Have you had it?

[Heeb]

13 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

In my dental implant topic, this reminded me:

 So that was in October.  My wife got something similar a few weeks later.  I had a really bad cough at times and it would not got away.

Just wondering, maybe we had it????????????????  I know that this is before it was reported in China, but who knows?

I just found out a friend of mine and his wife had it here in Washington, my friend who is 45 years old had to spend six days in the hospital., he said it hit him really hard and he still doesn’t feel right, his wife who is 50 had chest cold symptoms and loss of taste and smell. Funny thing is they believe they got it at her 50th birthday party last month, they video called me during the party while I was sitting in my carport in the Philippines and I had my mask on, they were all making fun of me for having it on. After testing everyone at the party his brother and sister in-law tested positive and also another friend of mine, all in their 40s and they had chest cold symptoms. Sad thing is he said he wants to go have a few beers with me after he feels better but I told him I need to wait until my 82 year old mom who has copd and is on oxygen goes back to Chicago....he says “well we can’t live our lives in fear” 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Heeb

[KC813]

1 hour ago, Heeb said:

Sad thing is he said he wants to go have a few beers with me after he feels better but I told him I need to wait until my 82 year old mom who has copd and is on oxygen goes back to Chicago....he says “well we can’t live our lives in fear” 

A commonly heard assertion, intentionally mislabeling someone’s caution or concern as ‘fear’ in order to falsely elevate the speaker's stature.

I have some longtime and good-hearted friends who also say some strange things like this.  Illogical statements or views that make me cringe.  I probably make them cringe too, but sometimes it is easier to keep old friends then to make new ones!

[Joey G]

I doubt we've had it... but I'm surprised my laser thermometer batteries are still good... lord knows we taken our temperature about 10,000 times already.

 

[Heeb]

I also believe I had it back in February, I remember, and this is before they listed it as a symptom that I was riding my bike in the Subic Freeport and I remember thinking it’s weird I can’t smell anything even when I went through areas of thick jungle, I had just come off from being sick the month before and I got sick again but this time it caused me to struggle breathing when riding up the hills

[GeoffH]

21 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Just wondering, maybe we had it???????????????? 

Near the start of the first Australian wave my daughter had a big party (before we were all in lockdown) to welcome back her friend who'd been overseas in Bali.

My daughter got a 'cold', she said her friend had one,  it took my daughter 2 weeks to get over it and she was pretty crook (seasonal flu sick, not cold sick).

And she gave it to me... I wasn't too bad for the first week, then I felt bad.  I had shortness of breath (and I was using my Ventonlin, which I hadn't had to use for 12 months) on a regular basis.  My throat burned like almost no other throat infection I'd had in the last 60 years, the only thing I can compare it to is how my throat felt when I woke from the operation of having my tonsils removed.  Then I started getting chest pain,  I was just so tired, I was sleeping 20 hours out of 24 for a week.  I rang 'nurse oncall' (because my Doctor was on leave) and they basically told me that if my chest pain got worse that I should call an ambulance.  That seemed a bit much... so I just slept... and slept.

After another week or so the throat soreness and the coughing started to get less but the shortness of breath if anything seemed to get worse.  Just walking outside to take the rubbish to the bin (trash can) would leave me puffing for breath.  I ended up ringing my Doctor again but he was still on leave so no help there.

Over about 3 or 4 weeks things gradually started getting better but it's taken until now (about 3 months later) that I'm finally feeling like myself again.

I did ask at the time about getting tested for Covid but I was told that I didn't meet the criteria to be tested (not front line worker, not contact of confirmed case, not overseas traveller - daughter's friend never bothered getting tested so neither the daughter nor I could be tested as a result.  That's changed now but too late for me to be tested.

I''ve got a strong suspicion that this wasn't just a common cold or even Influenza (I had already had a flu vaccine this year and last year) but with anti body testing not available here and PCR testing only working for active cases I can't tell.  FWIW a bunch of my daughters friends got this 'cold' some of them with very mild symptoms but only a couple as bad as my daughter and none as bad as me.
 

