Newly infected

[staffordian]

I have COVID, for the first time. Ironically, I'm now eligible for the autumn booster but our GP surgery has not yet organised sessions for the under 75s.

I've several questions which hopefully previous suffers might have ideas on.

First, likely incubation period. I first had symptoms on Monday evening, feeling really shivery and my temperature was around 38. Now the two most likely sources of infection were either a spell of several hours in a hospital the previous Wednesday or a rail trip on the Saturday. One seems too early, the other too late, how long have others found between exposure and symptoms?

Second, I tested negative using a LFT on Monday night so began to think I'd just picked up a bug. Tuesday I felt lousy and symptoms shifted to producing copious amounts of phlegm and a general tiredness. After two poor nights of sleep I determined to call the GP first thing on Wednesday but decided to do a second LFT beforehand. Despite almost failing to rub the sample stick near the tonsils due to severe gagging, and having to rely on twirls on both nostrils, the result was a big fat red line almost immediately.

It's now Thursday pm and I still feel a bit like death warmed up.

How long did others who have recently succumbed take to start feeling better?

I know no two cases are the same, just looking for pointers

TIA

Staffordian

[ReformedCharacter]

It's now Thursday pm and I still feel a bit like death warmed up.

How long did others who have recently succumbed take to start feeling better?

I know no two cases are the same, just looking for pointers

TIA

Staffordian

Sorry to hear you are unwell. My wife has had two doses and it took about a week for her to feel normal again but it does seem to vary a lot. I hope you recover quickly.

RC

[Mike4]

I have COVID, for the first time. Ironically, I'm now eligible for the autumn booster but our GP surgery has not yet organised sessions for the under 75s.

I've several questions which hopefully previous suffers might have ideas on.

First, likely incubation period. I first had symptoms on Monday evening, feeling really shivery and my temperature was around 38. Now the two most likely sources of infection were either a spell of several hours in a hospital the previous Wednesday or a rail trip on the Saturday. One seems too early, the other too late, how long have others found between exposure and symptoms?

Second, I tested negative using a LFT on Monday night so began to think I'd just picked up a bug. Tuesday I felt lousy and symptoms shifted to producing copious amounts of phlegm and a general tiredness. After two poor nights of sleep I determined to call the GP first thing on Wednesday but decided to do a second LFT beforehand. Despite almost failing to rub the sample stick near the tonsils due to severe gagging, and having to rely on twirls on both nostrils, the result was a big fat red line almost immediately.

It's now Thursday pm and I still feel a bit like death warmed up.

How long did others who have recently succumbed take to start feeling better?

I know no two cases are the same, just looking for pointers

TIA

Staffordian

Hi, sorry to hear you feel rubbish.

I had Covid a couple of months ago, so my answers to your questions are as follows:

1) I dunno about Omicron B5 (which is prolly what you have) but the original Covid was 7-10 days incubation IIRC. I also have an idea I've heard 3 days quoted for Omicron but don't rely on this, it could easily be wrong. I'd say the hospital and the rail trip were equally likely!

2) I too felt a bit rough then on the second day did a LFT not really expecting a positive result (and BTW only twirled in my nose but picked up a good load of mucus on the stick), and like you got a fast and solid fat red line to my amazement! I felt really rough on days 3 and 4 then improved rapidly. By day 7 I felt fit as a fiddle but continued to get positive LFTs until about day 11, after which every test I did came back clear.

[NotSure]

Based on mine and others I know experience, just write off the next few days. Any attempt to 'power on through' seems to end badly. Rest well, eat well, keep fluids going in and hopefully you'll be past the worst in a few days. Seems to take up to a month before you are totally OK - the fatigue can last longer than the acute symptoms.

[staffordian]

Thank, both.

I too heard the incubation period was less now than originally, so yes, not clear which event is most likely the culprit. Only clue, my brother sat next to me on a train for about fourteen hours and he is clear, which possibly points to hospital. Rather academic now though.

Hopefully from the above experiences I might start to feel some improvement any day now.

