[User deactivated.]

Day 5 of covid symptoms. It's been quite a strange ride, where each day a new symptom seems to dominate. Only yesterday and today have felt like the same illness.

Currently, I have a dry cough that is not too severe, but the most annoying symptoms are a strange uncomfortable feeling in my hips and back - not pain, I don't really know how to describe it other than uncomfortable, but it's not pleasant, and tingling sensitive skin, particularly around my torso. Even a shirt brushing against my ribs is quite intense! I've been feeling fairly cold too and having to wear more layers than usual. Otherwise, I'm relatively happy, clear headed and alert!

My kids (5 and 2) have absolutely no symptoms, but they haven't been tested as I don't see any point in doing so. It's uncomfortable and they are locked up anyway. Wife has had a stuffy nose for around a month (this is typical due to allergies), no other symptoms, and has continually tested negative.

[Durbs]

I am (probably shouldn’t be) shocked at how crap the Track and Trace system is.

Fuck yes. My Mrs reported for herself and our two kids (6 & 3). They rang and asked to speak to the 3 year old. "Are you sure? He's 3!" "I need to speak to him"... Mrs puts him on "Helllooooooooo....."

Then exactly the same as you; three calls all to my wife to log details of her and the kids, even through all same household. No sharing of contact details, no option to mark as a household/family. No logical check of "This person is 3, unlikely to go out on their own".
It was so bad, I didn't actually both formally reporting my positive test as couldn't be arsed with the faff.

Symptom update 5 days after +ve test: Taste sloooooooooowly coming back. Regular bouts of dizziness, occasionally overtired, but otherwise fine.

[Oldmanmatt]

Yeah, dizzyness.
It’s been plaguing me for about a week, but I continue to test negative bith PCR and Lat Flow.
Polly just went for another PCR, about a half hour ago, because she’s really a sick, coughing, snotty mess but testing negative so far. No.4 is bright as a button and no fever anymore. No.3 claims he feels fine, but looks bloody awful. No.2 is proper crook and just can’t stop coughing, has a raging fever, but claims it’s his throat tickling rather than a chesty cough. Don’t think it pneumonia, but watching closely.

No.1 (I kid you not) has moved out into a tent in the garden. I might join her.

[lorentz]

I don't post over much on here lately, but wanted to add that I have contracted Covid again. (I picked it up originally in the first wave back in late March/early April 2020. There wasn't any testing back then. Had mild symptoms and wife who's a nurse tested positive for antibodies a month or so later)

I'm Double AZ jabbed. Came on like cold suddenly last week. Classic symptoms. Weirdly no sore throat, but dry cough for a day or two, really blocked nose that would occasionally run heavily... Did an LFT as was supposed to join wife for her latest pregnancy scan and it came up positive. Followed by two more positive tests before this morning's came back clear 7 days later. My sense of smell and taste has gone. I'm aware of extremes of taste (chilli and horseradish, marmite, strong cheddar) but in a faraway vague way. I'm also really tired most of the time, so taking it easy. I also had conjunctivitis in one eye which has now more or less cleared after regular washes and in saline eyewash.

The one small mercy has been that wife has tested negative throughout and has been absolutely fine. She's double jabbed with Pfizer. We're obviously staying away from each other til I feel like I've properly come through it.

Hopefully I'll feel okay in next few days as new baby due from anytime now.

Been interesting and important information seeing how it has moved through other people's families on here as it gives a sense of it's still going on despite/because of Johnson's freedom day. Thanks for sharing the information.

I know people who got severely ill and others who've sadly passed away with it. I think "Covid fatigue"  was creeping up on me slowly, as it's really affected my job, life, recent wedding plans etc etc but this thread and the fact I'm currently shaking it off myself has really woken me up to it. Despite the vaccines, it's still out there and it's still seriously unpleasant.

Stay frosty people. Keep your guard up.

