I have been sick, and I am still sick. The level of sick I have been: I have not been at my computer; I did not for many days feel up to having my laptop up in bed with me either; I lost my Wordle and Waffle streaks. At one point I wanted ginger ale, and I needed to text Paul to bring some to me, but my phone was on my bedside table and I would have to reach my arm out from under the covers to get it; it took me over ten minutes to achieve that. I got into the shower one morning, and I could not finish the shower: I had to just sort of wrap it up halfway and get out and dry off, and then I had to put my towel on the bed and lie down for awhile before I could get dressed. There is a particular category of illness where one lies in bed, not even bored, just sort of lying there doing nothing hour after hour, and this was that category of illness. After a couple of days, I was able to start reading People magazines. Now I am up to Light Novels.
My main symptoms were fever, cough, runny nose (at first a ton of sneezing, then just running/stuffy), congestion, exhaustion, loss of senses of taste/smell, plus body aches and chills and so forth but I file those under fever. I went to urgent care not for those symptoms, but when the pain and pressure in one ear became worrisome. The doctor was distracted by the ear (he diagnosed an ear canal infection, which led to an Unpleasant Procedure ((A WICK!! A WICK IN MY EAR!!)) and then seven days of ear drops), but said that even with the suspicious taste/smell-loss symptoms, he did not think it was Covid, he thought it was flu. (It had been too many days since symptom-onset for it to be worthwhile to do a flu test.) He said my symptoms lined up with a type of flu that was currently rampant in our area.
I had to go back two days later to have the ear re-evaluated. I saw a different doctor, who confirmed the first doctor’s assessment of the ear, and reassured me that yes, it would still be hurting badly enough to wake me up in the night, even with the wick and two days of antibiotic drops. He also asked about my other symptoms, and not only agreed with the doctor that it was likely flu, he narrowed it down and said he thought it was novel influenza A. In case you are someone who likes to know the virus. He said it’s everywhere in our area, and that it seems to be lasting “a good two weeks” for most people. I am not sure whether to count from the very first symptoms (a feeling of “maybe coming down with a cold” on Christmas Eve) or from the first serious symptoms (feeling very bad on Christmas Day evening, happily after all the important Christmassing was done), but either way I may be within sight of the end of this.
I still can’t smell or taste things, which still seems suspicious to me; I have taken four covid rapid tests, all negative, but I worry they are not sufficiently effective at diagnosing newer strains. I sprayed some foaming bleach spray into the toilet bowl and onto the shower curtain (I am not up to cleaning, but I can do some quick killing), and I could not smell it at all. I lit some matches and blew them out: I could not smell them. I cannot smell Vicks VapoRub!! And I can’t hear out of the ear that is infected, except I can hear my own pulse. My whole head feels wrong. I feel semi-disconnected from reality.
I have missed two weeks of work; I don’t know the last time I was sick enough to miss two weeks of work. Never? I did get flu once before, but it was when I had small children, so there was no taking time off. I remember putting out a bunch of sippee cups of milk and a box of dry cereal, putting the TV on some kids’ channel, and then curling up in a recliner and trying to stay alive.
The last time I got flu, I was vaccinated at my doctor’s office. I asked the nurse how painful the shot was that year, because it seems to vary from year to year. She said not to worry: she had a particular technique that surprised people with how painless it was. She told me that people say to her, “Wow, shots usually hurt, but not when you do it! My arm wasn’t even sore afterward!” I watched as she gave me the shot, then pulled the needle out with a flair; the vaccine liquid made a watery arc through the air. Her shots didn’t hurt because the fluid was not going into the muscle. I did not say anything. I got the flu. I wonder how many of her other patients also got the flu. I wonder if she is still giving completely ineffective shots and feeling proud of her technique. I hope at some point they gave her a student trainee, and the student trainee said, “But…the shot went into the air.”
This year I wonder if it was because I got the flu shot at the same time as the covid shot. They said it was okay to do that, but I don’t trust them not to say something is okay if it’s less than ideal but they think more people will get the shots that way; I might make that same call, if I were them. But also, I know the flu shot doesn’t cover all the strains, it just covers the predicted strains; I also know that even if you get the right shot for the right strains, your particular body might fail to take up the sword. Edward got both chicken pox vaccinations, but when doctors did a blood test before starting the Remicade, it showed no immunity to chicken pox.
