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The 'I have some sort of lurgy but don't know if it is corona or just a cold' thread

Got a dreadful cough at the moment.

Started as a coldsore on Saturday. Sore throat on Sunday. Hedious cough by mid Monday.

Still coughing pretty badly now.

Now I'm reading reports of whooping cough being around in the news so getting paranoid again.
 
I got a cough, shivering, bit of a headache, aching, didn't go to work, called in poorly.

Wondered if I might have covid, found an old test kit and did the test, but there weren't two droplets of liquid in the tube to drip into the test piece, there wasn't any drops, I tried to sort of squeeze the swab to get some liquid into the test piece. Waiting now but the test was less than satisfactory.

ETA, 30 minutes later and the test is invalid. Not enough liquid. Hmm, I only have 2 test left.
 
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Shippou-Sensei said:
Now I'm reading reports of whooping cough being around in the news so getting paranoid again.
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We are definitely in the midst of a period of increased whooping cough cases. story might be of note.

www.gov.uk

Confirmed cases of pertussis in England by month

www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

Screenshot_2024-07-16-13-11-21-095_com.android.chrome-edit.jpg

Much more of an issue for babies than adults and treatment only given (iirc) if diagnosed fairly soon after symptoms develop in adults. Which is tricky as most respiratory illnesses cause a cough early on.
 
weltweit said:
I got a cough, shivering, bit of a headache, aching, didn't go to work, called in poorly.

Wondered if I might have covid, found an old test kit and did the test, but there weren't two droplets of liquid in the tube to drip into the test piece, there wasn't any drops, I tried to sort of squeeze the swab to get some liquid into the test piece. Waiting now but the test was less than satisfactory.

ETA, 30 minutes later and the test is invalid. Not enough liquid. Hmm, I only have 2 test left.
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Are all the bits still in date too? I think you can buy online from amazon
 
Callie said:
Are all the bits still in date too? I think you can buy online from amazon
Click to expand...
I doubt very much that they are in date, it was a long time ago that I got them.

eta yes I see I can get them from Amazon. Apparently I can also get them from most supermarkets and a friend has just offered to buy me a kit locally. I will try the 2 remaining tests I have and see if I can get a result. If not will buy a new test kit.
 
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I was knocked out for most of a week recently but still managed not to test positive. They are old tests mind you and have never been that effective.

There are 100% far more illnesses going round than would have been normal pre COVID. I work in quite a small company and still notice that healthy young folk are just going down with viruses in the summer. I mostly work with people remotely too which makes it harder to tell - you don't notice that somebody is off sick remotely unless you actually need to ask them something, and even then if you WFH and can get to a keyboard you're less likely to take an actual sick day - so the fact that it's been noticeable says something.
 
weltweit said:
I got a cough, shivering, bit of a headache, aching, didn't go to work, called in poorly.

Wondered if I might have covid, found an old test kit and did the test, but there weren't two droplets of liquid in the tube to drip into the test piece, there wasn't any drops, I tried to sort of squeeze the swab to get some liquid into the test piece. Waiting now but the test was less than satisfactory.

ETA, 30 minutes later and the test is invalid. Not enough liquid. Hmm, I only have 2 test left.
Click to expand...
Had similar here. Shivery, deeply tired but no signs of a cold. It’s going away now thank god after about three days.
 
Callie said:
We are definitely in the midst of a period of increased whooping cough cases. story might be of note.

www.gov.uk

Confirmed cases of pertussis in England by month

www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

View attachment 433581

Much more of an issue for babies than adults and treatment only given (iirc) if diagnosed fairly soon after symptoms develop in adults. Which is tricky as most respiratory illnesses cause a cough early on.
Click to expand...
Me and N are both wondering whether what we had earlier in the year was whooping cough - we were both vaccinated when young but apparently like a lot of things, you can still get it just a milder dose.
We were coughing for a good couple of months after the initial illness (which was flu-like including fever and delirium) including sometimes to the point of throwing up or struggling to draw breath because the coughing was so bad.
We didn't get tested or anything so we'll never know for sure, but it seemed in line with the symptoms.
And yes you are correct, it's bacterial and antibiotics can have an effect, but have to be given in the first few days - otherwise you're going to get the horrific cough that drags on for ages and can cause complications.

As an aside, my mum got whooping cough very badly when she was an infant which led to complications such as pneumonia and she spent something like 3 months in hospital in an oxygen tent and her parents weren't allowed any physical contact with her, which I think might explain a lot. And another related bout of pneumonia a bit later which put her back in hospital again. This would have been around the time that widespread whooping cough vaccination was starting to be rolled out in the UK (which was in the '50s, my mum was born in '48) Oh she also now has a lung condition, bronchiectasis, that was probably caused by it but went undetected until she got Covid which made it worse (and she now struggles to walk far due to getting short of breath).

The thought of a return to that because of anti-vaxx idiots is horrific.
 
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My partner is a Nurse on a stroke rehab ward, she reckons some variant of Covid is spreading like wildfire again, we both been feeling rough for a few days now, not sure if Covid though. Have heard it's really bad in parts of Birmingham for some reason at the moment and some people have started wearing masks in the shops again.
Anyone else getting a sense it's spreading again, because I do tend to lose perspective on these things if I'm not careful, but I trust my partner, she really knows her stuff.
 
Lorca said:
My partner is a Nurse on a stroke rehab ward, she reckons some variant of Covid is spreading like wildfire again, we both been feeling rough for a few days now, not sure if Covid though. Have heard it's really bad in parts of Birmingham for some reason at the moment and some people have started wearing masks in the shops again.
Anyone else getting a sense it's spreading again, because I do tend to lose perspective on these things if I'm not careful, but I trust my partner, she really knows her stuff.
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Are they doing any formal testing on the ward?
 
