Is it possible I've had Covid-19?
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Is it possible I've had Covid-19?
Back a couple of months a certain Mr Hipkin and I were chatting by his cafe which is partway down his 'slope'. I've mentioned it several times re stress-testing the old heart. Beach to clifftop with a nice U bend in the middle. Best time, Sand to clifftop, 65 seconds.
"We used to scream down here on our soapbox carts. Terrifying." "Yes, and now you go up it like it's not here". I was kinda proud of my 80 yo bones. Hardly had he got the words out of his mouth and my performance fell off. Next couple of days a seriously uncomfortable pain started in my right chest.
Can't be, not me. Got lots of irritating little things, by legs-heart-lungs - a real Superman me-ee. I pushed on for three days or so and then got gout. That stopped me. Feet became swollen, but that had never happened before with gout. A bitey dæmon with its jaws over my toe, yes, that was back, but the swelling. An now the cough. Dry, no snot, ever. Headache, and a kind of battle going on in my immune system, worse at nights.
But then I've go a history of being allergic to a broad spectrum of chemicals. Wheat, gluten. Total PITA. But now I've got fat feet. I'll call Dr Google.
Flippin' 'ek!!! Right heart failure.
"Right heart failure is not all that bad" my GP was saying to me."
"Oh, toodle off. I want to be Superman, not accepting my bull's heart is anything but 1000 HP just ticking over." "How old are you?" "80" "Really? Well, Behave your age. 80 . . . ?" "yes" "most of your contemporaries are dead." Mmmm, not quite, but getting there. But now the weezing, blamed on the heart's inability to get rid of water, was getting worse. By bedtime, I had to walk fromn my den on balls of water. Can't be right. Chest hurt more, like a painful cucumber to the right of the lung. All my muscles ached , as did my head. Energy gone, and that old something fighting the core of my being while I'm typing, not unusual, but here and a bad one. It's all blurrrrred with this historic allergy thing.
About three weeks of muscles hurting. Press-ups make the muscles hurt that night. Deep nasty hurt. So did the cucumber, right of right lung.
AS I've said before, heart, and I'm going to stress it until it explodes. Heck, I used to run up the Basle tower and meet my FO's at the lift door. Just my sense of humour. Bo-lox to main pump failure, but I'll take it easy for a while. It was getting better, even my feet were becoming feet-shaped again. Yaaaay, I can wear my shoes. But, there were too many things that didn't fit. Getting better was one of them 100 seconds beach to top now, but still pretty aerobic for an oldie.
Slowly, slowly the aching pain of press-ups and rowing are subsiding. My body is healing, but slower than when I was a kid. Not everything fits the RH heart failure hypothesis. And now folk are describing this dry cough, weakness and headaches.
What I had assumed was an allergic reaction to doing a clothes wash - that's the usual one - just may have been a virus. The GP just said that in passing.. Just a virus. But now, there's a specific virus kicking around, and I tick circa 60% of the boxes. or I did.
Needless to say I want to have had it, but the new detection kits are prototypes and not to be wasted on some guy that just wonders if he's immune. I'm not quite convinced enough to go to the front line and tease at it. But it would be wonderful to know.
"We used to scream down here on our soapbox carts. Terrifying." "Yes, and now you go up it like it's not here". I was kinda proud of my 80 yo bones. Hardly had he got the words out of his mouth and my performance fell off. Next couple of days a seriously uncomfortable pain started in my right chest.
Can't be, not me. Got lots of irritating little things, by legs-heart-lungs - a real Superman me-ee. I pushed on for three days or so and then got gout. That stopped me. Feet became swollen, but that had never happened before with gout. A bitey dæmon with its jaws over my toe, yes, that was back, but the swelling. An now the cough. Dry, no snot, ever. Headache, and a kind of battle going on in my immune system, worse at nights.
But then I've go a history of being allergic to a broad spectrum of chemicals. Wheat, gluten. Total PITA. But now I've got fat feet. I'll call Dr Google.