 

NB not sure if this is relevant but one of my friends recently caught the virus from his wife who was working at a pig meat processing plant near here (which has since been closed due to an outbreak of Covid there for testing of employees and deep cleaning).  He (or she) gave it to their son who gave it to his wife.  My friend is 65 (and recently retired),  his wife is 62 and still working (they are included in the graph).

There are currently around 40 active cases in Bendigo (my LGA here) and about the same in the LGA next to us but case numbers are increasing quickly which suggests to me that the attempt to 'ring fence' the virus inside the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area hasn't worked.



 

Edited August 5, 2020 by GeoffH

[OnMyWay]

12 hours ago, Jake said:

exposing the rest of the family (of whatever you have).  These days, especially during the cold and flu season, I guess we need to really pay attention to the critical symptoms.

I have mentioned this before, but one of the unanticipated benefits to our family is that 2020 has been our healthiest year ever!  Extra hand washing might be key to that, but I think not having the kids in school is the main reason.  The last day of school was March 16, my daughters birthday, and we have not had any colds or flu in the house at all.  Previously, it seemed like one of us was always getting a bit of cold or something, every month.

So, when things return to normal, we will encourage the hand washing, especially for the kids, during and after school.  Maybe I will turn into a bit of a OCD sanitizer user.  No big deal to carry a small bottle in my pocket for the hands, cleaning the shopping cart handle, etc.

Our 16 year old daughter seems to have the best immune system in the house.  She never gets sick when a cold / flu gets the rest of us.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, GeoffH said:

but the shortness of breath if anything seemed to get worse. 

Of all the stories, I would say that yours has the highest probability of being COVID!  Some of the others seem to have had it too.

Shortness of breath was mentioned by several.  I do remember being short of breath a lot but I'm not sure of the exact time frame.  We went to NZ for a month in December, and I think most of the shortness of breath was just before that, so it may have been mainly in October November.  At the time, I thought it was mainly because I had gained a lot of weight.  I'm down 15 kg from then, so my breathing is much better.

Edited August 5, 2020 by OnMyWay

[Jake]

4 hours ago, GeoffH said:

And she gave it to me......

There are currently around 40 active cases in Bendigo (my LGA here) and about the same in the LGA next to us but case numbers are increasing quickly which suggests to me that the attempt to 'ring fence' the virus inside the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area hasn't worked.

Wow, I can almost feel the pain as you describe how your throat felt like it was burning.  I do believe you caught the real deal and we are very grateful that you are sharing your survival story.  It made me bring myself and family up a notch against our fight with the COVID 19.  

I'm sorry to hear that you guys are being locked down again.  I may feel safe here in Las Vegas but I think I need to restock again, especially ammo.....he, he.  Stay safe GeoffH!  
 

[JDDavao II]

I had a bad cold early on in Covidtime. It was so typical for me that I know it was a variation of what I have gotten here since my very first visit in 2008. I just had the nastiest of sinus infections. It lasted three weeks and the mucous in my schnoz was like rubber cement. Now my COPD is kicking up again so my lungs are irritated and I'm coughing.

I've been out just three times since March 15th, wearing a mask, a face shield and carrying a pointy stick to wave at people's eyes when they get too close.

I've not had it. I don't want it. And I'm trying like hell not to get it.

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, JDDavao said:

I just had the nastiest of sinus infections. It lasted three weeks and the mucous in my schnoz was like rubber cement. Now my COPD is kicking up again so my lungs are irritated and I'm coughing.

I had a lot of this before too, although not as severe.  I would get a cold from the kids or someplace else, it would pass but often leave me with rhinitis.  That would trigger asthma and coughing for an extended period.  My youngest daughter and I had asthma attacks together several times, with colds being the trigger.

As I mentioned in another thread, we have been cold and flu free since this all started.  I have been diligent with Seretide, 2 puffs twice a day.  I also started taking Zyrtec to help help with post nasal drip / allergies / rhinitis, especially at night.  This has worked really well so I will keep it up indefinitely.

I think Seretide is used for COPD prevention too, right?  I was never diligent in using it before and it didn't seem to do much for me, but it really is a good preventive medicine when used correctly.  My daughter and I have not had an asthma attack for 6 months now.  I hope she has grown out of it like her older sister did.