. All just mild cold symptoms so yes it was just like a cold. I could have carried on as normal.
DP didn’t catch it even though he wasn’t staying away from us. Go figure!

My partner has it at the minute, day two. Yesterday he was lethargic and clammy and achey, temp was higher than normal but not high (37.6). Today he is a bit brighter but seems to have what looks like "a cold". I've in no way been worried about his safety but he was unwell enough to stay in bed yesterday which isn't normal for him.

Dd1 had it in October, she was quite ill the first 2 days then it was just a bad cold.

Dd3 and I have it at the moment, dd is a bad cold, but I can honestly say I’ve never felt so ill in my life

I don't refer to it as a cold but when I had it in October I felt shocking but not as bad as I did the 3 times I've had flu in my life.

More of a mild chest infection for me. Mild to moderate cold for my husband. Both with what was presumably delta.

I had a cold about a few years ago that floored me for a month.

It's really hard to give a shit about any of this now.

I had it and referred to it as a really bad head cold.

Quite mild cold for me, but it does feel very much like Russian Roulette.

He has just has it again and it was just like a cold, maybe not even as bad. I guess previous infection/vaccines have done their job.

Maybe they didn't - maybe omicron is intrinsically milder? There's evidence that it affects the body differently and doesn't get into the lungs as much as previous strains.

I found it a unique virus with some unusual symptoms, a different pattern to previous infections, plus a few cold type symptoms. Never had a cold where I lost my taste, experienced internal muscle quivering, and had bleeding / bruising under the skin.

So I would argue it’s really not a cold. Some of the symptoms are those that you would also get with a cold. But this doesn’t make covid “a cold”.

My friend is a healthy, 38 year old guy who is a gym addict. He's incredibly sick with covid since 21st December and does not seem to be getting better. I'm very worried about him. He didn't get the vaccine because he has a needle phobia.

I caught it on 27th. Started off with bad headache and dreadful fever! I’m pregnant and took it bad, I was vomiting so much I ended up in hospital so I could get medication into me, to control the fever.
I perked up a bit but I feel like I have a bad cold but with awful fatigue. I haven’t been able to do anything without getting dizzy and out of breathe. Feel like everyday I’m just suffering.
Dh caught it from me and he’s not got any symptoms.

I'm mid 50's. I've definitely had flu twice, both times wiped me out for a week or two.
I've had norovirus twice too.

DH and I are similar age and both have mildly annoying autoimmune diseases (controlled by drugs). We've had flu jabs for the past couple of years. We had our AZ jabs as soon as we could book.

We all had Covid after our summer holidays. Luckily it stayed in the upper respiratory tract. We sneezed A LOT. We had streaming noses. Teen lost her sense of smell, but not taste, for a month or two. She had a sore throat and I had a couple of paracetamol to deal with a headache.

Without LFT tests in the house, and activities planned, we would have brushed it off as a weird cold.

Coming to the end of it now - yep, a shitty bad cold. Knew it would hit me relatively hard as stress has my immune system run down and I'm a fatso - so I was expecting a rough run, but nope - just a cold-type feeling, coupled with a really sore throat and feeling generally wiped out for a few days while I get over it.