Anyone never tested positive but feel like they are ‘reacting’ to infection?

[Licencefeegone]

Bear with me, I know this sounds ridiculous but I am wondering.

4 of us adults in the household are triple jabbed, after the jabs we all felt slightly unwell, very tired, sore throat for a few weeks - your typical post vaccine effects.

Now and again one of us will feel unwell again with the same symptoms - headache, feel very tired / fuzzy headed and the occasional sore throat. Whenever this happens we will take an LFT - always negative. No one in the household has caught it at all yet.

We’ve travelled abroad during the last two years and I felt unwell on the return once, DH another time - PCR negative but had all the ‘post vaccine’ symptoms.

We went to London last weekend - travelled extensively by train / tube ate In restaurants, went to the theatre, pubs etc. DD this time has a sore throat, I felt very fatigued mid week. All LTFs negative.

Is it ridiculous to think we are occasionally being exposed to covid and our immune systems are doing their job, causing mild symptoms but overcoming the virus to and extent that there’s never enough to get a positive? Is that even possible?

Anyone else have the same thoughts?

@Delatron

I think the same. Apparently it’s called an ‘abortive infection’ You’re exposed to the virus but antibodies//t-cells fight it off before you become ill.

When DS has delta in Nov I didn’t isolate from him
at all. Spent hours in the same room. I felt a bit ‘off’ for a few days. Low in energy. Couldn’t run my normal distances. Then it cleared. I was testing negative the whole time.

This is a good thing I think. To be exposed to the virus and fight it off stimulates the immune system. So it recognises the virus next time. And hopefully fights it off again or you have a milder illness than you would have with zero immunity.

This was precisely my experience living in a flat with a delta case last year!

I often feel like this when people around me are ill. Like im fighting something off but i dont get the actual illness.
You could be getting this from any virus

This makes so much sense! BIL and SIL came to a family meal right at the start of the year while still testing positive on LFTs (they were towards the end of the 10-day isolation period). A couple of days later we all started feeling fairly rancid and our symptoms lasted for about a week, on and off. Tested negative on LFTs throughout and even took DD for a PCR as we didn't trust that her nostril-swabbing technique was enough to get a strong enough sample.

We all had COVID in October, DH and I are also vaccinated.

Hadn't heard of abortive infections before but it sounds like it could be what happened to us! Appreciate it could have been another virus, but we were barely leaving the house except for this family meal and, y'know, SIL was sitting right there on Day 8ish while still getting a faint negative and BIL was sitting there on Day 10 still lighting up an LFT like nobody's business! So we were definitely exposed to Covid.

Yes and I guess a smaller viral load will be more likely to produce an abortive infection. You have more chance of fighting it off.

But you still get a little immunity boost. Especially if this keeps happening. This also supports my theory that shutting yourself away isn’t a good idea (and neither were endless lockdowns - though I accepted their need with a novel virus).

Hmm, this is interesting.

Twice in the past couple of months, I've had exactly the same symptoms, the fatigue you get before you get a cold and the exact same sore throat (but no other cold symptoms like a runny nose).

Both times, I had negative LFTs.. The second time I actually took four over the course of about a week as I was so convinced it was Covid.