Yesterday I felt awful all day, but had to drive to Dumbarton. When I got into the hotel I started to shiver and feel feverish, so I went straight to bed.

When I woke up about 1 am the fever had gone, fortunately. But I've still got a nasty sore throat and cough.

I reckon it might be that covid?

Butterfield wrote:

As I appear to be getting through it now, I can reveal that I've finally had the virus within me for the last few days. Like with many, many others, it has thankfully only really been like a cold, with the most notable thing being a hurts-to-swallow throat for consecutive days which is finally easing, and what all started as a fever with confusement on the hottest nights leading me to think that's all it was - me being too hot. When the weather cooled down and I was still feeling the same and with sore throat was when I started to think something a bit more was going on.

I've been stranded away from home (wherever that is these days) so as not to infect a whole host of other people in a different region.

Coincidentally, I read just yesterday a report suggesting that lots of people who haven't had the virus yet are currently getting it for the first time.

That said, right at the beginning of the pandemic in February 2020 I had something very similar which I've often wondered was related, which I either caught off my friend who had just travelled back from London and went down with it, or a girl in a charity shop standing next to me who was coughing her guts up.

I'm very glad you're on the mend.

My mother reports having had the worst illness of her life (with all the symptoms later flagged as indicative) before Christmas 2019, which is very early in the supposed timescale, but she was still working at that time - and therefore traveling internationally and frequently, being exposed to hundreds of new people for hours at a time, so I guess it's possible it might've been Covid-19. Apparently intelligence agencies within Europe were on the uptake that October about a developing serious health mystery in China - so I've read on both Foreign Affairs and Le Monde Diplo, so not shabby conspiracy mongers.

It seems everyone's suddenly coming down with it!

Whatever happened to the respite from colds and viruses that summer usually gives us?

Stay away from me, where's my 'keep at least that distance' pole?

I did a test yesterday afternoon, and two fiery red lines appeared almost instantly.

I feel a bit better today though. Luckily I bought a quantity of fresh fruit before falling ill, that has been sustaining me when I feel hungry.

I took a test stroll to Asda. On my way out of the hotel, the reception desk lady asked if I was feeling all right!

Since then I have had more fresh fruit, and a mash pot with a small tin of tuna stirred into it. Very nice.

I'm convalescent now.

But I won't be going to remote work today, in case I remotely infect my colleagues.

Although I haven't been actually ill since Tuesday, I still feel like sh*t. I'm sleepy all the time, and have restless legs, and my insides feel all fizzy.

In Asda I thought I was going to collapse.

Normally, if I felt like this I'd presume I'd been drinking too much the last week or so, and dial it back.

But I've been very abstemious, for me.

On two nights lately I've actually stopped after 3 drinks, and gone to bed early. That never happens normally, I always have 4.

It might be time to cut it to 0 until you're feeling better. You might find you feel so great you won't want to go back to four glasses every night.

I've just this minute finally tested negative.

cosmictanya wrote:

It might be time to cut it to 0 until you're feeling better. You might find you feel so great you won't want to go back to four glasses every night.

Oh, I am already seizing the opportunity to make changes. I'm very bad at changing my habits, so when circumstances force me to do so, I make the most of it.

Apart from the handful of times a year when I'll start drinking in the sun or something, I usually stick to a glass of wine with lunch (if out), a champagne toast, or an occasional late night whisky when the mood seizes me or the day was especially terrible.

Other than that I only drink with friends/when out, when I don't limit myself at all. So, since March 2020 those occasions have been few and far between. I've saved thousands and feel more able to think, do things, wake up without needing pain relief, etc.

Well, I've moved over to 2 Drink Free Days (DFDs) per week instead of 1. And I started yesterday, so this morning I feel pretty good.