I've had Covid-19 and this is how I coped

[gadgetman]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/14/health/coronavirus-asymptomatic-spread/index.html

[Grc]

22 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

Thursday 27th February I was getting up after a nightshift and thirstier than usual thought I was getting a sore throat. Went to work for my second nightshift and during the night had a dry tickly cough start. At this point I had no idea what I was getting. Went home tried to sleep nut consistent cough so got very little sleep. Friday 28th February went to work (don't work with anyone my colleague is 100 metres away from me) for my final shift before having 3 rest days off. Very tired by Saturday morning and spent all day in bed. Got up at 6pm to have dinner but barely ate half of it and told my wife I would finish it off in the morning. That night got a very high fever and sweating like sitting in a sauna all night and couldn't cool down even with paracetamol. Coughing no sleep at all. Got up microwaved my dinner from Saturday took one mouthful struggled to swallow it and felt sick. Went back to bed. Sunday night managed a bowl of chicken/mushroom soup. Sunday night more fever more sweating. Monday morning no breakfast, no lunch managed a small tea. Coughing all the time it wouldn't stop. Monday night fever for the third time no sleep coughing. Tuesday didn't go to work due to lack of sleep. Walked to local surgery to get help for whatever I had and when I described my symptons they would not let me see anyone sent me home told to ring 111. Tuesday no breakfast no lunch small tea. Tuesday night 4th night of fever and sweating should have phoned in sick but told Boss I would be in work on Wednesday which was a mistake as I felt awful during my 12 hour shift. Wednesday morning no breakfast no lunch small tea. Wednesday fever and sweating for the 5th and final time. Back to work Thursday no breakfast no lunch small tea, coughing throughout. With hindsight I should have stayed at home Wednesday and Thursday but I work on my own Boss is 100metres away in his office. Thursday night no fever but still coughing. Friday no breakfast no lunch small tea went to work for nightshift. Saturday similar to Friday meal wise went for 2nd nightshift. Final nightshift on Sunday night then 3 rest days spent coughing at home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, appetite slowly returning able to eat breakfast and tea. During the fever period days 2 to 6 had a headache for 2 days probably caused by not drinking enough water. After 2 weeks finally able to sleep better but still coughing. After 3 weeks lungs felt back to normal and got on my exercise bike for a 10 minute and 13 minute session 2 hours later. Recovered quickly and no coughing and lungs felt back to normal. I was a very fit teenager training with Leicestershire County cricketers such as David Gower and Jon Agnew and my resting heart rate was 56bpm at age 20. Now at 55 my resting heart rate is 66bpm. I am in good health but breathing was difficult at times due to a wheezy chest and felt like pneumonia at times. Never smoked but anyone with a lung condition is really going to struggle with this strain of flu. This much worse than the 2 times I have had flu in the past and at times I thought I had been run over by a small truck. My wife was praying for me constantly and she was very worried. It's now 24 days since I contracted it probably from a visiting Italian lorry driver as we have stores in Milan and Bologna in northern Italy. Just like to say non of my 5 work colleagues who share the office with me became infected and neither didmt wife. I stayed in the house when I wasn't at work but I should have stayed off work for 8 days rather than go back after 6 days knowing what I now know about this virus. I believe you are most infectious in the first 7 days.

 

Hi shyVRS245, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. Much appreciated!! 

 

Good to know that you have recovered and well now. Cheers. 

Edited 23 March, 2020 by Grc

[Squible]

22 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

Can you be tested for the antibodies? It might be useful when it comes to getting back to work. Certainly it might be advantageous to employ freelancers that are known to now be immune 

 

They are working on a point of use antibody test for it with a plan to use it to test healthcare workers.

The only problem is even if you have immunity you can still transmit the disease (although lower risk) through contact of contaminated surfaces etc.

 

18 hours ago, essexalan said:

Doctors still do not know if you can catch it again. Sorry I don't have a link it was a Doctor speaking on the news.

 

The general consensus is that almost everybody will develop immunity unless they have certain conditions that affect their immune system. There were a couple of cases caused some confusion but they haven't confirmed definite re-infection. 