Flippin' 'ek!!! Right heart failure.
"Right heart failure is not all that bad" my GP was saying to me."
"Oh, toodle off. I want to be Superman, not accepting my bull's heart is anything but 1000 HP just ticking over." "How old are you?" "80" "Really? Well, Behave your age. 80 . . . ?" "yes" "most of your contemporaries are dead." Mmmm, not quite, but getting there. But now the weezing, blamed on the heart's inability to get rid of water, was getting worse. By bedtime, I had to walk fromn my den on balls of water. Can't be right. Chest hurt more, like a painful cucumber to the right of the lung. All my muscles ached , as did my head. Energy gone, and that old something fighting the core of my being while I'm typing, not unusual, but here and a bad one. It's all blurrrrred with this historic allergy thing.
About three weeks of muscles hurting. Press-ups make the muscles hurt that night. Deep nasty hurt. So did the cucumber, right of right lung.
AS I've said before, heart, and I'm going to stress it until it explodes. Heck, I used to run up the Basle tower and meet my FO's at the lift door. Just my sense of humour. Bo-lox to main pump failure, but I'll take it easy for a while. It was getting better, even my feet were becoming feet-shaped again. Yaaaay, I can wear my shoes. But, there were too many things that didn't fit. Getting better was one of them 100 seconds beach to top now, but still pretty aerobic for an oldie.
Slowly, slowly the aching pain of press-ups and rowing are subsiding. My body is healing, but slower than when I was a kid. Not everything fits the RH heart failure hypothesis. And now folk are describing this dry cough, weakness and headaches.
What I had assumed was an allergic reaction to doing a clothes wash - that's the usual one - just may have been a virus. The GP just said that in passing.. Just a virus. But now, there's a specific virus kicking around, and I tick circa 60% of the boxes. or I did.
Needless to say I want to have had it, but the new detection kits are prototypes and not to be wasted on some guy that just wonders if he's immune. I'm not quite convinced enough to go to the front line and tease at it. But it would be wonderful to know.
A couple of months ago? Jan/Feb? Well, Connor Reed caught WURS at the end of November in Wuhan. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/108766...s-china-wuhan/
48 people have read this in the medical section so far with no replies, i.e. not a single 'No, not possible'.
48 people have read this in the medical section so far with no replies, i.e. not a single 'No, not possible'.
There was something very nasty going around bits of Europe in September/October - many similar symptoms to CV-19 (tho' I never heard it killed anyone I know) - rotten dragging cough, high temperature, often a few days wiped out in bed, not streaming from eyes or nose.
Apologies for not providing instantaneous opinions jolihokistix 
Loose rivets, I feel I know you as well as my own patients....... the right heart failure is simply a possibility mentioned by your GP as you are one of our senior pilots
and had swollen feet, but it could be anything and you need an echocardiogram to decide. As you are on the mend I would forget it.
Back to the main symptoms. First timing. I am very suspicious this all started well before December but the UK was early February, mainly south coast, so you have to be in the right place at the right time. Initially travelers from Singapore and Australia and skiers from Europe at half term. Only you know if such contacts were likely
Dry cough, tiredness, aches and pains and headache all fit SARS-CoV2, but also fit other viral infections as Asturias56 points out. Loss of taste or smell, mild diarrhoea, nausea, nosebleeds also suspicious if you had them..... however given your history published over the years on this thread and your 'over 21' status you might have been assumed to NOT have had it as you would most likely have been seriously ill.
