Nursery illness...I have NEVER felt like this in my life

[bouncingblob]

DS picked up a bug at nursery and had a bad time with it. Congestion and a severe cough that was leading them to vomit. Off their food. High fever. So congested they had an ear infection. Prescribed antibiotics and he started getting better gradually over the course of them. After two full weeks of illness he was mostly back to himself, but the cough still remains, particularly at night. However, it's much more manageable now.

Now, that's bad enough. But it doesn't stop there.

Whatever this demon bug was, it has hit both me and his father HARD. Even harder than it hit our son, probably because we got a bigger viral load of it. Just as he was recovering in his second week, we started getting the exact same symptoms, the exact same order. It's been a week for us now too and, after being prescribed the same antibiotics as our son, are very slowly starting to turn the corner, but I think it'll take another week yet before we even resemble anything semi human again.

We have both had COVID, flu, bronchitis, any number of nasty respiratory infections over the years, but I swear to you, never anything quite like this. It's an attack on your whole body and the cough is just relentless, it keeps going until you puke your guts up or you seem to pass out from fatigue. I've lost 6lbs in one week alone. The nausea seems to be caused by the mucus production which is so severe your stomach is swimming in the stuff and just waiting for you to add some food to the mixture so it can go, "Nope, not today." Your throat is like razorblades and it hurts to talk and hurts to swallow. The fever is so high you could go out and sunbathe in the Icelandic winter.

All told I suspect both of us will need, near enough, two full weeks off work before we're anywhere fit to return. I haven't been that sick since my own school days. Even the worst bout of COVID I ever took kept me out for only 9 days.

So, Mumsnet, I have two questions for you...

1. Any ideas what this illness is?
2. PLEASE tell me that we have just been thrown in the deep end with nursery illnesses with this one and that, on average, this is not what a typical nursery infection does to a family!

I am just recovering from the same thing !! I caught it on a plane two weeks ago and it’s only this weekend I feel anyway recovered. .it was really bad , jelly legs , fatigue , sore throat ( wasn’t too bad ), aches , fever , no appetite . Felt like I was run over by a truck ….. get well soon !!

Sounds like whooping cough?

I'm just recovering from something very similar - extremely sore throat, constant bad cough, no voice, upset stomach, red, sore eyes and complete exhaustion for over 3 weeks. I thought it might be covid but tests were negative and Google suggested adenovirus?

My whole family got that too (based in Ireland), started off almost like a vomiting bug, changed to a cold/flu, ended as conjunctivitis. It's been 3 weeks and we are still not right. My daughters creche said they think it is adenovirus because of the unusual combination of stomach issues and conjunctivitis. Whatever it is, it's horrible. You have my complete sympathy and I hope you feel better soon.

No idea but the most ill I have been from a school bug was Slapped Cheek. Every single joint ached for about 2 weeks. I came out in a weird patterned rash all over my arms and legs. I couldn't open a jar or stand for longer than about 2 mins . I was so ill and disabled it was awful.

The coughing til you faint/ puke does but the other symptoms not so much.

Edited to add: and unless the OP has chosen not to vaccinate, her son shouldn't be able to catch whooping cough. Dh and I caught it in our 40s (apparently the vaccine lasts 40 years) but the kids were immune.

That was the initial concern for DS as the cough was accompanied by a whooping noise but GP said he didn't think it was. He's fully vaccinated anyway.

99% sure I caught this from my toddler in January, despite us being fully vaccinated. I was on my knees at work coughing and fetching into a bin. So, so tiring. Took a good month to improve.

Toddler only whooped in the night on one occasion and by then it was too late to bother going to the GP for antibiotics :/

My DS caught this from nursery and the GP said it’s just a virus and to come back another day even though he was wheezing and sucking in at the chest. 3 weeks on and he’s still not 100% but seemed to pass it to me last weekend. It wasn’t too bad but then on Wednesday it ramped up and I felt like someone ran me over or something with all the symptoms you’ve described! I can’t shake the headache and have a toddler who doesn’t sleep through the night so that’s nice. Sending solidarity, I keep telling myself that we will be smug when they start school as they’ll have immune systems of steel by then 😂

Unfortunately the acellular (modern) pertussis vaccine is safer but less effective and durable than the old whole cell pertussis vaccine https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5088088/
I was boosted during pregnancy, toddler had recommended doses a year ago, but toddler had the characteristic whoop for about 24 hours and a month of a crappy cough total. Vomiting due to violent coughing fits is a major diagnostic criteria for whooping cough in adults who usually do NOT whoop.

Sounds like Adenovirus. We all had some gastrointestinal upset with it, as well as conjunctivitis. Lovely stuff.

Seems to be spreading through childcare settings like wildfire.

Ooh, I had/have the same! It's been going on for about six weeks now*... probably time to see the GP.

*probably two different illnesses back-to-back rather than a six week virus. Same symptoms, though.

Adenovirus is about 20% of toddler coughs and colds this week, so yep, definitely could be. UKHSA flu report for anyone interested in what bugs are going...

I am wondering if we are going through the same. 3 weeks of a very heavy mucusy cold, dry throaty cough and awful headache. Last night my 6 year old started vomitting and today I feel so sick and had diarrheoa. I have also had a few days of awful nausea and my guts are making thier own music right now.