[Nails]

Similarly, I don't often post on here but have found the Covid discussion really useful and informative, particularly the more recent additions on individual cases and symptoms. Reading at the end of last week I was thinking, “How can we not be catching this”. We’re pretty much living life as normal other than I wear a face mask in shops etc, but largely as a mark of courtesy to staff.

Anyway, we took the kids to the British BMX championships at the weekend, staying 2 nights in a hotel and meeting up with other families whose kids were racing. All good though my daughter had a bad night on Saturday which we thought was probably down to tiredness from racing and the nerves building up to the event. Calpolled up and fine all Sunday, she’s been slightly below par since but still fine and active, and still BMX training. I had a slight sore throat Wednesday morning and just out of precaution (seeing as I’ve literally had no colds or anything for 18 months) I took a LFT which was negative. Assumed that I had a minor cold and thought no more about it. Took the kids to training last night where another parent mentioned that one of the children who’d been in the hotel with us over the weekend (hanging with our kids etc) had tested positive on Tuesday. As a precaution I tested them when we got home and both positive. My wife (double Pfizer) and I (double AZ) tested negative LFT last night. This morning still had sore throat (and slightly sensitive skin), LTF was positive. Wife has sore throat but still negative.

Daughters LTF was very clear line, son’s was pretty faint. Mine was super faint but definitely visible. I’d be interested in anyone’s knowledge on what the faintness of the line means in terms of infection/vaccination. I know any visible line means positive but in our small sample the appearance of the line would seem to correlate with the level/existence of symptoms or vaccination. We’re now obviously all isolating though nobody is actually feeling ill.

[Oldmanmatt]

No.3 had a faint line on his Monday LFT and a positive PCR the next day. He didn’t have any symptoms on the Monday at the time of the test (the kids had been doing them twice weekly all summer, his was the first positive, despite two siblings, by this time, having positive PCRs and frank symptoms). We’d already booked his PCR by the time his temperature spiked late Monday evening and he was proper poorly by the time of his test on Tuesday morning.
All three of the kids were very poorly for around 48-72 hrs and all three are, seemingly, fine again now. The eldest has moved into a tent, seems fine, tests fine (LFT) and is actually at the Walk in getting her first shot as I write.

Polly, on the other hand, is really very ill (double Pfizer, second 8 weeks ago).
She’s been sick for ~4 days, and had her second PCR this week, yesterday afternoon. It came back negative this morning, as have all the LFTs she’s done everyday this week. Her Sats were down to 95/96 this morning which is not yet alarming but…
Still no fever though.
I’m fine and negative, Vertigo almost gone, despite caring for all the sick. Nobody has been wearing a mask, except No.1 when she comes into the house.
I am just wondering how long before I can relax and know I’m not going to succumb. Apparently Delta has a 3-5 day incubation for the majority and the old two week thing is almost redundant?

Get well soon, where appropriate, and may you remain symptom free as applicable.

Bloody weird shit, this, isn’t it?

[User deactivated.]

Lorentz, good luck with the baby and I hope you are better in time for the birth.

Nails, I had concerns that posting my personal covid updates might lower the quality of the thread, so i'm glad to see you've found anecdotes to be useful. Hopefully your symptoms remain minor. The sensitive skin is very strange!

Matt, bloody weird indeed.

Day 6: The aches have almost gone, sensitive skin has reduced by about half, coughing frequency/intensity is about the same but is now less dry, bouts of mild dizziness (a bit like when you get up too quickly after laying down) have increased. I don't have a pulse oximeter but managed to hold my breath for a minute - whatever that's worth.

[Durbs]

I’d be interested in anyone’s knowledge on what the faintness of the line means in terms of infection/vaccination. I know any visible line means positive but in our small sample the appearance of the line would seem to correlate with the level/existence of symptoms or vaccination.

Anecdotally, from my brood testing on the same day:
Eldest child, no symptoms throughout infection except red-eye, very faint line (Suspect she caught it first)
Youngest, had fever and vomitted one evening, then a bit tired 2 more days 2 days before testing, strong red line
Wife, no sympotoms beyond a bit of a sniffle, strong red line
Me (that day), negative test.

