rona moved in: ilx0rs with the bug report on their progress

Well after two years thinking I should have caught it after being in so many social places: clubs, pubs, restaurants, and even not isolating from my wife when she had it, I’ve finally got it. It was a bit surreal to see that bottom line finally show after so many lateral flow tests, and not only that to show immediately when the liquid hit it, not even reaching the control line.

So far I’m just a bit achey with a sore throat, wish me luck.

Same! Tested positive last Tuesday and the line is pretty faded today. Last one in my family to catch it. Caught it from travelling I’m pretty sure. Has been pretty mild, all said; had the terrible headache the first day but has otherwise been quite like a cold. I lost smell and taste for about a day but that’s something that happens to me every time I have a cold. It’s nice to know I haven’t been doing lateral flow tests wrong the whole time.

I've been painfully careful for two years, did one risky thing two weeks ago (visit my office) and immediately caught it.

On Day 10 now, still testing positive but the line is barely perceptible and should disappear by tomorrow or Friday. Symptoms like a lengthy but not very severe chest cold.

Agree was surreal when, after diligently waiting 15-30 minutes for my test results for so long, the LFT was like "lol you covid" in about three seconds

Hope your line disappears soon gyac! The cold and stuffy breathing has been manageable but isolating and keeping away from my two-year-old (and feeling guilty about how much my partner is doing without me) has been horrid

Ah sorry to hear you’ve had a rough time of it, can’t be helped on the other stuff. We can hopefully both attend an ilb fap in full health soon!

Loads of Rona round our way at the moment - at least five kids in our son’s class have it - and the key symptom now seems to be a blinding, puke-inducing headache. Not heard of that one before, maybe it’s an indicator of the BA2 omicron variant. In any case, it’s really nasty.

Get well soon all of you who are currently suffering.

Definitely

Good to know our lateral flow lines are matching up, I thought it would never end!

Somebody I know tested negative from Day 5 so my expectations were probably a bit high for how long it would last...

xpost

I missed the headache but my chest is super tight! Although that could be allergies from sitting next to an open garden window for 10 days

My sister had it three times and she had the terrible headache at least two times iirc, have also had friends with it. It seems to affect people across variants so feel lucky to have missed the worst on that one.

yeah that was a memorable feature of the OG strain. i'm somebody who knows headaches and it was the worst i'd ever had.

Re LFTs - they can really vary in how long they take to show negative, and this isn't necessarily a factor of how badly you had it! Friends had very mild cases but showing positive for 10+ days, others felt awful for a couple of days but went negative by day 5.

I've not had it yet. Kid and partner have what seems like bog-standard colds.
We're the last household locally I can think of that haven't had a case (so far - it'll be waiting for that weekend away we've booked in a couple of weeks no doubt). But loads of people within those households didn't get it.

Have only heard of one fully jabbed case feeling effects for a long time (a very sensible HCP). Fingers crossed everyone gets through it with a mild case.

Most bad colds take me about three weeks to get over (I'm in my forties now) so I'm guessing this will linger a while once I'm testing negative

I just ordered two coffees from my local coffeeshop on Deliveroo for a tenner, it felt like the most lavishly indulgent thing I've ever done lol

Over this thing finally - bit of fatigue towards the end but basically back to normal now. Hope the same for you, C_T and anyone else currently dealing with it. Everyone I know who’s never had it seems to have it now or has recently had it.

i would add to all the above (finally shaken it after the - yes - customary ten days, hadn't officially had it before), but my symptoms were essentially identical

Honestly my symptoms dropped off after five days drastically to the point I woke up and actually felt tangibly better - it was waiting for the second line to go that was annoying. I got a much much much milder (and faster) dose than my other half to the point he was suggesting I got a milder variant than him lol.

your other half has (presumably) been watching the worst two teams in world cricket for three weeks tbf, would exacerbate any pox

also finally got it after 2 years avoiding. Like a bad cold, so was also very surprised to finally see a clear line on a rapid flow.... on day 5ish now and feeling a lot better. my wife who was sleeping beside me for the first 2 nights where i was coughing (before i had a positive test) - still testing negative, no symptoms. she's a primary school teacher so probably superhuman immune system / or maybe has had it 5 times asymptomatically already and never noticed.

anyway feels like a relief to have it and that its not been bad at all; if i'd not seen a positive test i'd never have known it wasn't just a cold.

I assume everyone here is vaxxed and everything - are we at all concerned about long-term side effects?
I don’t have it, but am very nervous I’ll catch it now that my province has dropped all mandates etc

Yes boosted, if I have long term side effects there’s really nothing I can do about it. I would rather not think about it.

I’m so worried about the “brain fog”. I’m really forgetful as it is and I’m worried getting worse might make my life so much more difficult.

tripled vaxxed... not really concerned about side effects. i think maybe 50% or more of people in my life (friends/family/colleagues) have had it now - some more than once, and a lot of them fairly recently - and i can only think of one or two who had longer lasting after effects of any sort.

actually just one of them, and it seems resolved now as far as i know.

fyi I think I picked it up at a Napalm Death show at the Underworld

at which they played

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCKYm2Gw8JA

I went out tonight for the first time in a fully unmasked restaurant (I live near Thermo IIRC 👋) and it was pretty nice and normal at the table which was surprising and lovely, but the restaurant was completely packed which was unsettling. I’m also very nervous about getting a long term strain, as I’m generally unlucky. Fingers crossed that tonight was a good decision!

