Covid 19 Experience

[akrono]

Thought I would relate the experience of my wife and I after we tested Positive for the virus. We know exactly how we contracted it. Her father was in a nursing home where he was at end of life. We visited him daily and were informed by staff AFTER he passed on that he had tested Positive for Covid 19. To say we were pissed is putting it mildly. About one week after our exposure my wife developed symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, slight fever and muscle aches. She recovered in about one week and is now out from under quarantine and feels fine.
In my case it was a total non event. No symptoms, no fever and felt just fine the entire time. If I hadn't received a call from the Health Dept telling me of my positive test, I would have never known I had it. My mother in law(age 74) also was positive and had no symptoms.
We have all heard the horror stores and media focus of those on ventilators and those who died. As tragic as those cases are, I think we need to keep in mind that the vast majority of those who contract it do recover. I count my blessings and frankly am a little relieved that I am now beyond the fear of contracting it...been there..done that!

 

[Nick12]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[LRDave]

We have all heard the horror stores and media focus of those on ventilators and those who died. As tragic as those cases are, I think we need to keep in mind that the vast majority of those who contract it do recover. I count my blessings and frankly am a little relieved that I am now beyond the fear of contracting it...been there..done that!

Glad to hear you are better. I hope the bolded above is indeed true.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

That was an egregious error with that nursing home. Im sorry for your loss and an glad to hear you both recovered well. Interested in your blood type anecdotally so see if O really does get it lighter.

 

[akrono]

In my case the blood type is A+. Not sure of the wife and mother in law....

 

[Toocold]

Good to hear. It's refreshing to hear from someone who says it was a non event.

 

[someguy]

Glad to hear you both had it pretty easy. I'm guessing you and DW are in your late 40's or early 50's? Do you have any concrete before and after points of reference -- such as before you ran x miles at a y pace three times a week and after you are now still doing that?

 

[Another Reader]

Thought I would relate the experience of my wife and I after we tested Positive for the virus. We know exactly how we contracted it. Her father was in a nursing home where he was at end of life. We visited him daily and were informed by staff AFTER he passed on that he had tested Positive for Covid 19. To say we were pissed is putting it mildly. About one week after our exposure my wife developed symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, slight fever and muscle aches. She recovered in about one week and is now out from under quarantine and feels fine.
In my case it was a total non event. No symptoms, no fever and felt just fine the entire time. If I hadn't received a call from the Health Dept telling me of my positive test, I would have never known I had it. My mother in law(age 74) also was positive and had no symptoms.
We have all heard the horror stores and media focus of those on ventilators and those who died. As tragic as those cases are, I think we need to keep in mind that the vast majority of those who contract it do recover. I count my blessings and frankly am a little relieved that I am now beyond the fear of contracting it...been there..done that!

How long ago was this? If it was recent, it will be interesting to see if any of you develop symptoms 30, 60, and 90 days out. You may also want to get a reliable antibody test at around 30 days (one that looks for antibodies to the spike protein) to see if you developed antibodies.

There are hundreds of thousands of "long haul" patients in this country who were not as lucky as you. Most never went on ventilators or were even hospitalized. COVID is not an "either or" disease. There are a lot of chronically ill people that have or had COVID whose issues have not been resolved.

I hope this really is the end of COVID for you and your family.

 

[akrono]

This is hot off the presses...I just came out from under the quarantine yesterday. Wife was ahead of me and wrapped up her 10 day period last week. I contacted my family doctor and inquired about antibodies now that I have been exposed. He told me that is unknown by the medical experts at this time. He stated I should have natural antibodies now but it is unknown if that is permanent or short lived. I am continuing to take the recommended precautions and time will tell how this all plays out...we are in uncharted waters here!

I contacted the County Health Department to report where we had been exposed and what we felt was negligent handling of the case involving my father in law. They acted like they could care less. The comment from them was " we are sorry you had this experience" The lack of concern was obvious...I hung up on them!

 

[JRon]

My wife and I have Covid right now. We were with a person last week for about 45 minutes who had it, but didn't know it at the time. We all had fabric masks on. About 2.5 days later I developed a cough and when I found out I was with a positive person I called my Dr. He said I am positive - no need to test.