So who knows why, but our whole household got sick. Our timing was very lucky: Paul was sick BEFORE Christmas, but was better by the day; the rest of us didn’t feel really bad until AFTER Christmas; so Christmas was not ruined, and also there has always been an adult who feels well enough to go to the grocery store and/or pharmacy. Three of the six of us have had ear complications requiring antibiotics (two of us got drops, one of us got pills), which I think is interesting. One of us had sinus complications that might have become serious, but they used a sinus rinse (Target link, Amazon link) and did steam treatments (leaning over a bowl of just-boiled water with a towel tent over the head), and those seemed to beat it into submission.
One reason I am telling you about this recent/ongoing illness is because misery loves company: now that I’m well enough to use a computer, I’d love to hear about it if you’ve been sick too. Your symptoms! Did you stay in bed for some of it? DID IT GET YOUR EAR?? The other reason I’m telling you is that I’ve noticed that ever since the pandemic, people seem to be more secretive about being sick. I remember people used to complain all over social media about it! But now it’s as if it’s something shameful: if you are sick, it’s maybe that you weren’t being careful; maybe you were socializing irresponsibly; also, maybe you got other people sick. A feeling of blame. But there sure is a lot less of that once someone starts the ball rolling! I said on Facebook that we’d all been sick, and a BUNCH of people commented that they’d been sick too, and my impression is that they were commenting with RELIEF: it’s not just us! other people are sick too!
I am sick too! I got it from my husband, who is suffering splendidly and coughing and sneezing louder than you would think possible. He’s convinced he got it on our trip to Canada for Christmas, and so we will probably never take a trip in the winter again. He has the terrible cough, sneezing, stuffy/runny nose, cannot smell or taste, but no ear involvement. His coughing was SO loud and deep that I made him to go urgent care to be sure he didn’t have pneumonia. He took three Covid tests; all were negative, but like you, I do not trust the rapid tests at all.
Then I got it! This is certainly a development because I NEVER (OK, almost never) get what’s going around. I could not understand why people suffered so with a cold, and now I am starting to get an inkling. I did have a flu shot; my husband did not. So far I am getting a little more sick with each passing day, and looking forward to being on the upswing soon. I have been working (from home) and doing all my usual activities throughout, so far.
I hope you feel better VERY soon!
I had to re-read the paragraph about the nurse’s flu shots three times to make sure I was processing correctly. That is WILD.
Oh Swistle, I’m so sorry that you and your family have been so sick. :( I hope you continue to improve and that your sense of smell and taste come back ASAP.
Sorry to hear this. I was actually wondering about you because you would normally do a little holiday update it seemed.
Currently healthy but For the past several years I’ve gotten step throat, and it’s incredible how bad it feels. Your shower remark reminded me of it and made me feel so bad for you. So take care Swistle, I hope you get your taste back soon! Also what a horrifying story about that nurse.
We finally succumbed to the dreaded covid. The kids were sick with what I assumed was a cold. Home one day, then back at school. They reported up to 1/4 of students out on some days, but according to local Facebook most people were testing negative for covid and flu. I got sick a few days later – very achy, congested, tired. But cold-like, and I still mostly managed to WFH. About 5 days into my “cold” my in-laws reported testing positive, so I tested and yep positive. That night my husband came down with it the worst of all of us. In bed for 3 days with a migraine and achy, then took over a week to recover from congestion. Overall, not as bad as I had feared the past 3.5 years, but definitely Not Fun. The flu sounds horrible this year, and I’m sorry you had to deal with it all! (Note that I feel retrospectively terrible about sending my kids to school with probable covid, next time we will definitely test. It definitely did not seem severe enough to be covid. Lesson learned!)
I’m so sorry you’ve been sick! We went on a little pre-Christmas vacation to a different state and I had allergy symptoms the whole time. The day we got home I felt so much better, and then the day after that BAM full-blown sickness. Husband got it too, had to take him to urgent care because he couldn’t breathe. Dr thought it was RSV (not COVID, aches but no fever, terrible cough) but they did not have adult RSV tests, only ones for children.
We were sick on Christmas Eve and I am just now back to about 90% well; husband is still taking breathing treatments on his nebulizer and is about 50%. It was terrible; zero stars, but not as bad as COVID which we had the previous Christmas despite being vaxxed.
… now that makes me curious, because 1. my dad got the flu, during a family convergence, and 2. my sister thinks she did not get the flu, but does have an ear infection. (my mom now has the flu and strongly affirms it is something I Do Not Want To Have; it is also Influenza A, although I do not know if it is novel or nonfiction or graphic novel edition.)