Anecdotally it does seem like a lot of people have come down with Covid recently. Enough that I used it as an excuse not to go to a (crap) bar job I had signed up for and couldn't be bothered with, they didn't even bat an eyelid there were several others calling in with it too.

I'm not sure if I might have even had a mild dose of it when I came back from Albania. But not properly sick enough to test positive or else it was another nasty stomach virus that left me quite depleted. Been relatively wiped out the past few weeks, some days worse than others.

Echinacea drops are a god send btw people who are currently poorly. Would recommend.
 
Lorca said:
My partner is a Nurse on a stroke rehab ward, she reckons some variant of Covid is spreading like wildfire again, ..
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I avoided Covid for the last 4 years.

Last weekend I drove to Farnborough, took a train to Waterloo and spent many hours in a busy Royal Festival Hall before returning on a rush hour train. It seemed to me that this was likely where I caught it, however the other people I was with don't seem to have got it.

Luckily I don't seem to have too severe a case, I have a hacking cough, shivering and also hot sweats, and a constantly running nose. I am hoping the vaccinations I had made a difference.
 
Lorca said:
Anyone else getting a sense it's spreading again, because I do tend to lose perspective on these things if I'm not careful, but I trust my partner, she really knows her stuff.
Click to expand...
Its not a secret that theres been a wave that has occasionally made the news. eg my local news (england midlands) had a piece a week or two ago about rising hospital numbers causing some hospitals to reimpose marsk rules) and there was data showing the wave affecting hospitals. Scottish wastewater surveillance also shows it.

Anecdotal reporting from forums like this one has also been a reasonable guide to waves from this virus, and the current wave showed up clearly here again in the last month.

Depending on what you count as a wave, this current wave could be described as the 14th one! Knock a few off that number if you use a narrower criteria.
 
I probably had it a couple of weeks ago - I tested negative but my husband tested positive 48 hours later with same symptoms. I spoke to my specialist nurse hospital to let her know as I'm immunospressed (she's based at a major London teaching hospital) and she said they're seeing loads of cases right now and about half of them aren't showing up on lateral flows. So yes there is a load of it about.
 
I guess it's interesting with the lateral flows. We never had that test home option and it served a purpose during the days/years of COVID while everyone was getting their footing.

Now they are available from...the supermarket (probably) I wonder how well that are monitored and assessed. I think they fit the criteria of medical device (? elbows ) so would expect fairly stringent controls and testing but not 100% sure. It's kind of crossed into the realms of commercial product.

They're not highly effective realistically and they serve no major purpose, I think, outside of a pandemic but people like to know. It is unsatisfactory to just have a cold now! Which is interesting in itself.
 
I've had my third date in the space of the same number of weeks cancel tonight because of Covid. I got a little tetchy at this one which is probably unfair reading this thread. But three out of three, last minute... I'm sure they're all telling the truth but maybe test yourself a little earlier.
 
It's getting boring. Since Tuesday (when I tested positive) I have been isolating at home, runny nose, hacking cough, Spume Sneezing, headache and general aching. I haven't been seriously ill yet which is good - I wonder if the fact that I had 4 or 5 even vaccines since 2020 might have helped.

I get moments like this one where I am lucid and comfortable to type on the computer, then often I will come over all tired and go back to bed.

I think it started on Monday because I was dog tired at work, beat, and even commented on it to a colleague. Then Tuesday morning I knew something was wrong.

I am losing track of time, Tuesday was my first day isolating, Wednesday and now Thursday - stuck here. I will do another test Sunday to decide whether I can go back to work or not.
 
I feel like I have Covid, having had it twice before, but tested negative yesterday and today. My mate who I was in a pub with last Wednesday night has it. I reckon these 3 year old tests are playing up.
 
weltweit said:
You can get new tests from a Supermarket. No point in using out of date tests.
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Seems strange there would be an expiry date, its only a bit of liquid in a sealed capsule, and the results aren't neutral, they are negative. So they are still working, just not in the way I expect given how i feel.
 
weltweit said:
- I wonder if the fact that I had 4 or 5 even vaccines since 2020 might have helped.
...
I get moments like this one where I am lucid and comfortable to type on the computer, then often I will come over all tired and go back to bed.
Click to expand...

The vaccines should have primed your immune system to recognise the covid virus... But as viruses mutate so much it's hard to directly say how effectively!

I recall myself when I first had COVID I was quite ill but would sometimes feel ok to try to do some WFH...but promptly fall asleep :D I blame the COVID for that but I might have just wanted a nap. But there was definitely an "I'm ok" feeling followed by a I'm knackered and can't do much effect
 
jimbarkanoodle said:
Seems strange there would be an expiry date, its only a bit of liquid in a sealed capsule, and the results aren't neutral, they are negative. So they are still working, just not in the way I expect given how i feel.
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Not at all! If you check they will also state they need to be kept at a certain temp (cool dark place).

A negative test cannot be relied upon with these tests regardless AND they will become less effective with age and exposure to heat and light.

They are a little bit more complex than just a lot of liquid!
 
Callie said:
Not at all! If you check they will also state they need to be kept at a certain temp (cool dark place).

A negative test cannot be relied upon with these tests regardless AND they will become less effective with age and exposure to heat and light.

They are a little bit more complex than just a lot of liquid!
Click to expand...
Yeah, just checked, went out of date in January of this year. Will assume I have covid then, tell my boss that, consequently taking tomorrow off work sick, and soak up some rays on the balcony 🫡
 
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