I retested before a band practise, as felt like a cold was coming on; first test was REALLY faint, so re-tested and really went to work with the swab, held back some gags etc - stronger red line.
So for me, the line changed with the quality of the sample, rather than the symptoms.
For the others, the weakest line was for the child over the worst, the other 2 were right in the middle of the infected period.

[lorentz]

Cheers Liam!  Equally excited and terrified by the prospect of becoming a dad!

Getting there after all clear, except for the weird levels of tiredness after really minor and mundane chores. Hang out washing. Feel exhausted for a bit. Fold clothes. Have a rest etc. It was like this the last time I had it though, so fingers crossed it will pass soon enough.

In terms of the lines in LFT with me the line got fainter and fainter before being totally gone in test yesterday. Tested again just now and it's still all clear so hope to be past the contagious stage at least (day 8 since first symptom...)

As a country, I think we're going to be in to a rough autumn and winter with this variant this time around. Hopefully the vaccines will keep most of us out of the hospitals. Hope  that we're not going to head in to further restrictions so long as the hospital rates are kept down.

But yeah, it's a horrible, horrible  illness. Just felt crap for a week now, but fortunately no breathing difficulties at all. Old friend's wife spent 12 days on ventilation in induced coma over Christmas last year, so I know how lucky I am to be so mildly ill and the small inconvenience of self isolation!

Good luck with it, all.

[Fiend]

Sorry for de-railing the personal covid experiences but having laid into the conspiracy morons previously I feel it's only fair to tackle this:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/boris-johnson-cheek-devon-cornwall-encouraging-covid-spread-1173952

encouraging-covid-spread

Is clickbait bollox for a start since no-one is actually encouraging it.

We may be the playground for the rich, but the region feels entirely neglected by those politicians that love to frolic among their loaded business friends down here.

That playground is also your industry i.e. tourism.

School pupils are likely to be forced to wear masks at school from this week. The hospitals are limiting visiting times and allowing just one relative in at a time. Those sound like restrictions to me, minister.

So on one hand he's moaning about the covid rates, and on the other hand sounds like he's moaning about restrictions to tackle those covid rates.

The feeling down here is that we were doing just fine before Boris Johnson insisted on bringing world leaders and 20,000 hangers-on down to Carbis Bay in Cornwall.

From what I understand G7 isn't some pointless social shindig, it's an important summit to start looking at global issues. I might be wrong about this, but I get the impression that it had to be held somewhere and the global benefits could outweigh the costs.

Instead of sticking to the mask wearing and social distancing advice, Johnson went in the opposite direction. He permitted 53,000 largely unvaccinated young adults to mosh together at the Boardmasters music and surfing festival in Newquay earlier this month.

The unlocking and relaxing of restriction was planned and known about for months (and delayed). I presume the author knows full well about the benefits to the economy and peoples' well-being of those YAs moshing together.

As Professor John Drury – one of the Government’s most senior scientific advisors – has told i: “The Government has basically said ‘it’s safe now, it’s fine, you’re not going to die’. The problem is of course that 100 people a day are dying.”

In comparison to the death rates previously it is very different yes. 100 daily deaths is a lot better than 1000+ daily deaths when the transmission was previously this high. Maybe he should nail his colours to the mast as a zero-Covider.

or thought it was a good idea to infect as many unvaccinated young people as we possibly could in Newquay.

This is just pointless shite that completely undermines any point he's trying to make. Why even say something this stupid?? No-one thinks it;s a good idea to infect as many people as possible, it's whether people think that increased infection in the context of vaccines greatly reducing the health risks is a risk worth taking compared to the benefits.

We didn’t unlock the entire country, end all Covid-precautions, or push our health services beyond breaking point. We didn’t do that Mr Johnson. You did.