It is possible to get things even if you are being Really Quite Careful (spouse managed to catch covid *while eating outdoors* which was supposed to be safe but hey omicron and a stack of people who didn’t yet know they were sick: apparently enough virus floating in the air), but yes, it is more loaded now that we grasp more that people doing things while sick is part of why everyone else gets sick. (but! there is virus shedding before you know you’re sick, with many things! And that is not anyone’s fault!)(but also we all know those people who go and do everything even though they know they are sick with something contagious and also won’t even mask and just… ugh. I had hoped that the One Thing we’d get out of the pandemic would be masking being normalized, esp. masking whenever you might be sick, but… not in the US, anyway.)
And YES it is nice for getting sick to not be a shameful topic. (except if you do things that will almost certainly spread it. I… don’t feel badly about people being aware people might be cranky about them, say, going to a public performance indoors while flu-y or covid-y.)
I hope you feel better soon, and if you need Fluff Reading, I know I have some up my sleeve and I bet others here do as well…
I am trying to work through my feelings about post-pandemic sick. I am a little sick. My daughter’s teacher went home with COVID right before the break so we have been worried, and then she had a tiny cough (but she gets a tiny cough at the drop of a half, and tested negative, although she swabbed her nose under duress and I don’t necessarily trust the results), and then I had a scratchy throat – but I have run through dozens of COVID tests at this point, including one from two days ago, proving that I often have unexplained scratchy throats – and then Thursday it was starting to cross the line into a cough and I was ready to start cancelling things. And then it was mostly better by Friday morning. All told, as a family we are on week three or four of mostly fine but not fine enough that I wouldn’t be concerned about visiting a 90 year old grandparent or something, and feeling stressed because who knows who has a 90 year old grandparent in their life that they can’t or don’t know to isolate from. And I very much miss the days where wearing masks was a simple solution to this issue, but it’s gotten harder to get my daughter to do it. And after multiple years of obsessively assessing everyone’s risk factors, it’s hard to imagine that showing up with a mix of masks/not masks + tiny cough as a family isn’t going to trigger some people’s anxiety. But I also don’t want to exhaust what goodwill my daughter still has for the whole let’s avoid COVID as much as possible project by being too draconian. And it’s just – a lot to navigate, and so I think I may be understand why people would rather hide when they are sick and pretend none of these choices are coming up.
Yes. Yes to all of this. I can relate to just about every sentence you wrote. The touch of a sore throat that comes on and then recedes and trying to decide how to mitigate risk for yourself and others (family and society as a whole) for 3 years straight…so hard.
Practically 4 years – I can’t even count.
I got sick a few days after Christmas. I gave my one-year-old nephew a lovely handmade gift, and he gave me a mystery illness in return. Luckily he’s very cute and I forgive him. Also luckily, I only felt really gross for a couple days and was completely fine in time for my birthday on Wednesday.
I got my covid booster last week (I’m not eligible in Ireland so I got in while I was in the US for the holidays) and now your flu shot story is making me nervous because it barely hurt at all. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck the next day, though, so I think it’s probably fine.
And I should have said in my last comment – I hope you and your family feel better soon!
Not sure if this is helpful or not, but in case Edwards varicella immunity result is a worry for you- per the cdc (I work in public health vaccine programs)- “testing for varicella immunity following vaccination is not recommended because commercially available VZV IgG assays are not sensitive enough to detect all seroconversions after vaccination.”
It’s very likely he is protected- the test was developed to asses immunity to wild type virus which produces a much higher level of antibody (at the cost of serious illness obviously). The test was never designed to assess post vaccine immunity, and yet we know from epidemiology that it works very well to protect.
Link- https://www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/lab-testing/lab-tests.html
Just fyi!
That is fascinating about the varicella immunity test!
Is it similar for Hepatitis? I have two monozygotic twin aunts who were nurses (long retired) and they required by their hospital not only to have received a Hep B vaccine, but also to be tested for immunity every few year and be re-vaccinated if the test did not indicate immunity. One aunt, but not the other, had to re-vaccinate every time.
Oh I find this info on the pox vax very interesting. Ty!
I hope you are on your feet and feeling well soon!
When I had the flu, Diane suggested that I listen to an audiobook and I yelled at her because I did not have enough energy to LISTEN. My god, Diane.
I agree with their assessment of flu simply because flu is the only illness that I get that makes me understand why people die from it. I never feel worse in my life than when I have the flu. Like I’d rather go through an unmedicated labor than have flu.
Covid tests are still working fine, assuming you take enough of them and far enough into your illness. They look for the N protein and the changes have mostly been to the spike protein.
I get my flu shot every year and I still get the flu about once every eight years. It’s a tricky bastard. Oh and losing your sense of smell is common with flu too. Covid made it famous but lots of germs can do that. Damn flu. (I really, really hate the flu.)