Today is 1 week from exposure and I finally feel normal, but my symptoms were only like a mild flu. DW showed no symptoms. I am O+ and DW is A+. We will get antibody test after 30 days to see if those are present.

Hope everyone here stays healthy.

 

[Another Reader]

My wife and I have Covid right now. We were with a person last week for about 45 minutes who had it, but didn't know it at the time. We all had fabric masks on. About 2.5 days later I developed a cough and when I found out I was with a positive person I called my Dr. He said I am positive - no need to test.

Today is 1 week from exposure and I finally feel normal, but my symptoms were only like a mild flu. DW showed no symptoms. I am O+ and DW is A+. We will get antibody test after 30 days to see if those are present.

Hope everyone here stays healthy.

In your shoes, I would get the PCR test immediately. If you develop more symptoms later, a positive test result will help you in getting appropriate medical care. Without it, your insurance may not cover that care completely. Can you get a test through your doctor or at a public testing facility?

 

[Moemg]

We also had it . We were very cautious but went to a restaurant and five days later had nasal congestion ,cough , fatigue and I had G.I symptoms . SO had chills ,fever , nasal congestion ,fatigue and cough . It was gone in a week but I have lingering G.I symptoms . We are both 73 .

 

[Another Reader]

We also had it . We were very cautious but went to a restaurant and five days later had nasal congestion ,cough , fatigue and I had G.I symptoms . SO had chills ,fever , nasal congestion ,fatigue and cough . It was gone in a week but I have lingering G.I symptoms . We are both 73 .

How long ago did you contract COVID? Did you have a positive PCR test? If your symptoms persist, it will be helpful to have a positive PCR in getting appropriate medical care. A reliable antibody test that is positive is also supportive.

 

[ivinsfan]

How long ago was this? If it was recent, it will be interesting to see if any of you develop symptoms 30, 60, and 90 days out. You may also want to get a reliable antibody test at around 30 days (one that looks for antibodies to the spike protein) to see if you developed antibodies.

There are hundreds of thousands of "long haul" patients in this country who were not as lucky as you. Most never went on ventilators or were even hospitalized. COVID is not an "either or" disease. There are a lot of chronically ill people that have or had COVID whose issues have not been resolved.

I hope this really is the end of COVID for you and your family.

Im curious where you got this hundreds of thousands number, is there some kind of national tracking done? Or are you using a certain % of positive cases? I haven't seen a lot of hard data on numbers and wonder if someone is keeping track of long haul patients for research.

 

[Rianne]

This is good news and brings some relief. I believe personal stories need to get out there, as many as possible. The good, the bad and the ugly. The death rate is alarming. The fact this disease is highly contagious worries me. I have no idea how I'd react to it. That's the problem. I'll feel better in 6 months when there's much more data and many ways to treat it.

 

[akrono]

Covid 19

TO SOMEGUY:
To answer your question...I am 67 years old and my wife is 59. I trail run, bicycle ride or hike nearly every day. Since the time I was infected I have maintained my usual activity level with NO side effects. My wife had a period of several days where she was short of breath and very fatigued. We are now both back to all usual activiity levels...she went on a 25 mile bike ride yesterday and feeling fine!

 

[Moemg]

How long ago did you contract COVID? Did you have a positive PCR test? If your symptoms persist, it will be helpful to have a positive PCR in getting appropriate medical care. A reliable antibody test that is positive is also supportive.

I contacted it three months ago . I had an antibody test at two and a half months that was negative . I have great health insurance so medical care is no problem. I already saw my internist and am seeing him again next week . He gave me protonix which has helped some . It is not a constant thing .

 

[retire-early]

As tragic as those cases are, I think we need to keep in mind that the vast majority of those who contract it do recover.

Just because you had a non-event and your wife recovered does not mean that I will be so "lucky".

It is like playing Russian Roulette with this virus.
Your experience will have absolutely nothing to do with my experience.
Your "biology" is different than mine.

.

 

[Another Reader]

Im curious where you got this hundreds of thousands number, is there some kind of national tracking done? Or are you using a certain % of positive cases? I haven't seen a lot of hard data on numbers and wonder if someone is keeping track of long haul patients for research.

