Coincidence or....?

I still feel breathless sometimes too, and very tired.I'm still not 100%. Id love to know if I've definitely had it as i think the same too- that the '19' is from '2019'- Not in march this year! None of scientists on BBC updates have said what the '19' is for.

I had a nasty virus from early March until mid April. It only affected my chest, which was the worst it has been since childhood asthma. I was wheezing and breathless for quite a few weeks and then every day I thought I was over it, the next day I would feel that horribly aching exhaustion. It didn’t occur to me that it might be Covid, I remember hoping I wouldn’t cough while I was shopping because people might think I had it! I didn’t lose my sense of smell but I did have a raised temperature in the first few days. Still think it was more likely to have been something else, but you never know.

Yes, i had steroid tablets as well, before i was so bad at xmas, id been just coughing for weeks, but not as badly. was given them then. And again had them when i was badly at xmas. Now im on them again as cough hasnt quite moved on.

I know a lady who works at Heathrow who was hospitalized just after Christmas with pneumonia and something that the hospital weren't sure about. The put her in isolation. I'm convinced she had Covid.
Really scary, isn't it?

I remember sitting in front of the open bedroom window middle of winter gasping for breath and using a Spanish fan to help. I felt as though I was being strangled. Never in my 79 years had I felt so ill.

I was too ill to notice if my sense of smell/taste had gone because I couldn't walk properly either. Also had trouble trying to swallow a paracetamol as my throat was like glass so had to empty the powder out of the little torpedo-shape tablets and get it down that way.

After 6 months my legs are feeling as though they belong to me. Waste of time telling the GP. I told the INR nurse but it went in one ear and out of the other, being too preoccupied with what was going on with safety issues of the virus . Multi-tasking has gone clean out of the window with everything else that's going on.

Chest and lungs are okay and back to my usual calm quiet breathing and no breathlessness.

This episode now makes me fearful of venturing where there are crowds of people---shopping, buses, trains. Which is why I'm staying put until next year. No Christmas shopping for me it's not worth it.

The more I think about it, the surer I am that I have so far, had a very lucky escape. On 17th February I caught a train from Birmingham Grand Central to my home stop. It was very crowded and a chap sat next to me. He was of Eastern European appearance and immediately began to cough. We set off and the cough was to say the least, persistent. Then ... out came the tissues and he was continually wiping his forehead and face - still coughing. There were early warnings about the virus then and alarm bells rang, especially as I have Diabetes and am 81.. He was clearly quite unwell and not wishing to appear rude I sat and worried for two stations then decided I really had to move and went to an adjoining carriage. As time went on and more information became public the more I am sure he had the virus.

@Susan56 - you are able to ask for all test results. They may be on the system at your GP surgery.

Both DH and myself had 'something' in mild form early February, with 3 days of headache, sore throat, huge fatigue. Caught it at a research meeting where at least a third of people were suffering a cold, cough etc. and it has left me with a cough, still ongoing. Then daughter's family caught it and got through it. No loss of sense of smell or taste.

Interestingly, we all take high levels of vitamin D and mineral supplements. (Tests show my levels are very high.)

A relative in Spain had it early March. Although now recovered in theory, and was at home during the illness, med review shows all is well physically, yet she still has heart palpitations and is very fatigued. No way back to normal yet.