I’m glad you are starting to feel better and if you are too tired to listen to an audiobook, feel free to yell at Diane.
I just came to say MY GOD, DIANE! And the real reason for my comment, thank you for sharing the info on why COVID tests are still effective!
Seconding the thanks for explaining why tests still work. I almost feel like we are being tricked into thinking they don’t work because people who know they have COVID and feel responsible for not spreading it are so inconvenient. Much easier for them if they (although I honestly have no idea who they is) can make being careful seem foolish or impossible.
Interesting! One of my kids was feeling puny, so I had him take a COVID test. Negative. A couple of days later, he still felt crummy, so off he went to urgent care in case it was flu and there was still time to take flu meds. Positive for COVID, positive for flu, too late for meds.
But at least he was home rather than doing this to his roommate.
My unvaxxed BIL and SIL were scheduled to come over this weekend. I went out to the movies instead (masked, at a sparsely attended show with reserved seating)
That sounds terrible! I hope you are on the downhill stretch. But yikes!
It seems like everyone is sick with various forms of COVID, the flu, or regular old colds. And it sounds like some people get better from one thing and then get the next thing, which is also really annoying because the symptoms are similar enough that you think you aren’t ever getting better.
I felt a cold coming on Christmas Day and ended up with a slight cold. I spent the next few days drinking more water than usual and I think it sort of flushed it out. However, I am left with a weird cough. It isn’t a bad cough at all and it isn’t a frequent cough. But 3-4 times per day, I’ll start coughing and I can’t really stop for a little bit. I also tested for COVID and was negative, but I didn’t think it was COVID as both times I’ve had it, it was even more mild than this cold was.
Urgh I feel for you.
This year we made it through unscathed. But last Christmas was a different story. I went on a mum’s night out on around Dec 17 with 6 friends and by the 19th, 6/7 of us were really unwell with wildly differing symptoms. I was bedbound up until around Dec 23, dragged us home to my parents’ house for Christmas (a 6 hr drive) and still didn’t feel human by NY – even when I was past the worst I wanted to nothing but sleep.
To top it off, a sickness bug ravaged the rest of my extended family, starting on Christmas Day with my mum before lunch and my dad from late afternoon (I didn’t see him at all for 48 hours and he’s never, ever sick). Then my sister and one niece and BiL came down with it over the next 3 days. It was not a bundle of fun…
Sending healthy vibes!
Oh dear Swistle. Thank you for mustering the strength to post this.
It sounds truly awful and I hope you start feeling better every day and have a nice long stretch of good health soon.
BTW: you are right that people are advised to get flu and covid shots together partly for the convenience factor. However, there is some pre-print research suggesting getting both together enhances the effectiveness of the COVID booster (and more research is needed – as always – but it doesn’t seem to decrease the effectiveness of the flu vaccine at all).
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557347v1
I love that people comment with good information like this AND the test information above. It’s so helpful. Thanks.
Also: Feel Better Swistle!
In the pre-times I would often lose my sense of smell from sinus congestion while sick. I would be holding the vicks and be like, “How does this stuff lose its smell???” so then I would make a non-sick person smell it and they would be blown off their feet.
Oh nooo! I had wondered what had happened to you because I kept checking back to see how your Christmas was and there were no updates. Just yesterday or so I was looking at how many weeks it had been since your last post and was worried something bad had happened. So sorry to hear you’ve been so sick. :(
In 2021 I got flu from my son right before Christmas. Like he was sick on Christmas Eve Eve and I took him to urgent care for fevers and they tested for flu. So then we knew what it was when 4/5 of us got it. We’d all had flu shots that year but still got sick from pre-Christmas to New Year’s Day. It did ruin Christmas and we had to reschedule it and I just could eat banana on Christmas day.
This year my 16 year old son came home from school on the final day of term and said he thought he was getting sick. It was just a kinda bad cold but then my husband got it on Christmas Eve so wasn’t feeling good on Christmas Day. I didn’t get it until New Year’s Day and did spend a day in bed. My son and husband both started with a sore throat. Mine didn’t get too sore.
Good observation on how people don’t want to admit being sick anymore. I didn’t want to post about it on social media either. It does feel like people judge people for being sick or choices made surrounding that these days.
Glad your Christmas wasn’t runied. Rough way to spend a few weeks though.
Oh man. My family was OK this year but last year at Christmas my wife was down for the count and isolating because of Covid. She is NOT a good patient…lots of fetching her things and coming to observe her temperature increase by .1. Meanwhile I was trying to do all the last minute wrapping and cookie baking and Magic Making. And then on Christmas Eve my 8 year old started projectile barfing followed that night by bleeding (!) from her ear (!!) and I truly thought I was in hell. Turns out it was a ruptured ear drum because of infection. Looking back, I wonder how I made it through the new year with any shreds of sanity left.