I'm using a variety of sources but it's a guess. Based on European surveys, it looks like somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of cases become long haulers. About 80,000 people belong to the public FB support group, Survivor Corps. About 8,000 belong to the private Slack support group, and 8-10,000 to the two private Long Haul COVID Fighters groups on Facebook.

There are approximately 6,000,000 cases in the US. I'm not sure if that is the number of positive tests (many people have had multiple positive tests) or the number of actual cases.

There is no hard data yet. There is no tracking of long haul cases. A substantial percentage of self reporting long haulers in the support groups either did not have PCR tests because they were not available or they were negative. It will be a year or longer before we get a handle on the number of chronic cases.

Pretty sure the insurance companies are looking at this because of the cost implications. Long haulers are expensive and there is no disease management experience for insurance companies to use in their cost estimates. My guess is they have some preliminary numbers that they won't want to share.

As a side note, if the ACA were to be invalidated, my guess is having COVID or even a positive PCR test will become a previously existing condition and will be excluded from insurance. And that's if COVID survivors can get insurance at all.

 

[akrono]

CHILL OUT DUDE! Take a deep breath and relax.

I merely shared my experience...not meant to minimize anyone else or their situation. Hopefully, most people will recover without serious medical consequences.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm using a variety of sources but it's a guess. Based on European surveys, it looks like somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of cases become long haulers. About 80,000 people belong to the public FB support group, Survivor Corps. About 8,000 belong to the private Slack support group, and 8-10,000 to the two private Long Haul COVID Fighters groups on Facebook.

There are approximately 6,000,000 cases in the US. I'm not sure if that is the number of positive tests (many people have had multiple positive tests) or the number of actual cases.

There is no hard data yet. There is no tracking of long haul cases. A substantial percentage of self reporting long haulers in the support groups either did not have PCR tests because they were not available or they were negative. It will be a year or longer before we get a handle on the number of chronic cases.

Pretty sure the insurance companies are looking at this because of the cost implications. Long haulers are expensive and there is no disease management experience for insurance companies to use in their cost estimates. My guess is they have some preliminary numbers that they won't want to share.

As a side note, if the ACA were to be invalidated, my guess is having COVID or even a positive PCR test will become a previously existing condition and will be excluded from insurance. And that's if COVID survivors can get insurance at all.

This will bear watching closely...an informal "poll" used people around 4 weeks past COVID and asked them if they felt "normal" a large percentage said that did not. A really bad bout with the flu can take a month plus to recover from. So they will need a definition of long haul, and a reliable way to track people and their symptoms. I mentioned on another CONID thread my DH had a heart valve replacement surgery go very badly. In hindsight he tells me it took him around 18 months to feel completely himself again. Little by little things kept improving.

As far as insurance companies and ACA probably best to keep that for another thread.

 

[sengsational]

Members report that others sharing personal experience with the disease is helpful, so please, no arguments about what might happen, interpreting statistics, what is "right" and all the stuff in the warning you read when you clicked to post, plus the containment area sticky post.

 

[Another Reader]

I didn't catch it, but long haulers were part of Dr. Fauci's testimony at the Senate today.

Here's an interesting opinion piece on Bloomberg. The graphic is helpful in understanding the long haul symptoms.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/...UWpsO7uW00SOO_7o0_vLdV1diQvyuRER19kFYdI59m27E

 

[ivinsfan]

Members report that others sharing personal experience with the disease is helpful, so please, no arguments about what might happen, interpreting statistics, what is "right" and all the stuff in the warning you read when you clicked to post, plus the containment area sticky post.

How about one thread that says post your experience here if you tested positive for COVID? Except for one unpleasantly worded post here, I think it's all been pretty civil.

 

[tb001]

We also had it . We were very cautious but went to a restaurant and five days later had nasal congestion ,cough , fatigue and I had G.I symptoms . SO had chills ,fever , nasal congestion ,fatigue and cough . It was gone in a week but I have lingering G.I symptoms . We are both 73 .

I’m curious, was this indoor dining or outside? Were you dining alone or with members outside of your household? How far away were you from other diners? What type of precautions were the restaurant and other diners taking?

We haven’t been out to eat, but miss it a lot. We keep seeing outbreaks here in restaurants and bars but there’s zero context, which is really frustrating. We don’t even know if the outbreaks are staff or patrons, indoor vs outdoor, etc...