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Just posted on the Long Covid thread.
1st vaccine on 20th March, tested positive on a PCR test on 22nd May. Ill for a couple of days, short fever, sore throat, slight tickly cough. 2nd vaccine on 23rd June. Felt really unwell on 15th Aug. Same as symptoms as first Covid infection. Took a LFT, negative. Week later properly sore throat. Another LFT, negative. Positive PCR test on 23rd. Sore throat lasted 24 hours.
Since my first Covid infection I’ve had underlying health issues. Fatigue, muscle and joint pain, weight loss, migraines (which I’ve not had for years), eye infections, cold sores. Generally under the weather. My bike fitness has dropped through the floor. 2 miles is a long ride.
My Doctor can’t decide if it’s long Covid or something else. I’ve had some blood tests which came back clear. I just hope that it’s something that will bugger off soon, I’m tired 🙄 of feeling like this.
I’ve been allowed out again today, just in time for The Wife and Boy2 to go back to School (work) and college. But I’ve been super cautious since my first infection. Still wearing masks in shops and work. I’ve been to one pub indoors, well marquee, and that’s where I think I picked up my second infection.
Be safe and stay safe people. This ain’t over by a long shot. Another winter of restrictions and lockdowns is what I’m seeing in my crystal ball. Although how the Fly Tipped Sofa will handle this is anyone’s guess.
The coughing, snot and headaches seem to be going. Toothache too, which was the worst bit for me. Had a couple of wobbles when standing up though. Taste and smell have deserted me.
Was sweating my arse off, but went out to the bin and discovered that there is a mini heatwave going on, so hopefully that was the reason.
The rest of the family had PCRs today. They're not showing symptoms so hopefully they have given it the swerve.
Was sweating my arse off, but went out to the bin and discovered that there is a mini heatwave going on, so hopefully that was the reason.
Sat in a west facing room, just switched on a fan and put some shorts on. Now I no longer have the same sensation!
The smell/taste thing is odd isn't it? The only thing I can think of as comparable in terms of how it messes with you is when I had a hearing test a few years back in one of those sound insulated booths.
The difference between quiet and silent was really quite marked. I'm finding its like that with the smell.
You think "I can't smell anything" when you have a normal cold and then there's this when you actually really can't smell ANYTHING.
I can just about get sweet or salty on my tongue after 24 hours of nothing, nose is still not doing its job at all.
My mum's husband just tested positive (LFT) yesterday. We were round on sat - I now can't smell/taste anything, I've got a temperature, coughing, sneezing, snotty and feeling grotty as hell. Just been PCR tested this morning so we'll see but I strongly suspect I've got it.
I thought it was just a bad cold but according to my mum in double-vaxxed people it's mostly showing as a bad cold now.
^Welcome to The Club!
It seems likely that I have it, headache, sore throat, limb aches and inability to sleep more that 4 hrs a night, and my step-daughter was with us last week and has tested positive. 3 lateral flow tests where negative but they are notorious for being inaccurate especially with false negatives. PCR test booked for tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.
The rest of the family had PCRs today. They’re not showing symptoms so hopefully they have given it the swerve.
Fingers crossed for you.
Had a couple of wobbles when standing up though.
I forgot, but yes I had a couple of these too.
And a new one - poss unrelated, poss imaginary given I'm now 3 weeks or so since having it. I keep 'smelling' old cigarette smoke. No-one in the house smokes, and in any case it's not house related, I've smelt it randomly at work too yesterday, but that horrible smell of a room after a party the morning after with old ashtrays, dogends shoved into beer cans, and someone passed out on the sofa. Really distinctive and evocative.
that horrible smell of a room after a party the morning after with old ashtrays, dogends shoved into beer cans, and someone passed out on the sofa. Really distinctive and evocative.
Some sort of PTSD flashback?
And a new one – poss unrelated, poss imaginary given I’m now 3 weeks or so since having it. I keep ‘smelling’ old cigarette smoke.
Quite a lot of long haulers have had this, so you're not alone. I'm not saying it's a suggestion that you have long covid btw, just that it crops up a fair bit.
yep, 3 weeks isn't long.
Some sort of PTSD flashback?
they didn't feel traumatic at the time, I will confess. Morning afters, maybe....
^Welcome to The Club!
Yup, thanks. 🙂 Confirmed member as of this morning. Kind of a relief TBH as my partner tested positive too and she is in the CEV shielding category as a kidney transplant recipient - was told by her consultant there's only a 60% survival rate for people who've had that. She's fine, recovered quicker than me!
Had to swap a wheel out on my wife's bike which involved getting five other bikes out to get to the spare. I'm properly falling-over exhausted!
Headache and sniffles have gone. Cough never really took hold.
Was starting to feel a bit guilty for lazing about but now I actually feel like I've got something worse than a man cold.
Our grandson (age 3) who lives with us was generally unwell the end of last week, temperature went up to 39.4 deg C ,so had a PCR done Friday, which came back positive, so wife and I got PCRs Monday, me positive, her negative, and she does more of his cares!!. It feels like a bad head cold/mild flu but all the adults in the house were already double jabbed. At least my wife can go and do shopping etc ,ironic as she started a fortnight's holiday on Monday.
