Have you had "mild" Covid? No big deal, no worse than a cold? Just curious.

[kbutton]

Mild to moderate cold symptoms for 3 of us. DH had body aches and also had a fever when not medicated.

We're newly recovered (almost two weeks out), but a couple of people have a little coughing and congestion here and there, sometimes out of the blue. 

I'm hoping none of us have long-term complications, but we'll see!

[Ellie]

Most of my friends who have had it were only mildly sick such that they only knew they had it because they tested positive.

[The Governess]

Dh had mild cold symptoms - back in early 2021

DD’s symptoms were more flu-like. Throwing up, fever for 3 days, headache, body aches. No respiratory symptoms. That was this past summer.
 

I have somehow managed to escape it despite known exposures. I’ve actually never gone so long without coming down with something...

[KSera]

4 hours ago, Dianthus said:

I have it now for the first time. I'm really annoyed I didn't get the fall booster but I was boosted in the spring. Symptoms are fever with chills and sweats, the worst sore throat I've ever had, like a completely raw open sore on the entire throat and can't swallow anything without hurting, way worse than strep, which I had a lot in college. Congestion and coughing. TMI, So much muck in my throat that it gags me and made me vomit about 10 times, but I have a sensitive gag reflex.  It's been miserable and not quick. Tested postive on Friday and last night was still miserable though I feel better at the moment, well enough to fold laundry. So, nothing like a cold and worse than the time I got a touch of the flu while vaccinated.  I think it's worse than any other time I've been sick just because so much is happening at once. I don't feel dangerously sick though. Just miserably sick. The sore throat is the worst part no relief from tylenol and ibuprofen or chloroseptic spray and drops. Just miserable. My 2 yr old is the only one not vaccinated and she has had a fever for 6 days. The first couple days she was surging to 105/106, now at night has gone to 103/104. She's going to the doctor soon though I don't think she can do much and I think she's getting better. I want her ears and eyes checked. Her eyes have been goopy and she's pointing at an ear though I think throat pain is sometimes felt in ears. She definitely pointed at her throat but not much now.

2 adults and 3 kids in my family have it. All similar symptoms but ds11 recovered after 2 days. Ds7 hasn't gotten it. Crazy virus.

I’m so sorry to hear you’ve all been so ill!  I really hope you’re all feeling better very soon. The worst ever, unbearable sore throat description is one I’ve heard a lot of people have with omicron. I remember at the beginning of the year,  when omicron was everywhere, so many people were describing that sore throat.

3 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

I figured it gave my immune system something more important to do than create autoimmune issues. *shrug*

I think I like that explanation better than, well, I don't think I want to identify as a zombie ant. 😂

Lol, sorry for the zombie ant verbiage. Someone referred to it in another thread a few days ago, so it stuck in my mind. I hadn’t heard about that with regard to either ants or Covid before. I was aware of a somewhat related  phenomenon with toxoplasmosis though.

 

[Ali in OR]

Head congestion and fatigue here. None of the symptoms on my school district's list of "if you have any TWO of these symptoms stay home." No cough, no sore throat, no loss of smell or taste. I did want to nap a lot and I napped more for several weeks after testing negative again. I'm glad that if I was going to get it, I got it over summer break when I could take it easy.

Two weeks after testing negative I went to my doctor for a shoulder injury and was surprised that my blood pressure was high both at the beginning of the appointment and at the end when he re-checked it. He had me schedule another appointment 3 weeks later and it was still high (but I was also really stressed with dd's seizures). I bought a monitor and it soon returned to normal. I checked it daily for a couple of months and I think it's normal. I wonder if it was high for awhile due to Covid. I've always had low-to-normal BP.

[Dianthus]

@KSera thank you. I'm so whiny about it but really so shocked it's this bad. Thought it would be a mild cold for us since we are vaccinated. 