Yes, ive mentioned mine before on here, i was very ill at xmas, was in urgent care dept(attached to a&e) both early hours xmas day and boxing day, id been at drs on 23rd- he gave me pills id never heard of, said take if you get worse- i was so bad by midnight xmas eve, i took one, and promptly threw up everywhere, i was so ill by then it felt like i was dying, i was boiling my boys (21&then 16) rang 111 they were so worried, who sent paramedics around 3am, they stayed awhile, but got another call so told my son to take me to hosp, as my temp was almost 40degrees, a young doc there looked stumped, gave me ibuprofen& paracetamol & said it 'could be flu'-it was nothing like any flu ive ever had& id had flu jab already, i told him i couldn't breathe- back home straight to bed (i never go bed if I'm under the weather, normally i soldier on) i was coughing all the time, couldn't eat, couldn't breathe, got worse, boys rang 111 back they were really worried about me by then, 2 lady paramedics came in early hours of boxing day, temp over 41,they took blood, blood pressure, decided i should have antibios took me to hosp.again.older doc there gave me new drug- antibios mixed with antivirals, enough for 7 days.told me to stop ibuprofen.Went home where i stayed in bed over a week,& then was still so bad i was just getting up only a couple of hours around evening.I was exhausted! my sons had made 'xmas dinner' best they could bless them by ringing older siblings for advice (but i hardly touched it & hadn't heart to tell them i couldn't taste it!) They had to cope surviving rest of week on micro meals, sarnies& pot noodles, (thank goodness my youngest makes me buy them!) as i was too ill to cook and they've both got a slight disability. I don't know how we coped..then as i was getting on my feet my sons both got it, one worse as he has asthma too,so he was given antibios& antivirals,older one not as bad was like flu symptoms, BUT we had all been in venice end of oct/early nov and took my grandson, 14, (they normally live 72 miles away from me) He was ill also, and he usually never is, he then passed it all round his house, ALL of them,his parents as well).Our drs surgery nurse said she genuinely believes we all had covid 19- I read a guy in france was ill at around xmas, who had been ill 3 weeks already, had given it to his children also, and they took his blood& saved sample.Later they tested it for covid19 & it was positive, so probably he was the first case there! I think it was around a lot earlier than we think..my daughter paid for me an antibody test but they can't send it yet as the gov't have taken all their stock! So they will send it when they can.she got her test ok but she never caught what i had as id only dropped off presents, not mingled at her house.so she was negative..its from harley St. Clinic.

This sort of thing happened to my daughter too. She started feeling unwell and very tired. She then developed a sore throat and like OP was told viral infection. Two days later she had to go back to GP as she couldn't swallow saliva and was running a temperature. They gave her antibiotics for tonsillitis even though she has no tonsils. Three days later no change plus she had troule with her breathing, given different antibiotics as now she has a chest infection. She had a rash on her tummy and arms and conjuctivitus. She was so poorly and i was so worried about her as she lives alone and wouldn't let me go to see her. When she finally relented i only stayed as short time as she said 'i'm sorry mum i just need to sleep'. So i left after doing a couple of bits for her. I now believe she had Covid 19 and luckily i didn't catch it from her if it was. But i did go down with shingles the following week!!! This was just before the lock down started in March.I would be interested if she was tested to see if she has antibodies.

My daughter and her husband were extremely unwell in February too. He was hospitalised for a week, requiring oxygen. It took at least a couple of months before they recovered properly. They had pretty much all the symptoms for Covid, and both said they had never felt so ill.

I had the symptoms at Christmas too. I had booked a holiday and felt ill before I went. I saw a nurse practitioner who was very unhelpful, but I suppose there was nothing she could do. A few days into my holiday I got much worse, and went to a local Spanish medical centre and was seen by a doctor who immediately gave me a steroid injection and put me on oxygen. I was sent back to my holiday accommodation with an inhaler and antibiotics. I gradually got better though th e breathlessness lasted for some time.
Because of this I attended a local private go practice and had an antibody test 3 weeks ago. It was negative. There were obviously other unpleasant viral infections about at the time !

I went back over my WhatsApp messages from my son in February because he was taken very ill at the start of that month. Sure enough, he talks about the symptoms and how he can't move because he feels so breathless. He had Asthma as a child (last bout aged 4 and he's coming up for 30) so he was given mega doses of steroids and antibiotics which helped but it took ages for him to bounce back. Meanwhile his 4 year old son had milder symptoms but a peculiar rash...they put it down to hand, foot and mouth too.