[PetrolDave]

5 hours ago, Tilt said:

So is that three strains altogether (so far) Dave???........ (19 & 19-L & 19-S)

 

And if you have had either of the three, you are immune to the other two???

 

Just trying to clarify, if known? 

I THINK it's just the two strains -L and -S.

 

Re immunity: like I said, nobody knows (or at least nobody is saying anything in public).

[Tilt]

@PetrolDave Re Immunity, I misread your earlier post..........."You are", rather than "are you"..................silly me

 

Cheers

Edited 23 March, 2020 by Tilt

[g_tee]

I did hear of a Japanese fellow that got infected twice... Not sure if that was true, but throws into doubt immunity.

[Aspman]

29 minutes ago, g_tee said:

I did hear of a Japanese fellow that got infected twice... Not sure if that was true, but throws into doubt immunity.

 

If we're only hearing about one case then it may be like chickenpox. You shouldn't get reinfected but it's possible in rare circumstances.

[g_tee]

Just now, Aspman said:

 

If we're only hearing about one case then it may be like chickenpox. You shouldn't get reinfected but it's possible in rare circumstances.

Yes - it is the only one case I have heard of.

[VWD]

12 hours ago, Aspman said:

 

If we're only hearing about one case then it may be like chickenpox. You shouldn't get reinfected but it's possible in rare circumstances.

or a mutation as seen with shingles.

[Squible]

On 24/03/2020 at 09:09, g_tee said:

I did hear of a Japanese fellow that got infected twice... Not sure if that was true, but throws into doubt immunity.

 

There's also speculation that it may not have been true re-infection but rather the patient did not fully recover from the disease and experienced a secondary flare up. Other thing is that we don't know the immunological background of these patients. 

Some studies done on monkeys have shown that they developed antibodies to COVID-19 which prevented them from being reinfected by the disease - we don't know how this will translate in humans and how long the immunity would be for.

 

16 hours ago, VWD said:

or a mutation as seen with shingles.

 

From what I understand shingles is reactivation of latent varicella zoster in the nerve roots - not due to mutation.

[gadgetman]

37 minutes ago, Squible said:

 

There's also speculation that it may not have been true re-infection but rather the patient did not fully recover from the disease and experienced a secondary flare up. Other thing is that we don't know the immunological background of these patients. 

Some studies done on monkeys have shown that they developed antibodies to COVID-19 which prevented them from being reinfected by the disease - we don't know how this will translate in humans and how long the immunity would be for.

 

 

From what I understand shingles is reactivation of latent varicella zoster in the nerve roots - not due to mutation.

An unknown too is does immunity from exposure to one strain also protect from the other. 

 

 

[@Lee]

3 minutes ago, gadgetman said:

An unknown too is does immunity from exposure to one strain also protect from the other. 

 

 

Annual flu jabs are given against the latest mutations of the seasonal flu virus so I'd guess that the answer would be no.
That said I don't think there's been enough research do yet to give a definitive answer.

 

[gadgetman]

4 minutes ago, Lee01 said:

Annual flu jabs are given against the latest mutations of the seasonal flu virus so I'd guess that the answer would be no.
That said I don't think there's been enough research do yet to give a definitive answer.

 

That brings another question. 

 

How does having the jab impact CV19. As in does it help people to have milder symptoms or does it actually risk making things worse? 

[@Lee]

33 minutes ago, gadgetman said:

That brings another question. 

 

How does having the jab impact CV19. As in does it help people to have milder symptoms or does it actually risk making things worse? 

The flu jab? No. From what I was reading the other day, the only help the seasonal flu jab brings is to the health systems. Reason being that they have fewer people admitted with seasonal flu thus relieving them of the normal burden of people with seasonal flu. I think I book marked something
https://www.livescience.com/getting-flu-shot-help-coronavirus-outbreak.html

[Aspman]

The flu jab doesn't even prevent flu a lot of the time. It just covers the 2 or 3 predicted flu viruses for the year. If you happen to get another one then you'll get flu just as bad.

 

Covid will become just another winter virus in the years to follow this. It will never go away but immunity will build and it'll be no more of a problem than any other flu. Which is a nusance for most and deadly for some.