I am triple vaxxed, but I'm old enough (67) that I am automatically among the higher risk population. Everything I have heard or read about covid makes me think that getting it would not be, shall we say, 'a life-enhancing experience'. It's a tricky virus and highly unpredictable. I don't think I'd be on a ventilator or die of it, but I'm still extremely wary of treating it lightly.

also finally got it after 2 years avoiding. Like a bad cold, so was also very surprised to finally see a clear line on a rapid flow.... on day 5ish now and feeling a lot better. my wife who was sleeping beside me for the first 2 nights where i was coughing (before i had a positive test) - still testing negative, no symptoms. she's a primary school teacher so probably superhuman immune system / or maybe has had it 5 times asymptomatically already and never noticed.

Same here, my partner teaches at a senior school, and was coughing throughout (although we kept to separate rooms) and she was, like, "How come you caught and recovered from coronavirus in two weeks, and I still haven't gotten rid of my cough?"

I finally tested negative on day 12! But day 10 and 11 were both pretty faint. FWIW the government advice is that you are safe after day 10 even if you continue to get positive LFTs -- i.e. the LFT still picks up covid, but at that stage it's not infectious covid. Perhaps that's true but I thought it was safer to wait until two negative tests.

I'm not worried about long-term consquences but I definitely still feel crappy - although that may be allergies, or a cold from my daughter, or my usual IBS bullshit. Most colds take me a few weeks to recover from, I'm sure even mild covid won't be any different.

Took me 12 days for a negative test too. I thought my covid symptoms (blocked sinuses, headache) were lingering way too long, but after having to have another day of bed rest 11 days after my symptoms first showed up I finally figured out it was probably sinusitis (which I've had before), and got some antibiotics for that.

Our kid got it last Sunday. She's been off school all week, obvs, and we finally tested positive yesterday. Not feeling too rough yet - certainly not in comparison to when we had it just over two years ago - but it's not fun. And bonkers that free LFTs are ending on Thursday, at a point when almost everyone I know has got it or has just had it. This fucking govt.

Yeah, the usual great Tory long-term planning (the plan being "be upper-middle class or above")

A lot of friends who’ve coasted through the past two years unscathed all tested positive recently, and one needed an ambulance called out. Be careful, everyone!

Triple jabbed and have avoided covid so far. This period feels slightly crazy though: still trying to avoid much social contact because of high prevalence, whilst normal life seems to have resumed for many people.

Enjoying my couple months' respite from panicking about washing hands, infecting family, etc. Might see a couple movies while I can!

...Although still gonna wear mask in shops, cafes, cinemas etc

As long as you come to an ILB FAP.

yes definitely

Despite being triple jabbed and a very fit & healthy person, one of my colleagues is sadly really suffering with longer term effects having caught it just under a month ago. He's not been able to return to work yet. I feel really sorry for him as it seems like such a huge mental/emotional strain as much as the physical side of things. It brings into sharp relief that there's still so much variability in how it can affect people, of course, and that's there really seems to be no predicting it.

*and that there really seems...

For myself, it's the first day of my first time off from work for months and of course I've developed a sore throat just last night to set me worrying and put a wee dampener on things. Tested negative this morning, so fingers crossed, though I'm terrible at self-administering the LFT throat swabs.

I always try to remember that "other illnesses are available".

Tested negative this morning, so fingers crossed, though I'm terrible at self-administering the LFT throat swabs.

I can't bear the throat swabbing so only ever did the nose, often wondered if that might lead to false negatives but when I finally tested positive the line appeared almost instantly and was thick and dark.

Yeah, I guess that if I ever really do have COVID it'll become apparent soon enough, either through symptoms, or via LFT results, regardless of my throat swabbing ineptitude. I still have a sore throat, but nothing else, so I'm gradually hoping that I can blame a particularly crusty piece of bread that I ate in an inopportune manner last night.

So I finally got around to getting this covid thing everybody keeps talking about. This is actually pretty shitty.

Sorry. Welcome to the club.

Had a bit of a sore throat starting on Friday evening, did a rapid test on Saturday that came out positive. I was not too alarmed, because I have my three doses and most of my family got covid around Christmas and weren't very sick. Saturday evening I started getting a bit of a headache, that headache would increase in intensity and last 3 days (various pain relievers I had in the house did basically nothing for this headache as far as I can tell). Took Monday off from work. Woke up Tuesday with a really much worse sore throat (the kind that hurts when you breathe), decided to work anyway since at least my headache was gone. Today I woke up feeling really weak, my sore throat is still really bad and painful. Took another sick day. This sucks.

My trajectory (and that of others I've heard with Omicron) was that the cold-like symptoms of headache and sore throat will resolve shortly and be replaced with severe fatigue, so you may be on your way. Hope you feel better soon.

just got over it; was very ill with severe cold symptoms for two full days, then moderate to mild symptoms since. but still testing positive 8 days later. all told, it was hardly the sickest I've ever been, so I think I got off easy.

Finefinemusic - I guess you managed to dine unscathed. Im curious what restaurant it was that you felt was worth it?(despite my paranoia, I’m very tempted to go to the wren)

I did dodge it, thankfully! I quite like the Wren, I wish it had been that. Birthday girl’s choice: Soulas. It was fine.

ah right by me!

Not far from me! I’m just north of there. See you at Food Basics sometime maybe ;)