The first UK nationals were evacuated from Wuhan on the 31st of January 2020, to a hospital on the Wirral. The virus was known about in China well before they admitted it.
However, we would have seen the rapid spread of cases if it was the same strain.
The NHS staff in the hospitals are not looking forward to the Winter, with C-19 plus the usual I’ll people it’s going to be mayhem and people will die unnecessarily.
The government needs to try harder. Cummins need to stop giving Boris advice as it hasn’t been too good, so far. Eh

My sister was very unwell following a trip to Portugal in October, and a friend was eventually diagnosed with pneumonia after having severe flu-like symptoms, a dreadful cough, loss of smell and taste, just before Christmas. Both are now convinced they had the virus. Neither want to waste NHS money now being tested because they are now OK.
It seems it’s been about far longer than the Chinese have admitted.

I arrived back from Australia on 2nd February, and there were lots of people on the planes wearing masks. I think I am probably very lucky not to have caught it while travelling.

Fevertree. No a letter just turned up. I would be interested to know the result so I hope they do send me the test kit but they say not 100% accurate so does that make it 99% or 50%.

My little grandson was in hospital with viral pneumonia at end November. Everyone in family had coughs around same time, 2 of the men had coughs that lingered for several months, for rest of us it varied between 1-4 wks. We have photos of an 18 month old gripping onto an oxygen mask for dear life before he was put into an oxygen tent. We all think he had Covid, at time the Drs couldn't work out what was going on, they said was viral pneumonia but atypical. We're lucky my DD reacted so quickly in taking him to out of hours Dr, located within our hospital, and that he was transferred to children's ward immediately. I believe it's been around since about October as that's when our coughs all seemed to start building up.

This is fascinating! We should all report back on here if/when we get tested. See how many thought they’d had it vs how many actually test positive. My colleague at work recently had symptoms so had the antigen test and hers came back negative. She was so ill with classic symptoms that she’s convinced that was a false negative.

My DD works in the Chinese faculty of a university, and is convinced that she had Covid 19 in January. She had a cough, sore throat and tightness in her chest, and felt generally unwellShe called both her GP and 111, but was told that it was highly unlikely. End of story. She told them that two of the Chinese staff members had just come back from China and been at work before discovering that they should be in quarantine but they still weren't interested. She too would like to have an antibody test.

I work with children and at the end of November I came down with what I thought was flu...I was ill in bed ...very high temperature and a terrible headache that lasted about a week and a dry cough. I took paracetamol regularly.I didn’t get better after a few days so I went to the GP who said my chest was so bad I needed steroids ( never had them in my life before) and antibiotics. After a week I returned to the surgery and I was given another course of antibiotics as my chest was still noisy...after yet another week I had my third course of antibiotics....I’ve never been so ill in my life. I had a flu jab before all of this...I know it’s way earlier than is being reported but I do wonder what I had?

At the time of the New Year I went down with a nasty cold and cough and breathlessness. I was also very hoarse. I had recently met a friend for lunch who had a hacking cough. At that time nobody in this country knew about Coronavirus. I am still wondering if I had it. My husband is currently at the hospital having tests for a 'post Covid clot' as he has had a cough for ages. I am wondering if we both had the virus. We are both in our seventies.

Petalpop how did you register?

The NHS and Imperial College London are doing random antibody tests via NHS patient lists in England. I received a letter this week. I have to wait a few weeks to see if I will be included. All a bit random plus they make a point of it not being 100% accurate. I feel fit and well so would be surprised if I have been infected but you never know. All a bit iffy really. I was picked at random after registering I may or may not be included and if I am I might have a false reading.

I’ve read that scientists believe it’s been in the Uk since late December early January, it just wasn’t detected at that time but it was slowly spreading by then. My DD is same she was poorly in January with temperate cough and lethargic for a week, she wants a test but a lot of fake anti body tests around so it’s hard to know where to get legit one from.