[NJRJ]

1 hour ago, Aspman said:

The flu jab doesn't even prevent flu a lot of the time. It just covers the 2 or 3 predicted flu viruses for the year. If you happen to get another one then you'll get flu just as bad.

 

Covid will become just another winter virus in the years to follow this. It will never go away but immunity will build and it'll be no more of a problem than any other flu. Which is a nusance for most and deadly for some.

Flu jab for those who pay is 4 varieties, the free one is usually for 3 and adjuvanted (boosted for lower immune). If a different variety turns up and it is well related to any in those doses given then the affects are lessened, is my understanding at least. Covid you're on your own!

[xman]

On 25/03/2020 at 15:43, gadgetman said:

That brings another question. 

 

How does having the jab impact CV19. As in does it help people to have milder symptoms or does it actually risk making things worse? 

 

As stated earlier the annual flu jab uses known strains and is a best guess as to what the major strains will be this winter. It does not even guarantee immunity to those strains, as immunity to flu viruses often tend to be partial and temporary.

 

Here is this year's mix as used by the NHS

 

https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2019_20_north/en/

Edited 7 April, 2020 by xman

[gadgetman]

25 minutes ago, xman said:

 

As stated earlier the annual flu jab uses known strains and is a best guess as to what the major strains will be this winter. It does not even guarantee immunity to those strains, as immunity to flu viruses often tend to be partial and temporary.

 

Here is this year's mix as used by the NHS

 

https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2019_20_north/en/

I know it won't cover coronavirus. 

 

I mused does having the jab make you more or less likely to get serious symptoms. 

 

As here the elderly and those with underlying health conditions get it by default, its an important question which may explain some of the mortality data either way. 

 

I guess this might take some time for authorities to mine the data and come to any conclusions. 

 

 

[elwardo]

Just read that a tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID-19 after coming into contact with an asymptomatic caretaker. It seems like this virus is behaving like the previous coronavirus outbreak (SARS). 

As china already tested house cats, They can get it and pass it to other cats. no mention on if they can pass it to humans. and, not sure if they're even able to get it from humans they were purposely infected for the test.

Though, the original SARS affects a lot of animals with different type of symptoms for each, so it stands to reason this one could as well, but again just cause they can get the virus doesnt mean they'll be able to pass it to humans or even get it from humans.  

Hope it all ends soon 😥

source : https://www.businessinsider.com/tiger-tests-positive-for-covid-19-bronx-zoo-in-nyc-2020-4

[gadgetman]

Dogs have also tested positive, just to put into context. 

 

I believe a panda did in China as well 

[shyVRS245]

Boris is the same age as me, doesn't smoke like me but probably works a damn sight harder than me and 5 nights of fever was enough for me so he must really be taking a beating. Get well soon Boris your country needs you to quote a famous advert.

[xman]

Quote

Dogs have also tested positive, just to put into context. 

 

I believe a panda did in China as well

I wonder how reliably specific these Covid-19 tests are? Could they be throwing up false positive triggerd by similar but not the same virus?

 

Edited 7 April, 2020 by xman

[gadgetman]

4 minutes ago, xman said:

I wonder how reliably specific these Covid-19 tests are? Could they be throwing up false positive triggerd by similar but not the same virus?

 

I was reading about a week ago a scientist suggesting the same, because we all have a little bit of one coronavirus or another and that the tests might nor specifically be detecting covid-19. 

[shyVRS245]

59 minutes ago, gadgetman said:

I was reading about a week ago a scientist suggesting the same, because we all have a little bit of one coronavirus or another and that the tests might nor specifically be detecting covid-19. 

Testing kits from China which the Government have bought millions of are said to be only 90% accurate.

[Ootohere]

As Doctor Hilary said 2 weeks ago on GMTV.  So are many medical tests, even just 70% accurate, but they are 'better than nothing' because you test and retest.

 

As it is The Donald has sent to the UK the 'Cure' for Boris's doctors to try if they want, or he does.

It might be a kill or cure cure, so The Donald thinks worth trying because he is not taking it.