This isnt just an interesting discussion during lockdown - it is at the heart of where we go next. Without testing and tracing we cant stop lockdown. WHEN we can stop lockdown is when the number of new cases is LESS than the ability to track and trace. So we must close our borders to humans, get the tests going and introduce contact systems - I like phone apps
You can do a fingerprick antibody test - there are several that do work. The government doesnt like them because 10-20% of patients dont produce significant antibodies. The test is then negative - not because the test is faulty but because it is correctly identifying no antibodies. The test tells us the proportion of the population that has been infected, whether an individual HAS had it (but not whether they have not had it!!) and who can safely unlock. Sadly the test is only available to doctors but that would likely be the answer to your question because it is the younger patients who on the whole dont produce antibodies
I will stop now dear friend having been rude about your age so many times. I apologise. Stay safe
Loose rivets, I feel I know you as well as my own patients....... the right heart failure is simply a possibility mentioned by your GP as you are one of our senior pilots
and had swollen feet, but it could be anything and you need an echocardiogram to decide. As you are on the mend I would forget it.Back to the main symptoms. First timing. I am very suspicious this all started well before December but the UK was early February, mainly south coast, so you have to be in the right place at the right time. Initially travelers from Singapore and Australia and skiers from Europe at half term. Only you know if such contacts were likely
Dry cough, tiredness, aches and pains and headache all fit SARS-CoV2, but also fit other viral infections as Asturias56 points out. Loss of taste or smell, mild diarrhoea, nausea, nosebleeds also suspicious if you had them..... however given your history published over the years on this thread and your 'over 21' status you might have been assumed to NOT have had it as you would most likely have been seriously ill.
This isnt just an interesting discussion during lockdown - it is at the heart of where we go next. Without testing and tracing we cant stop lockdown. WHEN we can stop lockdown is when the number of new cases is LESS than the ability to track and trace. So we must close our borders to humans, get the tests going and introduce contact systems - I like phone apps
You can do a fingerprick antibody test - there are several that do work. The government doesnt like them because 10-20% of patients dont produce significant antibodies. The test is then negative - not because the test is faulty but because it is correctly identifying no antibodies. The test tells us the proportion of the population that has been infected, whether an individual HAS had it (but not whether they have not had it!!) and who can safely unlock. Sadly the test is only available to doctors but that would likely be the answer to your question because it is the younger patients who on the whole dont produce antibodies
I will stop now dear friend having been rude about your age so many times. I apologise. Stay safe
I have a few friends who claim to have caught some unusual powerful cold this winter season lasting weeks each. This happened to them before corona got mentioned anywhere. Symptoms were coughing and exhaustion but without fever or drama. Looking back they claim it likely was something corona-related maybe not the full force thing. I myself had some cough and actually felt like having lost my sensory sense of taste for some days. (fully recovered)
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Awwwww, Radgirl. It's wonderful to have a friend that can work out how I was at a given time. That, and where I was, routinely defeats my 86 billion, half-dozen remaining brain cells.
LESS HAIR. There is a lot of similar talk in my area. In Nov/Dec 19, I and son had a cough for a long time accompanied by fatigue. Put it down to the usual winter illnesses. But since then, my household has remained fit and well.
Capt Scribble, a couple of months ago is possible. November/ December is not possible. I suspect it started in China in October but we are more certain about start dates elsewhere in the region. That makes the UK impossible in 2019. As a separate calculation we can model backwards from the known cases at any point to work out the time of first transmission. Above my paygrade and not that accurate but you dont get to the start of 2020 for the UK. The difference with SARS-CoV2 is that is transmits effectively so you rapidly get a cluster ie 10 or more cases and rapidly increase numbers. You cant get just one case now and one case in a month - unless of course you have an efficient healthcare service that can track and trace....
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Interesting that you should mention skiers from Europe, Radgirl. A couple of friends of ours went to Austria with their children during the school half term in February. Within a week of returning, both the adults were feeling pretty lousy. Temperature, sore throats and extreme fatigue. Covid was just a news report from China at the time so they never made a connection until fairly recently. Both have recovered well but neither of their children succumbed, although in close contact in the same household. Unless, they did and were asymptomatic? The whole family could be a fascinating case study.
Well if it wasn't a market in China a coffee shop at Gatwick would be my second choice of a source of the Plague 
Some clever labs have looked at the virus in different countries and can track its path round the world. Behind blue eyes - half term skiers were a major vector source. I bet the family had it. Children rarely if ever get symptoms but do have virus and shed it. A number of such families have been tested