That's entirely correct. And all the benefits (economy, education, hospitality, travel, social, well-being, physical and mental health) to that are also down to Bozzer's decision. I presume the author previously vigorously campaigned to further delay the unlocking?? If so he can argue his case with everyone has benefitted from the unlocking, including the 53,000 YAs he's moaning about.

In short a terribly-written knee-jerk opinion piece that does about as much for the pro-lockdown case as some video about magnetism does for the anti-vaccine case.

P.S. I have no intention of discussing this, as per my opening line it's solely in the interest of fairness and balancing having previously taken advantage of the anti-vaxx loon as an easy target.

[Oldmanmatt]

Tourism is double edged sword and plenty of locals suffer more than they benefit from it, especially from the end of September onward. It’s not that what you said is entirely incorrect, it’s just far more complex and deserves greater consideration and discussion than your glib riposte.

Anyway, it’s a shame you don’t want debate it. That’s some good, righteous, indignation there! Possibly, exactly what the author of the article was hoping for?

However, I think the reporting of the Pandemic is pants, in general, opinion pieces aside.

Take the “Death rate” thing. Headline news, everyday as if it’s either all over or all doom.
The head line is always “Today the UK recorded” and the figures are always “Death by date reported”.
That looks like this:



Looks like a rapidly worsening situation, doesn’t it, even though, intellectually you now those nadirs are “not reported because it’s the weekend” blips and the peaks are “catch up” reporting. I think the “media” like this one, because it lets them alternate the story, from day to day, week to week, as the biggest/smallest numbers dominate. So, say we get a zero day, they get to say “GOOD NEWS!” even when it’s just a zero reported, or the opposite. Both of which sell copy/generate clicks/grab viewers.

Death by day of event, seems much more, um, mundane, less dramatic (? Shit  way to put it, but couldn’t think of better). It even looks pretty good, compared to the pre-vaccination waves:



It very rarely got past 100 per day in August and though infections are climbing again now, they have yet to hit the levels of July (or rate of increase) so I think we can be cautiously optimistic.

For clarity, I think one death is too many. However that’s an emotional response and not really a practical target.

[SA Chris]

Well in spite of being in bed for 2 days yesterday and the day before, all LFTS and the PCR test I went for yesterday are all negative. Seems there is a really bad strain of flu going around up here, I guess immune systems are weakened by very little contact with anyone and so no germ transfer for the last 18 months.

[Oldmanmatt]

Well in spite of being in bed for 2 days yesterday and the day before, all LFTS and the PCR test I went for yesterday are all negative. Seems there is a really bad strain of flu going around up here, I guess immune systems are weakened by very little contact with anyone and so no germ transfer for the last 18 months.

Like you, Polly PCR’d negative three times, despite being very ill and three confirmed, sick, kids.
Both myself and my eldest, continue to test negative (me by LFT daily and she had another PCR yesterday, because she starts 6th form tomorrow and wanted to be sure). Everybody seems to be recovering now. I’m gobsmacked I haven’t succumbed, since I was chief carer when everybody was snotting and coughing all over the shop. No.1 and I, had been voluntarily isolating, despite not being required to, but we couldn’t resist heading to the moors to climb today. Sitting around the house for ten days since No.4 dropped last Friday, has been pretty friggin shit, really.

[andy popp]

I seem to be in a similar boat. Now that I'm back teaching and in much more contact others with I'm getting tested every Sunday morning as a matter of routine and was negative yesterday. However, started getting really sore throat, cough (though not especially persistent) and shivers, chills etc. late afternoon. Had a terrible, almost sleepless night, though some of that was about work; I was meant to be teaching multiple classes today. Gradually became obvious I was not going anywhere near work. Wrote to boss and students at 5am and then went to get PCR later in the morning, awaiting results. I'm pretty certain it's not Covid but I need the negative back before I can go back to work (and will be home all day tomorrow, no matter what). Throat and cough have already eased quite a bit - I'm mainly just absolutely knackered.