[staffordian]

Based on mine and others I know experience, just write off the next few days. Any attempt to 'power on through' seems to end badly. Rest well, eat well, keep fluids going in and hopefully you'll be past the worst in a few days. Seems to take up to a month before you are totally OK - the fatigue can last longer than the acute symptoms.

Thanks. Very much what I'm doing.

[Hallucigenia]

First, likely incubation period. I first had symptoms on Monday evening, feeling really shivery and my temperature was around 38. Now the two most likely sources of infection were either a spell of several hours in a hospital the previous Wednesday or a rail trip on the Saturday. One seems too early, the other too late, how long have others found between exposure and symptoms?

How long did others who have recently succumbed take to start feeling better?

Omicron is quick to infect, both my times with presumed omicron BAx were 2-3 days. This study suggests "classic" omicron could be showing symptoms between 33–75 hours after earliest possible exposure, but weighted towards the later end of that :
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm705152e3.htm

I'd tend to suspect the train but there's a possibility that it's a non/slow-omicron from the hospital, certainly there seems to be a lot of hospital-related infections at the moment.

My third time was the worse, which I suspect was something to do with the dose I received. Completely knocked me out, slept for about 2/3 of 3 days and pretty groggy the rest of the time, just so, so lacking energy without feeling particularly "sick"/miserable. Then really tired for another 7-10 days, then another 2 weeks or so when I just had no "resilience" to fatigue - just going to the shops or something would wipe me out for hours.

Then again my second time I just had a bit of a sore throat and felt a bit sleepy for a few days.

Omicron variants do seem to target the upper respiratory tract - which is good in that they don't go deep which can cause nasty problems, but it also means that in my case a nose-only test didn't detect it, but there was an immediate line when I used a throat swab on my nose-only LFT. A sore throat seems to be very common with omicrons.

[UncleEbenezer]

When I had it in March, the chronology was:

Thursday evening out. In company with lots of people: choir rehearsal followed by drinks at pub.

Sunday morning. Text from one of those people: she'd tested positive. I had a test kit, but tested negative myself. Also had some symptoms, but attributed them to ill-advised over-doing things on the Saturday.

Monday, another text: two more of our friends who'd been near us that Thursday (our end of the table at the pub) had tested positive. Later we learned, quite a lot more: it was reported that the choir was down by 70-80% the week after - though as one of the absentees myself I didn't witness that.

Tuesday: I tested positive. Felt ill enough to medicate on the lemsips.

Wednesday: The worst day. But still nowhere near as bad as the worst general lurgies (cold/flu).

Thursday: Much better. Off the lemsips - no symptoms to merit them any more.

It was still another interminable week before I tested negative and allowed myself to resume social life.

[pje16]

Sorry to hear about this
After being triple jabbed I had it on 4th April 2022 (no idea where it came from)
brain fog on Monday (just one day), that was a really weird feeling
Slightly sore throat for the next few days
tested negative on Sunday
I have noticed that over the last 2 or 3 months my speech has become slurred sometimes
it has been suggested to be that might be as result of brain fog

[bluedonkey]

I was in a group where six people all caught it from the same source. I escaped infection luckily. Those who got it varied from basically sleeping a lot for 3-5 days (plus coughing, aches, etc) to just a small inconvenience at the other end of the spectrum. This was in June 2022.

[staffordian]

Just to round this off, and again, many thanks to all who replied, I'm now over the worst. I still tested positive yesterday, will do another LFT tomorrow.

My chronology, I think I picked it up on Saturday 24th September.

Felt unwell Monday evening, really tired and shivery; I just couldn't get warm. Tested negative that evening.

Tuesday and Wednesday, felt lousy, like a really bad head cold as well as feeling totally shattered and still a bit shivery. Also had no appetite and I struggled drinking much, felt a bit nauseous. Basically spent all the time in bed. Tested on Wednesday morning and was positive.

Started feeling slightly better by Thursday, and to date, it's been a slow but steady improvement. Now just feels like a slight head cold.

I'd previously had three jabs; the initial two early last year and a booster late last year. Guess I'll be leaving this Autumn's booster for a month or two.

[pje16]

Thanks for the update
good to know you're over it