Oh, and I should have mentioned that I have had a mystery on/off again sore throat (like, noticeably sore for maybe an hour or two total per day) for *three weeks* now, but nothing else, so… maybe it is tree pollen allergies? (why is tree pollen high in Oklahoma in the dead of winter? I DO NOT KNOW) Maybe my tonsils just hate me and I should have been born 50 years earlier when they would have just yanked them out in my youth?
But it is maddening to do the “okay, is this symptom set just being a little tired from doing too much, plus allergies? or is it something contagious that will also get worse so I need to cancel everything and lay in supplies?” dance/waiting game. (plus the decision fatigue. We already have enough to deal with without layering in a stack of decision fatigue!)
This. And also, I have certainly developed psychosomatic symptoms whenever I hear that a coworker/family member has something, so then I wander around going, is my throat REALLY sore? Am I just imagining it because I am suggestive? IS THIS THE BIG ONE?
OMG, me. It’s AWFUL.
Swistle, you are the second blogger I have read this week who has had Influenza A in the past month, and this other blogger ALSO said that was the sickest she’d ever been. Ever. Including Covid. It sounds honestly dreadful. I was actually wondering if you were okay since there hadn’t been a post from you for so long, and here you were, not okay at all. I am SO glad you’re feeling better. I was mildly sick at the beginning of November, and looking back I wonder if it was a mild form of Covid. Who can say, honestly, who can say anymore. Also, if society isn’t shaming people for one thing, it’s the next. Shame for getting sick does seem to be a thing now, and fuck all that. Anyway, you have all my sympathy. I had influenza in 2018 and I still remember how incredibly sick I was. My husband had bought the boys new beds right around when I got sick and all I could do was cry because the thought of new beds, and bedding, and anything at all other than lying in my own bed, was incredibly overwhelming. I just could not deal with the thought of it. And I wasn’t even doing anything about it, he was taking care of it. It was a few weeks until I was better, and a long while after that when I stopped coughing.
whoops, just commented using my new email address and I’m not sure if my comment went through or not. Fingers crossed, it was a long comment, not sure if I can rewrite it!
Ugh! That sounds so horrible. I hope you all improve quicker than expected.
I am not sick and am currently knocking on wood.
When I was a kid, I ruptured my ear drum and had to have a wick for the medication. I VIVIDLY remember the absolute relief of finally pulling the wick out after 2 weeks. It was a crusty and oh so satisfying experience. So maybe it will be the same for you in the end :)
… wait the wick *stays in your ear for weeks*??? Oh that would drive me absolutely bonkers, and sympathy to all, and also yes, I could see how finally taking it out would feel [comparatively] soooooo good.
(also yes, I have heard from a lot of people how absolutely walloped and flattened they have been by this year’s viruses, and also yes, a higher than normal percentage of ear infections or other ear involvement and maybe normal/maybe a little high on extra sinus things?)(and I have Been There on really wanting a drink and yet it would require *somewhat moving my arm* and… sigh.)
May all have more health, and less uuugh, and always get good doctors when there is uuugh.
I’m so sorry your sick! I hope you recover soon.
Luckily, we haven’t been sick (knock on wood!) but my friend’s youngest got the flu a couple of weeks ago – and he couldn’t walk or stand because his legs hurt so much; it was terrifying. The doctor said this is a wicked strain and that was one of the symptoms.
Oh gosh, I’m so sorry you’ve been so sick.
I’m very grateful to my friend whose son was sick with Influenza A for two weeks (!!) who told me about it and also complained that you can only be prescribed Tamiflu if it’s within 48 hours of symptoms. When my son started showing symptoms I immediately took him in for a test so we were able to get Tami flu. Even knowing this we barely made the cutoff as it took me a day of seeing the symptoms (and multiple negative Covid tests) to suspect it may actually be the flu and then time to get into the doctor and then 24 hours to get the results back. They almost didn’t give it to us because we were technically beyond the 48 hour mark by about 12 hours, but I pushed and the medicine did seem to help. It left me feeling so frustrated because we have a medicine available to help but it can’t be used in probably 99% of cases because it’s nearly impossible to get diagnosed within 48 hours.
I managed to escape the flu this year but I had it a year ago. It was awful and turned into a sinus infection and felt never ending. I always think of typical sickness as 3-4 days max of feeling really bad and after that you may still not be 100% but can function feel a little better day by day. I remember hitting the 10 day mark and just wondering how do I still feel this bad after 10 days?!?! It’s the worst and I’m so sorry you are dealing with it.
