This is not a mild cold!

[Hippopotamousses]

I'm positive for the first time after three vaccinations and I feel awful! Has anyone else avoided it for so long and been properly wiped out?

I have a bad cold, scratchy sore throat, slight cough, massive headache, dizziness and I ache everywhere. But most of all I'm just exhausted. I tested positive immediately on Wednesday and the line is getting stronger and I feel worse each day

@Kp8 I just have a bit of a cough and feel tired now.

I'm on day 5 and feel worse, im so anxious, please somebody reassure me xxx

I have no idea how I am going to be able to get back to work after this, especially when the idea is you pace yourself. I clean other people's houses and have no income if I'm not working.

It really must be this new variant! I tested positive when Omicron was going around, I had ONE bad evening and then just a headache and brain zap feelings for a few days, but otherwise perfectly fine, just bored.

This time though, I am so poorly. I'm on day 4 or 5 now. DF has batted it away within a few days, as have the kids.. but I'm wiped. My headache, sore throat and malaise has gone as of last night, but today I am dizzy, breathless and exhausted. Also 7+1 pregnant. :( hoping I start to turn around within the next few days. The house is atrocious but I can't do much at all without being so, so tired.

Bless you @GoT1904 I'm also on day 4/5 it's horrible isnt it! I can just about go and get a drink then have to lay back down, havent been this poorly in a long time.
My ears are totally blocked and my head feels just awful, its difficult to even think xxx

Glad not just me! Two weeks on from positive test, now negative, and still feel rubbish. Coughing as much as day 1 today and have taken extra inhaler (Asthmatic).

I remember having flu 15 years ago and I couldn't manage to get out of bed. It made me realise why people can die of flu. Having said that at no time did I feel I needed hospital treatment with flu whereas covid had me in hospital for a week.

@Hippopotamousses apologies I worded that badly. I was just wondering whether you had been caught by surprise at the severity. I am immunocompromised and was having cancer treatment in 2020 so was classed as CEV.

@SortingOffice no need to apologise, I was hot, grumpy and poorly so think I misunderstood what you were saying. I hope the treatment worked for you and you are feeling much better.

COVID is a serious illness and can make people very poorly, not just when you’re positive but also long covid which can effect your brain and/or lungs long term.

I don’t think we should all hide away forever more but it annoys me when people are so dismiss or rude about anyone who dares to say it’s more than a mild cold.

A colleague of mine was very anti-covid and anti-vaxx and in the ‘we need to just get on with it’ camp until she got it herself and was poorly with it and then tried to tell
everyone to take it seriously etc.

And I find that’s always the way - that unless someone has been directly effected by something they don’t care.

Yes my emotions are so close to the edge, very tearful indeed, it's like my emotions are fighting against me and I can't control them, very strange and horrible. So sorry you feel the same 🥺

day 8 or 9 here.

I am still tired (but restless/can't sleep well) and weak. breathless towards the evening unless I sit on the sofa like a coachman (leaning slightly forward resting elbows on knees)
no way would I be able to do a physical job. hell, I have to decide between having a shower or getting dressed...

it sucks.

I hope y'all feel better soon.

Day 7 for me. The exhaustion is unreal, but I'm also struggling so much to sleep at night. That might be the heat though. My cold and cough is a little better but I'm just wiped out and barely getting out of bed.

Nearly 3 weeks in here. I was off work for 10 days.

To give context in 7 years I have been off work sick twice. Once for bereavement and once I fell and had spent the night in A & E.

With covid i have never felt so ill, even when I had pneumonia. I vomited, had swollen painful joints, headache, sore throat, temperature, cough, sinus issues, exhaustion - pretty much all of the symptoms.

I am back at work but my voice is still hoarse and my ribs are painful from coughing. I think it will be a long time before I'm back to normal

@beenrumbled that is awful. How have your work been about the time off? My work is very supportive and do not want us in when we are positive. They encourage working from home only if we are well enough but I'm struggling to stay awake more than a couple of hours at a time

@Hippopotamousses work have been ok really. I have triggered a discussion about absence due to the number of days off but it will be a formality.
My boss let me work from home last week as I was struggling with getting in but I'm in the office 3 days a week now.

I'm lucky - I started a new role which means I don't need to be on the phone as much. If I was on the phone most of the day I would still be off.

This isn’t proof of anything. At all.

@sydenhamhiller I'm a primary teacher too, caught it last week whilst covering a class whose usual teacher was off with Covid! Such a bad time of year to be off. Feel silly because I was almost blasé last week saying I don't mind if I get it, I'd rather get it now than in the holidays, I was fine when I had it at Christmas... etc. However I do now feel really ill which has surprised me - exhausted and drowsy anxious, hot, reduced sense of taste and generally fed up. I'm on day 3 now, thought I just had really bad hay-fever but tested positive on Sunday. Anyone else got a sore mouth and mouth ulcers?

My fever is getting worse and I can't stop shivering. The night sweats are awful.

@Magic1231 also got blocked ears here!
generally felling like crap tbh, seem to have taken huge amounts of paracetamol.

Had chest/upper back pains earlier, no idea what that was or if related to lungs which feels scary.

@Hippopotamousses I hope you managed to get some sleep.

The night sweats were awful for me too - took my night sweats with the menopause to a new level! DH said for the first 4 nights my temperature was awful over night - I radiated heat, but that did settle.

All 5 of us got it, to varying degrees, DS1 was rough for a couple of days then bounced back, DS2 ended up on antibiotics for a chest infection and DD did too, but she also ended up in A&E because of her heart rate (fine now).

DH is CEV and after a week was ok - still tired but functioning more or less normally - it's normally fit and healthy me that copped for it this time!

Well I'm on Day 3 and finally feel like.i have a bit more energy. Managed to put my bin out. I find I'm getting breathless at normal tasks. Getting my cons PE kit has just knocked me for six and it's in an easily accessible place. Hope this isn't the way things are from here on out

I feel for those of you that have small children! I'm barely leaving my bed! I keep debating which is the worst part of it but cant pick just one symptom haha. How are you all sleeping? I'm soooo flat of energy and tired but my sleeps not good and I keep having those delirious dreams you get with the flu xxx

I'm also that drowsy anxious, I like to pace when I'm anxious haha but I feel too ill to do that xxx

I had a shower today and got dressed.

I might even put on a load of laundry.

it's the first day I feel noticably better since when it started.

@greenacrylicpaint That's looking like things are going in the right direction for you 🤞 what day are you on?xxx