My 10 days post +ve test ends tonight. I still have a light head cold - no idea if that counts as symptoms or not??
Ive heard that PCR tests still show +ve up to 90 days post infection. Is there anything similar on LFT's? Im off to the Southampton Boat Show in 9 days and require a negative LFT. Plus my job requires a LFT testing regime.
A friend (well her entire family of five) recently had it – both adults double-jabbed. He had mild symptoms, she was bed-ridden for a week (she couldn't even read books as she couldn't focus her eyes and felt constantly dizzy) and struggled for several days afterwards.
All the children (8, 12, 12) were asymptomatic.
it’s definitely a debilitating condition, whilst over the more immediate symptoms , fever/ cough / cold , the tiredness lingers as does the brain fog ........
Im off to the Southampton Boat Show in 9 days and require a negative LFT. Plus my job requires a LFT testing regime.
I too was told that no point doing PCR for 90 days. Not sure on LFT's though. Does evidence - NHS email showing your positive PCR work in the same way as being indicative of why you can't get a negative LFT
It just says "negative LFT required". Ive got loads of LFT kits at home through both work and my vaccinating. My wife now shows -ve LFT 2 days after her 10 days was up, so fingers crossed. Ive also stopped sneezing now.
Has anyone else noticed the new LFTs being sent out are different? Nose swab only and the test strips seem of much lower quality. The colour leaches and runs after 30 minutes. rubbish really - must be a Tory Donor special.
^^Indeed, only swab the nose now on my latest kits.
Has anyone else noticed the new LFTs being sent out are different? Nose swab only and the test strips seem of much lower quality.
It's wherever they come from. We've had three different types recently.
The main thing to note is that all the instructions are subtly different. From memory.
The original NHS ones we had were throat then nose, 1 minute stew, 4 drops, 30 minute wait.
Had some in a green box, 1 nostril, 1 minute to stew, 15 to wait, void if not read at 20.
New box, nose only. Think they may be a 20 minute wait.
I suspect the volumes they're being consumed at its whatever the NHS can get.
If it's a medical item though then all this stuff will have had to be validated and it all depends how each manufacturer chose to set up and test the product requirements. Its inevitable that different labs will have found different timings and concentrations of reagents or whatever to be sufficiently effective when this was being raced to market.
And a new one – poss unrelated, poss imaginary given I’m now 3 weeks or so since having it. I keep ‘smelling’ old cigarette smoke.
Quite a lot of long haulers have had this, so you’re not alone. I’m not saying it’s a suggestion that you have long covid btw, just that it crops up a fair bit.
I half thought you were joking, but it has got more noticeable through the day yesterday and again this morning so I've just googled it. And it seems quite common.
It is yeuch....I don't think I can taste it but smelling it while eating seems to have the same effect.
Covid, a pint of fizzy keg beer and a bag of Big D nuts and it's your classic 70's pub experience
My understanding from what Jnr was told is that he can't do an LFT or PCR for 3 months having had Covid.
If that is the advice, then I would hope employers and venues have guidance on how to work around this?
Day 6.
Absolutely knackered. Hung the washing out and now I'm done in.
No smell or taste, but apart from that I have no other symptoms.
mrs tested positive tuesday - school requires 2 tests per week - she was going in work as normal and noticed extra line on the test.....did another one straight after and line came up instantly
pcr test same day and positive next morning
ive been testing LFT every morn/night since and testing negative so far but felt a bit off lets say, could also be paranoia/anxiety i guess too!
day 2 mrs suddenly came down with flu like symptoms, felt dreadful last night but still able just lounge and watch tv, absolute banging head she says, if she could remove the headache she wouldnt feel too bad at all
day 3 now - she feels a bit brighter today and seems less flu'ey even by voice/eyes but still has headache, shes now lost taste but still has smell
2 AZ jabs done
im still clear as of today, but just been for pcr, will be interesting, as we were in the same bed as of the morn she test positive and even gave me a kiss before she got up haha!
so a waiting game, technically im still allowed to go out and ive got a gig see new order tomorrow night, seems mad if my test comes back clear that im legally allowed to go given im sharing a house with a positive case!
does it generally seem most people in the same household go on to get it???
both d/jabbed BTW
My kids just returned negative PCRs. Wife was inconclusive so is testing again.
Not in my experience - one daughter got it, none of the rest of us despite sharing car and tent.
(both double vaccinated, me with AZ, my wife with Pfizer)
interesting! all very strange - i guess were both double jabbed as of july so maybe helped, obviously hasnt stopped her getting it, but hopefully limits the symptoms
does it generally seem most people in the same household go on to get it???
Not always in our experience. Possibly because one of the kids has already had it and we didn't know. Hard to say.
you'd think sleeping next to each other face to face at some points (until she snores and id have to turn over) all the nights building up to positive test and breathing heavily would make you automatically get it really, guess its all a bit random with no rhyme or reason as to why some and don't
it's not just whether someone's breathed virus onto you, some people just seem to be able to fight it off. Don't know why and that's an unscientific analysis - but eg: here, my wife's been in the house for 3 weeks while first kids and then me had it....and still clear.