I hope everyone recovers swiftly and without further complications. Stay hydrated! Ginger ale is what my mom used to give us when we were sick- good choice!
I have had a mysterious illness of unknown origins this week. Starting with 3 days water retention and joint pain, tiredness, followed by petechiae on my legs. Hustled to Dr office, where he had nothing to suggest except to do a bunch of blood tests. Then 2 days later even more blood tests. And now waiting for him to get back to me. So I assume I’m not dying, but it would have been nice to have more guidance from him. I had to rely on Dr Google and med school daughter to explain some of the tests and results. It’ll probably be categorized as some random virus. And I got no meds from him. Why can’t I ever have a doctor who hands out z-pacs just in case?
This is a very minor thing…but I find it helps to remind yourself that it is actually good to be able to let go of an app streak. You are the boss, not the app. Letting the streak lapse is a sign that you have a healthy relationship with electronics.
I haven’t been sick to my knowledge but my right ear has been clogged for a couple of weeks. I thought it was wax or Q-tip fuzz but after reading this I’m not sure. I don’t have pain so I haven’t been to the doctor yet. I’m waiting for the infection rate to go down a bit before I go someplace where there are sick people.
Hope you feel better soon. I was sick with pneumonia once and was similarly laid out. I waited a month after the COVID shot to get the flu shot because I felt weird about the double dose. The shot flying through the air story is wild! I imagine other workers coming in and saying,” Why is the floor always wet after she’s in here?”
Sorry Swistle – that sounds miserable. I’m on my second cold of the winter but have been lucky to avoid the nastier bugs so far. Just here to recommend that you take it as easy as humanly possible in the weeks following recovery. I know this advice is both widely-known (these days) and often impossible to implement – but, as the spouse of someone whose life has been drastically altered by Long [Virus], before Long Covid specifically was a thing, I wish so much that she had had the knowledge and support and structures in place back then to take it slowly after the initial illness, rather than rushing back into work and life admin and all the rest. I think of a line from a poem by John O’Donoghue in this context: “Be excessively gentle with yourself”. Hope you feel much better soon.
Love that John O’Donoghue poem and that you referenced it here.
That sounds dreadful, I’m glad you’re on the mend. RIP your streaks!! My daughters got some kind of respiratory thing back in November, which for the older one lead to her annual asthma flare, and for the younger one turned into an ear/sinus infection requiring antibiotics. They’re better now, but going back to school on Tuesday with everyone who gathered over the holidays is going to be rough.
So sorry you all have been sick. So have I — COVID finally got me.
Re: rapid tests, my understanding is they are still as effective at detecting newer strains of the virus itself — BUT how the virus affects *our bodies,* which can vary from person to person but also strain to strain, might indeed affect the results. For example in the U.S. they are still recommending swabbing only the nose, but swabbing the throat as well is common in many other countries including Canada and the U.K., and some doctors are frustrated that we aren’t doing so here. I had COVID this week and was only ever positive in my throat, never my nose.
There are some caveats to consider — e.g., U.S. tests were not specifically designed to be used this way, recent (~1 hour) consumption of acidic drinks such as coffee or juice can reportedly cause false positives, etc. — but I am personally so glad I tested both nose and throat; I caught it in time to isolate and keep my husband healthy. Particularly if you have a lot of tests handy (in our case we did, plus the [extended] expiration dates are coming up soon) and can afford to just do two separate swabs, I think it’s definitely worth checking.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
I didn’t realize that the US didn’t swab the throat. I can confirm that this is the advice in Canada, though the instructions in the box of tests don’t reflect it and don’t describe how to do the throat. I do know that I come close to barfing every time I do my throat though. I haven’t yet, but I do my test over a sink, just in case.
We have not been sick, but I honestly think it’s just a matter of time. It’s been a horrendous flu and stomach virus season. I’m assuming they guessed wrong on the flu strain, because flu shots don’t seem to be helping this year. I don’t know why we haven’t fallen yet.
I had something like this! A massive cold 10 days before Christmas that settled into one ear especially besides all the regular cold symptoms (nose, coughing, headache). I couldn’t hear out of my left ear and at night there was STUFF LEAKING out of my EAR. So gross. Then I felt better but still deaf (had hearing test done and was moderately to severely deaf in the gross ear, and moderately deaf in the less gross ear). Antibiotics helped with infection but didn’t drain the ear. Then I felt better over Christmas (still deaf though) but I think I got yet another cold soon after that I’m now almost recovered from. My bum ear finally opened up this morning after 20 days. Doctor says it is running rampant and lots of people affected in their ears. Deafness is caused by the fact that ear drum can’t vibrate and it does go away once you get better.