I forgot, we also have body aches and extreme tiredness and headaches.  So for us, I'd say this feels like a combination of the flu and the worst case of strep throat. Not a cold. And my husband's whole office has it and describes the same symptoms. 

I'm curious which variant this is.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Dianthus

[easypeasy]

We ranged from barely noticeable to coldlike to "just a bad headache for 18 hours" to flulike symptoms. All over the place!

[fraidycat]

When I had it in January, my only symptom was a low fever the first day, and that my ears felt "plugged" like you get with congestion, except I wasn't congested. If the rest of my household didn't have more cold-like symptoms and tested positive, I would not have even checked my temperature or tested and would have not known I had it. 

[Not_a_Number]

We would have liked to have a mild cold, but didn't. But so far, it hasn't been as bad as the flu I had in Fall of 2019, either. 

I had a fever for two days and am still coughing 1.5 weeks in, although I'm no longer exhausted and the cough isn't too bad. DD10 is still feeling lightheaded and getting headaches, which is the thing worrying us most. 

DH, who was JUST boosted, had about the same symptoms as me, but almost no fever. It was kind of disappointing that his vaccine didn't help more!! He's also still coughing. 

DD6 barely had a cold -- she felt sick for a couple of days. 

[Not_a_Number]

Anecdotally, no one we know had symptoms worse than a flu in the Omicron wave (although the range of possible symptoms is larger), but people definitely span the entire range from mild cold to serious flu. 

[Tanaqui]

So, two things.

When I had covid in the spring - fully vaxxed and boosted! - it was "mild" by a medical definition, but it still completely wiped me out. Other family members who had it bounced back in a few days, but I couldn't talk for nearly two weeks, and I was somehow managing to cram 28.1 hours of sleep into every 24 hour day.

The worst part is I couldn't see my mother for that time, nor even speak to her on the phone (no voice) or focus long enough to text her, and now that she's dead I really resent those lost two weeks.

The second thing is this: It's two winters since March 2020, and both those winters I was able to breathe the *entire* winter.

I would have said before that I usually only had a mild cold and a separate, serious cold every winter, and my asthma was caused by just the cold weather, but now I don't think that's true. I think those "mild" colds did a real number on my lungs, set me up for those more serious colds, and kept me from breathing and thinking clearly for a third of the year. I think it's very possible that starting in the fall I had "mild" colds that were pretty asymptomatic, but they still affected me in ways I passed off as normal.

So now I'm going to try to avoid getting respiratory infections, even mild ones that I don't even notice, for the rest of my life. Because it turns out that being able to breathe is amazing.

[HSmomof2]

All four of us had it in June, and it was like a bad cold. None of us had fevers. Main symptoms were fatigue, headache, congestion/runny nose. Dh was the only one that had a sore throat. Symptoms were gone within 7-10 days, with the exception of being more tired than usual that lasted a couple weeks. We were all vaccinated and boosted. 

[popmom]

55 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

So, two things.

When I had covid in the spring - fully vaxxed and boosted! - it was "mild" by a medical definition, but it still completely wiped me out. Other family members who had it bounced back in a few days, but I couldn't talk for nearly two weeks, and I was somehow managing to cram 28.1 hours of sleep into every 24 hour day.

The worst part is I couldn't see my mother for that time, nor even speak to her on the phone (no voice) or focus long enough to text her, and now that she's dead I really resent those lost two weeks.

The second thing is this: It's two winters since March 2020, and both those winters I was able to breathe the *entire* winter.

I would have said before that I usually only had a mild cold and a separate, serious cold every winter, and my asthma was caused by just the cold weather, but now I don't think that's true. I think those "mild" colds did a real number on my lungs, set me up for those more serious colds, and kept me from breathing and thinking clearly for a third of the year. I think it's very possible that starting in the fall I had "mild" colds that were pretty asymptomatic, but they still affected me in ways I passed off as normal.

So now I'm going to try to avoid getting respiratory infections, even mild ones that I don't even notice, for the rest of my life. Because it turns out that being able to breathe is amazing.