[SA Chris]

Well in spite of being in bed for 2 days yesterday and the day before, all LFTS and the PCR test I went for yesterday are all negative. Seems there is a really bad strain of flu going around up here, I guess immune systems are weakened by very little contact with anyone and so no germ transfer for the last 18 months.

I duly passed it on to wife, and she was then in bed all day Friday and Saturday, almost identical symptoms and duration. Son then developed a persistent hacking cough on Friday, which has hung about all weekend. He had a PCR test on Saturday, which came back negative last night, but he's still kept off school, would cause too much stress sending him in only to get sent back.

Andy, your symptoms sound identical to mine.

[andy popp]

Andy, your symptoms sound identical to mine.

That's what I thought.

An English Phd who's going to be visiting my department for a couple of months arrived Saturday and also started getting the identical symptoms later yesterday (not from me, I haven't met him yet). He's also reporting starting to feel better already.

[SA Chris]

FWIW, I was WFH on Thursday and Friday but still felt groggy, sleepy and tired (wouldn't have wanted to deliver a lecture!), was OK Sat, did a fairly long slow bike ride yesterday and felt OK doing it. Still a bit phlegmy today, but first day I woke up without a headache.

[petejh]

In the spirit of what this thread seems to have become i.e. self-reportage of minor bugs and sniffles: I can report that today I too don’t have covid. Actually feel quite good all round. Temp seems OK, no aches or pains, no fatigue. Perhaps slightly dehydrated. I’ll drink some water before I go bouldering in the cave later.
Hope that’s useful. 

[SA Chris]

thread split for people who are healthy and think they're funny.

[petejh]

See you there 

[SA Chris]

I'm not really either of those.

[TobyD]

In the spirit of what this thread seems to have become i.e. self-reportage of minor bugs and sniffles: I can report that today I too don’t have covid. Actually feel quite good all round. Temp seems OK, no aches or pains, no fatigue. Perhaps slightly dehydrated. I’ll drink some water before I go bouldering in the cave later.
Hope that’s useful. 

It's a thread about an illness, is that a big surprise? Although if the reports come from people without COVID, that's silly.

[andy popp]

Although if the reports come from people without COVID, that's silly.

It's a bit more complicated than that though. When I posted yesterday I may have felt it was unlikely I had Covid (despite feeling really shitty with Covid like symptoms and having taught 80 maskless students for three hours on Thursday, a context in which I might well have caught it), but the point is that at that point I couldn't know for sure and in the meantime had to act like I did. I had a duty to tell my line manager, a duty to go and get tested and then isolate, a duty to identify and inform potential close contacts. For the time being, getting ill involves a very different calculus to pre-pandemic. I think that's going to be a common feature of whatever this phase of the pandemic is, especially as people return to offices and schools. There's going to be a lot of susceptibility to common colds etc. and potentially a lot niggling disruptions (esp for parents I would guess). Presumably, at some point, we'll get to point of treating more minor illnesses more "normally" again.

[Oldmanmatt]

Military Psychiatrists everything’s got to fit the text book description and if it’s not in the book it doesn’t exist.
This is generalisation.

Ummmm…

I know this is off topic, but I really owe Dr Urwin (apparently) a huge apology.

This afternoon I received my entire military health record and it included all of his notes, from the twelve assessments he made of me. I seriously thought it was only the one, but apparently I saw him once a month, including three with my then wife in attendance. His notes were very sympathetic and his treatment protocols and recommendations were all made under a diagnosis of PTSS, but that depression was my biggest issue.
I have to say, I was more messed up at our first meeting than I recall and in fact, don’t recall that first assessment at all!

[webbo]

I did say it was a generalisation.
I think they probably very good at diagnosing and treating PTSD but when it comes to more main stream MH issues that you get in society I don’t think they have seen enough cases.
For example they may see the odd case of drug induced Psychosis but a Psychiatrist working in an inner city area will see several a week.