The only time I was ever out for two weeks was in high school. Maybe TMI but I remember vomiting and having to go number two at the same time (!). Turns out it was strep throat and I’m hoping that never happens again. I also had an ear infection because of it and similar to some of you I was leaking stuff out of my ear. All I could do was lie down. Strep is currently making the rounds in some communities near me so fingers crossed! Glad you’re on the mend!
Oh I am so sorry to hear! I hope you will be able to rest and recover gradually.
We have mostly been lucky so far, my son did get sick mid-December and again this past Friday with … something? Not COVID, involved upset stomach and a fever, lasted ~24 hours and doesn’t (touch wood given recency of latest incident) seem to have spread to anyone else in our household?
But yes, I am hearing viruses — flu, COVID, RSV, and assorted others — are everywhere, and trying to be careful but it is, as others have said, hard. My kid was a great masker for a long time and (given the bad messaging on it, or lack of messaging, or both) is now just done with it and I cannot blame him, but argh. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could, e.g., all mostly wear masks for the 1st week after the holiday break, just to reduce the spread?
Oh man, that sounds horrible. I’m sorry you all got sick, but at the same time glad that at least the illnesses arranged themselves in a way that let you all have a good Christmas and also one adult up to adulting.
I’m in Germany, and people have been sick all over. With Covid and with the crud, meaning various mystery infections that aren’t the flu but still take people down for 10-14 days, and even people who say of themselves they never get sick, or only very lightly.
My sister was sick for ten days before Christmas, as were my niblings and BIL. My parents were exposed to someone who turned out to have Covid and didn’t get sick. Then we all had a nice Christmas together and with my sister’s inlaws as well. Shortly before New Year’s, her MIL and then shortly after FIL got really sick. They are only on the mend now, with the MIL being slightly ahead on getting better.
My BFF caught something that took her down and took her voice, in the week before Christmas. She was sick for over two weeks, and her voice is only now coming back. Meanwhile, her husband got Covid (positive test on Christmas weekend). He was fine again and testing negative about five days later. My cousin and his wife were too sick to leave the house over New Year’s.
So, yeah. That’s just my immediate vicinity, I’ve heard similar news from all over though. EVERYONE is sick or has been sick. Except for me, not sure how I got so lucky. I am vaccinated against Covid and flu, but whatever the mystery crud is likely won’t care about that. I’ve gotten conservative with wearing my mask again while grocery shopping and have avoided bigger public places, but it’s still mostly luck (but working from home and not having kids helps, too). I had an operation for a deviated septum and a turbinate reduction a few days ago, and I was so careful beforehand because I wanted to get the operation finally over with and not cancelled, and also feared getting sick while already hurt in the face and not allowed to blow my nose at all, as that would be beyond miserable.
I hope you all get better and feeling more at home in your bodies again very quickly.
I’m sorry you and yours have been sick and hope everyone is on the mend by now. Lucky everyone was well on Christmas and the sickness arranged itself so there was always one functional adult, but still, it does not sound like fun.
Another “sick over the holidays” family over here! For us it was COVID, so on the bright side, I can confirm that the rapid antigen tests DO still work. However, they don’t work immediately – we definitely had negative tests initially that only a couple of days later showed up as positives. I got it last and worst in the family – my scratchy throat started the evening of Christmas Eve and I spent the entirety of the next 8-9 days absolutely miserable. It was my second time with COVID, and possibly felt worse than the first time? Tough call, as both go-rounds were awful! The worst part was the sinus pain – unrelenting, nothing would help, and it kept me from sleep. Weak, tired, congested, but no fever. Ugh, no fun, and the whole experience meant we had to cancel all our holiday plans. I guess on the bright side, at least I was on vacation so I didn’t have to work? But oh, what a waste of vacation!
COVID is everywhere around here (we are in NH) – I saw the writing on the wall when my son announced in the kitchen the Monday before Christmas that his friend who he sits next to every day – including that very day! – had just tested positive for COVID. To test, I think the friend must have been feeling poorly, but was in school all day anyway, sitting next to my kid… yes, we are clearly right back in the mindset of continuing to do all the things even though we are sick, thus spreading our germs far and wide.