That’s very interesting. Do you use any meds or inhalers?

[Tanaqui]

Lots of OTCs and also, um, I have spent many winters stealing my kids' inhalers. Or getting them from friends who somehow got too many, and their insurance was waaaaay more robust than ours, so their inhalers were costing them nothing.

[skimomma]

I had what I assume is omicron last May.  I was fully vaccinated and boosted.  I experienced "bad cold" symptoms.  Nothing terrible.  But it got me on the back end with months of difficulty breathing, lingering cough, loss of taste, high heart rate, and general fatigue.  I am a runner and I have still not regained my pre-covid pace. If I did not have the measure available, I would assume that I am now back to "normal."  I have years of heart rate and pace data that confirms I am still not 100%.  

I was also fooled by how mild I thought it was and probably pushed activity too hard and too soon....so partially my own fault.  

[bibiche]

34 minutes ago, skimomma said:

I had what I assume is omicron last May.  I was fully vaccinated and boosted.  I experienced "bad cold" symptoms.  Nothing terrible.  But it got me on the back end with months of difficulty breathing, lingering cough, loss of taste, high heart rate, and general fatigue.  I am a runner and I have still not regained my pre-covid pace. If I did not have the measure available, I would assume that I am now back to "normal."  I have years of heart rate and pace data that confirms I am still not 100%.  

I was also fooled by how mild I thought it was and probably pushed activity too hard and too soon....so partially my own fault.  

This is very common. Lots of new POTS and cardiac patients too. My sister is also a runner whose symptoms were much milder than yours - she barely had any - and seemed just fine until a few weeks later when the brain fog, exhaustion, and orthostatic issues began. She's not sure she’ll ever run again. It’s very frustrating.

[WendyLady]

My daughter (adult) had Covid last week. Sunday she had a little bit of a sore throat. Monday she felt achy and feverish. She had been traveling so had to take a Covid test before returning to work, tested positive. Slept most of the day. Tuesday, achy and fever, slept most of the day, low energy. Wednesday, feeling a little better - lazy but did not need to nap. Thursday mostly better. Friday she felt fine. She never had a cough, but her sense of small is not normal. 
 

She is vaccinated and boosted and doesn’t think she had Covid before. She’s back to normal this week and doesn’t feel any lingering tiredness. But she says she has over 600 emails to catch up in at work…

[OakParkOwlets]

Other than losing my sense of taste I probably wouldn't have noticed other than my husband got a positive test a few days prior.  My kids just had a bit of a runny nose.  None of the three of us had any fever or seemed ill.  My husband was the only one that seemed sick and his was just fatigue and fever.  Still not happy to have caught it, I fear there may be damage lurking that we don't know about.

[SKL]

Most if not all members of my family have had Covid.  Only one family member (age 50+, diabetic, high blood pressure, asthma, obese, unvaccinated) felt sick enough for concern.  She went to the hospital because she lives alone and was having trouble taking care of herself.  She was sent home the same day with meds.

My mom (age 78, obese, previous cancer patient, unvaccinated) experienced it as a cold.  She said it was nowhere near as bad as the flu, and did not seek medical attention.

The few people I personally know who had a rough time with Covid had it long ago, so it probably was the original strain and pre-vaccine.

[HSmomof2]

20 hours ago, Dianthus said:

I have it now for the first time. I'm really annoyed I didn't get the fall booster but I was boosted in the spring. Symptoms are fever with chills and sweats, the worst sore throat I've ever had, like a completely raw open sore on the entire throat and can't swallow anything without hurting, way worse than strep, which I had a lot in college. Congestion and coughing. TMI, So much muck in my throat that it gags me and made me vomit about 10 times, but I have a sensitive gag reflex.  It's been miserable and not quick. Tested postive on Friday and last night was still miserable though I feel better at the moment, well enough to fold laundry. So, nothing like a cold and worse than the time I got a touch of the flu while vaccinated.  I think it's worse than any other time I've been sick just because so much is happening at once. I don't feel dangerously sick though. Just miserably sick. The sore throat is the worst part no relief from tylenol and ibuprofen or chloroseptic spray and drops. Just miserable. My 2 yr old is the only one not vaccinated and she has had a fever for 6 days. The first couple days she was surging to 105/106, now at night has gone to 103/104. She's going to the doctor soon though I don't think she can do much and I think she's getting better. I want her ears and eyes checked. Her eyes have been goopy and she's pointing at an ear though I think throat pain is sometimes felt in ears. She definitely pointed at her throat but not much now.

2 adults and 3 kids in my family have it. All similar symptoms but ds11 recovered after 2 days. Ds7 hasn't gotten it. Crazy virus.

Dh also had the severe sore throat….he did a virtual urgent care visit and was prescribed a lidocaine gel to swallow a few times per day…..it did really give him relief from the sore throat when nothing else was helping. 

[Dianthus]

2 minutes ago, HSmomof2 said:

Dh also had the severe sore throat….he did a virtual urgent care visit and was prescribed a lidocaine gel to swallow a few times per day…..it did really give him relief from the sore throat when nothing else was helping. 

Thanks! Dh is at urgent care. I just told him to ask. Our throats are better but poor dd13 has the painful throat now.

[kbutton]

Some docs are prescribing muscle relaxers for people with bad body aches—for the miserable, it probably won’t hurt to ask.

[alysee]

When covid went through our family in early 2022 my husband and I were triple vaxxed but my kids weren't fully vaxxed. I was 11 weeks pregnant when I caught covid. I had a headache and was lightheaded for about 4 days. My husband had the sniffles for a weekend. My youngest was hit the hardest but she was unvaxed at the time. She had a fever, chills, tired, sore throat and headaches for about 3 days My other kids who were only partly vaccinated only had sore throats and were tired(probably a few fevers based on symptoms but I didn't check) for about 3-4 days.

[Pam in CT]

19 hours ago, easypeasy said:

We ranged from barely noticeable to coldlike to "just a bad headache for 18 hours" to flulike symptoms. All over the place!

This is us.  I was pretty sick (demanded Paxlovid over my doctor's mild reservations); my husband bad coldish; my 84 yo mother fairly mild cold (only tested because others around her had been positive and her residence has quarantine protocols); 2/3 kids flulike symptoms; 1/3 kids pretty sick.  FIL had it twice post vax, once quite sick and once bad cold; step MIL once post-vax regular coldish.

Which of us got sicker seems to have nothing to do with our (apparent) underlying health & fitness.  Everybody is up to date on vaccinations.

[Not_a_Number]

13 hours ago, bibiche said:

This is very common. Lots of new POTS and cardiac patients too. My sister is also a runner whose symptoms were much milder than yours - she barely had any - and seemed just fine until a few weeks later when the brain fog, exhaustion, and orthostatic issues began. She's not sure she’ll ever run again. It’s very frustrating.

That really sucks!! I hope she recovers. 

[TravelingChris]

i HAD IT IN October I have had 4 shots, last in February.  It felt like a cold, sneezing, coughing, were the main complaints.  I got no fever, and was slightly more achy than normal.  Dh got a fever, and felt worse but still, cold like.  Fever went away after a day, but his coughing lingered longer than mine.  He also had a headache, and I didn't.  He had 3 shots before he got it a few days before me.  

My rheumatologist had suggested that if I got it in Hawaii, I may want her to call in a prescription.  But I got it back in my own state and never even needed to use my asthma rescue inhaler so didn't think I needed any extra medicine.  

[TravelingChris]

Just now, TravelingChris said:

i HAD IT IN October I have had 4 shots, last in February.  It felt like a cold, sneezing, coughing, were the main complaints.  I got no fever, and was slightly more achy than normal.  Dh got a fever, and felt worse but still, cold like.  Fever went away after a day, but his coughing lingered longer than mine.  He also had a headache, and I didn't.  He had 3 shots before he got it a few days before me.  

