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  • Corona or CF?: A Symptom War

    Posted by bailey-anne-vincent on November 3, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    I started feeling yucky on Halloween night and it continued through to Monday. By Monday, I felt weird having my husband go to work and potentially spread germs, just incase there was any chance it was COVID. I doubted it (since no one else felt yucky and I’ve barely left the house)… but isn’t it our responsibility to prevent that possibility, no matter how small?

    My husband called his boss and took off for the day, even though we can’t afford to do so financially, knowing that Election Day (here in the states) could provide us one more buffer day to see if anything got worse. So far, nothing is worse, but nothing is better.

    I feel pretty gross… but how in the world do we know if it’s “normal CF exacerbation gross” or something that could harm someone else? Ultimately, I don’t think it’s corona (though if this keeps up, I’ll ask someone to drive me to get tested) and I also don’t know if we can afford any more days off work. The back-and-forth, symptom-doubting, super-stressing is pretty taxing, and I’m sure a lot of CFers are feeling this to the max.

    “I don’t want to spread germs” used to not be a fear of mine, since my germs normally didn’t impact my family much (they’re all currently still feeling fine, by the way). Normally, we worry more about the bacteria and bugs of the world harming us. Now, I’m fearful about being the cause of something. What a mental reversal of our “norm”, you know?

    Have you had any COVID worries or symptom concerns? How did you handle them?

    jenny-livingston replied 3 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • paul-met-debbie

    Member
    November 3, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    Yes, it’s a strange situation. You are handling it responsibly.
    We try to avoid covid worries by sheer isolation/quarantaine. I wear gloves when I leave the house for a walk and keep at least 5m distance to other people. Since we both work at home, the chance of us getting infected or infecting some one else is almost zero, but you never know.

    Should I still get symptoms that look more like covid then a normal exacerbation (for instance sudden fever, problems smelling/tasting, flu-like symptoms), I would have a test asap just to know and if positive, to alert my GP and cf team for imstructions and extra medication like antibiotics or anti inflammatory. If I only suspect exacerbation, I would deliver a sputum sample with my GP or cf centre and ask them to test it for covid as well for security.

    Hope you feel better soon.

  • jenny-livingston

    Member
    November 3, 2020 at 3:38 pm

    Oh, boy, have we ever had some COVID concerns! Since my partner is an “essential employee” who works outside the home, he has presented our biggest risk of exposure since this pandemic began. A while ago, we learned he’d been exposed at work — eeshk! Soon after, he became symptomatic. To say I was worried is an understatement. He was tested and we fully expected a positive result. However, it came back negative! Still, he quarantined away from everyone while he was feeling ill. Both my daughter and I were tested a few days later, even though neither of us developed symptoms, and we were both negative as well. My partner recovered fully in just a few days time. That, coupled with the fact that all three of us had negative tests makes me think that it wasn’t COVID, just a spectacularly poorly timed cold (I mean, who gets a regular cold AFTER exposure to COVID?!?).

    It’s confusing, frustrating, and scary that what would have seemed totally normal (in the realm of CF) before now seems like COVID. There is so much overlap in the symptoms! *sigh* I believe we’re in for an especially long cold and flu season….

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