Wife, two kids and me have all got it. Positive LFTs on Monday for me and her, negative LFTs for the boys, but PCRs all came back positive.
I’ve got a bit of a temperature, but wouldn’t call it a fever, had a tight chest yesterday, although that’s eased a bit, slight headache, and have completely lost my sense of smell (can still taste though).
We’re both double jabbed which I guess is helping limit the severity of it. I’m feeling a bit peaky, but this is noticeably less unpleasant than flu so far (I mean in a ‘I’ve been fortunate’ sense, not a ‘what’s all the fuss about’ one).
does it generally seem most people in the same household go on to get it???
both d/jabbed BTW
Our lad - single jabbed - caught it while we were in Edinburgh, pretty sure it was the first night. I attended all the same shows he did, the four of us shared a family room in Youth Hostel for 4 nights, spent 5 hours on the train together on the way back home, took 3 days of cold like symptoms before he tested positive, so we'd taken no action to avoid him.
None of us caught it from him - wife and I double jabbed, daughter no jabs.
Anecdotally, most of the families e know with a positive test over the summer only had one person test positive. I'm hoping that the vaccine is reducing how much virus someone transmits, and how badly people are ill if they get it.
I'm also pretty sure many school kids were exposed to it last year and have some sort of low level immunity by now, but I'm speculating wildly and the evidence probably doesn't support my ill informed guess.
this is noticeably less unpleasant than flu so far (I mean in a ‘I’ve been fortunate’ sense, not a ‘what’s all the fuss about’ one).
Yeah, that's a qualification a few friends have added when talking about it. Tragic for those who get it bad, but more people seem to have mild symptoms.
Feel like I've turned a corner today - had all the symptoms described particularly the fatigue and my lungs were really sore and one day coughed up a tiny bit of blood (rung docs they said its normal). This is a really informative & balance discussion about vaccines/viruses - didn't know this but swab studies show 80% of infections are transmitted by 20% of the infected.
The 20% that are symptomatic
I can't prove it was me that gave them Covid, but the two colleagues I shared a van with for eight periods of ~5mins on the two shifts before I came home to my partner being symptomatic (continuous cough) on a Tuesday, both had to isolate with symptoms by Sunday. I had a splitting headache on the Saturday having isolated since the Tuesday, but was asymptomatic as far as the three "main" symptoms are concerned.
Nobody else at work developed Covid around that time, as far as we are aware.
The 3 main symptoms are bollocks if you've been vaccinated. Most other countries have updated their guidance e.g. USA CDC
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
If you feel ill with anything, best to get a test
I end my isolation at midnight tonight, and for the first time in a couple of weeks I actually feel something approaching “normal”. Sense of smell and taste are still missing, but I’m not falling asleep every time I sit down and the prospect of having to tie my shoe laces doesn’t make me think “I can’t be arsed”.
T&T called me again to say “goodbye” and said that many people thought that the loss of smell and taste was the worst bit. I replied that being dead was way worse in my opinion and the guy on the phone laughed.
Anyway. I seem to have come through this with nothing more than knackeredness and the inability to smell my son’s bedroom. Given the alternative I’ll take that as a win.
Take care everyone and get your jabs!
If you feel ill with anything, best to get a test
+1
I was convinced I didn't have covid because I had major snuffles/sneezes and I didn't think that was one of the symptoms.
Mrs Zip started coughing on Tuesday. It wasn’t until Friday that the tests proved positive.
I end my isolation at midnight tonight, and for the first time in a couple of weeks I actually feel something approaching “normal”.
Good news! Mine ends tomorrow and I'm still knackered and taste only halfway back but doing ok.
I've felt better at points during the last few days but it's made a bit of a comeback. My experience of post viral fatigue in the past says to not try and rush back into doing lots too soon.
Would agree with you there. I felt fine on Sunday, but did 90 minutes WFH yesterday and fell asleep watching the lunchtime news!
Came here looking for something like this -
Was really ill last March/April for a few days and bounced back well, like a parting of the skies 4 days later and even went for a jog. Then fine till November when badly fatigued - put down to work stress no break etc but diagnosed with covid toes Jan so dr suggested long covid.
Then had a period of poor health including a very random eye ulcer - I don't wear contacts they have put it down to herpes simplex (Because I am prone to cold sores with stress)
Anyway felt better again but now I am getting really fatigued in the day randomly and far more lethargic towards everything including work.
The weird thing is I can kind of get through it or avoid it by working out .. can feel ratshite but put my runners on and go do a fast 5k off the bat, Seems worst early afternoon - Is this just me getting older at 43 or is anyone seeing the same sort of thing?
It's all rather odd for me and I'm sure there are plenty of factors in play here including a bit of burnout with the last 18 months, I'm usually so career and business-driven but am just posting it in at the moment ..
Sorry for the ramble on her but don't really have anyone else that might understand really
Cheers