My rheumatologist had suggested that if I got it in Hawaii, I may want her to call in a prescription.  But I got it back in my own state and never even needed to use my asthma rescue inhaler so didn't think I needed any extra medicine.  

Oh, I have the gene to have very mild symptoms for both COVID and flu.  (You don't want it-- in my case, it gave me ankolysing spondylosis, a horrible autoimmune joint disease.

[sbgrace]

I wanted to avoid COVID forever, but my teens really needed to be able to just be teens and this thing is not going away. We are all vaxed with original boosters. We all rapid tested positive, assumed Omicron, in September. 

It was quite different for all four of us though I would say all were mild to moderate cold-like. That did include mild aches/fatigue for two of us. 

--Hubby--mild; felt kind of run down (tired/some body aches--for 1.5 days). After that he had mild head/sinus for a couple of days. 

--Teen 1--almost no symptoms--very mild nasal. He would not have known to test if the family didn't know we had COVID.

--Teen 2--moderate cold to very mild flu; tired and achy intially--slept almost all day 1 with high fever, then fatigue/low energy/laid around the house days 2 into 3. His symptoms other than ache and fatigue were just mild head cold like. Into day 3 he started acting relatively normal around the house. He complained some of mild, non life-impacting fatigue for maybe a month or so after that. He has a metabolic condition that may have made it harder to bounce back. On the other hand, he has health related OCD and was anxious about long COVID, so it's hard to judge his perceptions. 

--My course of illness was weird. I didn't feel bad at all at first--rough/hoarse voice, some nasal congestion. I did lose most of my sense of smell and taste at some point, but it resolved quickly. I would describe the initial parts for me as very mild, though more than teen 1.

Then maybe 4 days into COVID I started having periodic coughing fits, especially at night-- kind of scary and miserable. I had some breathlessness with exertion too (going up stairs). My pulse ox was always fine, and I felt pretty good when I wasn't having a coughing fit. I think it may have re-activated a long ago diagnosed cough variant asthma for me but it took me a while to click into that possibility. I started using my son's albuterol inhaler, which kind of helped, though it could have been that I just had to slow down the panic of not being able to catch my breath to do the inhaler or just the passage of time. Other than the cough stuff interfering with sleep, I didn't feel terrible. Whether it was cough variant asthma from COVID or just part of my COVID, my cough was gone within a week. 

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by sbgrace

[Clarita]

Adding that I don't have a great sense of smell to begin with (that's abundantly clear after 2 infants), so I'm not sure I would know if it diminished. 

[Katy]

DH called it a mild flu.  I've had a few worse colds, but none that started with vomiting, so it was more like a flu.  Our high-risk kid had it the worst by far and was really sick (but not hospitalization bad) for at least 6 days.

[easypeasy]

10 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

Which of us got sicker seems to have nothing to do with our (apparent) underlying health & fitness.  Everybody is up to date on vaccinations.

THIS is the weirdest part of all of it, I think. The same holds true for most everyone we know as well. Families with asthmatics, heart conditions, diabetics, etc in the house - and those people were often barely even sick while "healthy" people in the household were knocked down by it. My husband is healthy as a dadgum horse and Covid flattened him while I am "high risk" for several reasons and had a much milder case (had a longer case of "long Covid" but the issues weren't debilitating). So frustrating because you think you're protecting your "higher risk" people and they turn out to have some level of resistance to it.

Saddest cast was an older couple we knew. The wife had several health issues, so the husband masked up and headed out to run any necessary errands. She wound up catching Covid at the doctor's office, they're pretty sure. She barely had a symptom - only tested once the husband became sick. He descended quickly and passed away. He was in his upper 70s and fit as a fiddle, as he would say. The wife is struggling with the guilt and it's heartbreaking.

Hate this virus so much.