I am about 95% better at this point, just a little congestion/cough/tiredness remaining, and we were finally able to have a postponed mini-Christmas gathering with some of our family this past weekend. But I am vowing – VOWING – to get my updated COVID shot as soon as possible next year. I kept putting it off this year, and only got it two days before I got sick (was probably already infected by then!). I need to be better about putting my health first, inconvenience be damned.
Hoping you and your family are all right as rain by now, Swistle!
Oh, I also meant to add – I found it strangely comforting to wear a mask out in public again. Like, hello old friend, I’ve missed you.
I too had vacation scheduled between Christmas and New Year`s but my boss let me switch it to sick leave when I came down with Covid and save my vacation for another time. I don’t know what your leave situation is like where you work, but it might be worth asking about?
Wow. I’m so sorry you’ve all been sick, but glad you are on the upswing. My 14yo son and I were both sick for 9-10 days. No fever, mostly nasal congestion and coughing. Not deathly ill, but low energy and blah. My husband never got it. Luckily school was closed and there were multiple long weekends to rest. Several people in our area have been really ill with multi-day fevers and other respiratory symptoms that are not Flu or Covid or RSV. I dislike viral illnesses.
I’m sorry you’ve been ill. I had Influenza A in 2015 and was so sick I thought I might not survive it. I’ve lived in fear of the flu ever since. I hope you feel better soon – especially the ear. Ear things are the worst aggravation.
I woke up with a sore throat on Christmas Eve, but it was just a cold. I had the flu exactly like you’re describing (except for loss of taste and smell – wth? HOW is that not Covid? Is this a new thing Covid is doing to copy all the cool diseases now?) a few years ago, and that was the closest I’ve felt to dying. I remember seeing that my mom was calling and knowing I had to pick up the phone or she would come check on me (my husband and daughter had left for March Break and I was too sick to go) and it still took everything I had to pick up the phone. I’m so sorry you had that over Christmas break, although I had the same feeling of most of the fun Christmassy stuff being done.
I feel a bit the opposite of you – I was embarrassed that I was sick but only because it was a nothing cold but I was still a fountain of snot. What’s even the point of being sick anymore if it’s not Covid? But also I tried not to go anywhere but people would insist I come out because it was just a cold. I was never a fan of myself or others going into the world while sick, but now it’s doubly fraught.
That sounds awful! I’ve had the flu once that I know of when I was in college and it was horrible. It didn’t help that my boss made me come into work where I followed her around after another employee arrived until she finally let me leave so I could go to urgent care.
My husband brought home covid in med-December. He was testing daily (he got it working/performing at a holiday fair on the weekends) and it started for him as a scratchy throat kind of like what you get with a post-nasal drip. For me it manifested the same, but with the addition of what I would call a caffeine headache on the first day that I had a slightly scratchy throat. We’re all allergic to dust and were at the tail end of a remodel so we’re too cavalier chalking the scratchy throat up to allergies.
It was our first time having covid. I basically slept the whole time. He felt crappy a couple days, but then was up and playing games on his computer. We both took pax, but he rebounded (barely testing negative again in time for him to have two negatives under his belt before our first Xmas celebration) and I didn’t.
It was the second time for our eldest (first time her sister brought it home) and she said it was less bad this time because she didn’t have joint pain.
School is back in session so now I’m just waiting for our youngest to bring it home again. She refuses to wear her mask at school even though she lies and says she does.
This was absolutely the reminder I needed to go get my flu shot today.
It really does sound horrible. :(
You might already know this, but the CDC provides weekly updates about the flu in FluView:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm#ORIAM
I’m just here to say I hope you are better soon, and that you could have both flu and Covid.
My son caught Covid a week before Christmas. He was negative in time to go to a family thing Christmas Day, but I caught it from him the Friday before Christmas so I was unable to celebrate. Then I was negative that Thursday, and we were in the clear for a day… then my husband tested positive on Friday and put the kibosh on all our Christmas plans we’d postponed from the weekend before. And each time someone got it they totally isolated within the house to protect the others who hadn’t caught it yet: stayed in their rooms as much as possible, masking and sanitizing hands when having to emerge, using a dedicated bathroom, the whole shebang. It was the second time our household caught it, and it ruined Christmas both times. Last year we missed what turned out to be my Dad’s last Christmas, and the first Christmas since my husband’s dad had passed. This year was the first Christmas since losing my dad. I am bitter.
In the end we’re finally Covid-free after all the holidays were done, and my daughter is the only one who didn’t catch it. Bah. Next year we’re going to time our vaccinations for mid-to-late November, and if someone in the house gets it I think we might not isolate from each other and all get it at once. All of us having it together that first Christmas was much better than each getting it individually and stretching out the ordeal as we dominoed one-per-week.