Good afternoon my wife and I have for the last 30 months been taking part in a UK covid study run jointly by UK Gov , the ONS, and Oxford university . All nose and throat swabs we supplied were tested in gov sponsored labs using pcr tests .Our last samples were sent in on the first week in March, they were our last contribution as the trial is being scaled back, during this time we never had a positive result and were both very careful with personal hygene etc , and neither of us contacted the virus in spite of family members being ill with it .We have both been fully vaccinated including both boosters ,Ironically we have both felt unwell over the last 3 weeks and done 3 lateral flow tests (which we purchased from tesco) over the same period one week apart , each test has been positive .What have peoples experiences been of the latest variant and how it affected you and for how long .
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Covid 19
- Thread starter Wotisname
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- At risk of diabetes
Hello @Wotisname ,
I am sorry to hear you tested positive with covid. What are some of the symptoms you are experiencing? I had covid about a month ago and I don't know what variant it was, but I felt really tired, achy, and sinus pressure in my face. It wasn't as bad as when I had the alpha variant. I could barely eat any food!
Thanks for your reply my wife and I have had similar symptoms headache, nausea, the trots, breathless ,lack of energy ,loss of appetite /,loss of taste and smell ( hope it's just a temp thing ) My wife has had it worse than I have. I have ramped up on my insulin doses and managed to keep good control. I imagine it will be something we will all have to learn to live with long term , like flu, ( I had flu in 1968 it was called Aisian Flu / Hong Kong Flu it was wicked I was a fit 15 year old and it floored me ) , lets hope the government offer boosters to vulnerable groups.
My brother recently recovered from covid.
He knows where he got it - two guys at work tested positive and were advised to come in but isolate in a single office together. I don't know how they were supposed to use the bathrooms or get to the office!
He only tested because he had a slight cold and was going to catch up with my parents. He was fine within less than a week.
So it was definitely very mild and gone quickly.
The worst thing was missing out on celebrating Mother's Day with my Mum.
He has no medical conditions - I am the only member of the family "lucky enough" to have diabetes.
He knows where he got it - two guys at work tested positive and were advised to come in but isolate in a single office together. I don't know how they were supposed to use the bathrooms or get to the office!
He only tested because he had a slight cold and was going to catch up with my parents. He was fine within less than a week.
So it was definitely very mild and gone quickly.
The worst thing was missing out on celebrating Mother's Day with my Mum.
He has no medical conditions - I am the only member of the family "lucky enough" to have diabetes.
pawprint91
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sorry to hear you're feeling unwell @Wotisname.
How did covid affect people's blood sugars? The first time I had it was before I was diabetic.
How did covid affect people's blood sugars? The first time I had it was before I was diabetic.
Good to hear he was fine within less than a week , like you I am the only member of our family " lucky enough " to have diabetes. 😉
nonethewiser
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Someone mentioned other day that there's a Spring booster & hopefully one again in Autumn, looks like Autumn one will become yearly vaccine like flu one.
While since had covid, symptoms were more like really bad cold.
I can say how the vaccines affected my blood sugars my first 2 doses were Astra Zeneca ,I had no adverse affect with those, my first booster was Pfizer, which caused me a few issues, I could not get blood sugars below 21 / 22. in spite or increasing doses for approximately five days, one morning I skipped breakfast had 48 units of Novarapid went out into the garden worked hard digging over a patch of ground for a couple of hours, came in expecting to find sugars really low, surprised to find only 19, I read that AZ and Pfizer both approached the way they developed their vaccines from different angles, i know a few people who had Pfizer who were not diabetic and they felt unwell for days having the first two doses. My second booster the following autumn was Moderna and I had no issues with that one. Seem to remember reading that Pfizer was more efficient than A/Z.
@Wotisname regarding your garden workout post covid jab, exercising on a high blood sugar can put stress on your body causing your levels to rise rather than fall.
This is why I aim for a level around 6 (and no higher than 8) to start exercise as my body is very sensitive to this tress whereas if I am below 6 I will certainly end up hypo.
I remember when I was first diagnosed I was given a check list about exercising. I think it said something like
- above 9 mmol/l, take a correction dose and don't bother with exercise
- 6 to 9 mmol/l, go for it
- 4.5 to 6 mmol/l, eat 10 to 15g slow acting carbs and then go for it
- below 4.5 mmol/l, don't exercise
I can't say I religiously keep to this but I have found it good guidance.
This is why I aim for a level around 6 (and no higher than 8) to start exercise as my body is very sensitive to this tress whereas if I am below 6 I will certainly end up hypo.
I remember when I was first diagnosed I was given a check list about exercising. I think it said something like
- above 9 mmol/l, take a correction dose and don't bother with exercise
- 6 to 9 mmol/l, go for it
- 4.5 to 6 mmol/l, eat 10 to 15g slow acting carbs and then go for it
- below 4.5 mmol/l, don't exercise
I can't say I religiously keep to this but I have found it good guidance.
When I was diagnosed I was given a few pears of wisdom one of which was " EAT PLENTY OF MARS BARS " .Things have moved on since then, suffice to say I didn't eat plenty of Mars bars, another one from a diabetic specialist nurse was WHITE WINE LOWERS BLOOD SUGAR , I ignored that advice I was never a drinker prior to being diagnosed type 1 so I wasn't going to start drinking now, if I'm not mistaken alcohol is fermented sugars. My gardening experiment was to prove to myself the culprit for my adverse blood sugars was the introduction in to my body of Pfizer vaccine as none of the others affected me in the way that did . Thanks for your check list I will see how that works for me.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
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Hope your brush with covid is mild @Wotisname, and you recovery speedily. Get well soon!
Thanks Mike I'm feeling much better at the moment.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I have had Covid 5 times and none was as bad as some of the 'flu's I've had, The first AZ jab I had was very bad - thought I might lose at least one toe but the second one might just as well have been saline - it might well have been as there was a significant look between the HCPs when I reported how ill I'd been.
I'm pretty sure that it was handling packages which infected me, as I was always careful to wear a mask due to my reaction to 'flu', and I don't get many packages so I could pinpoint the probable infection fairly easily. After the second time the connection dawned, and I have not had Covid since.
I'm pretty sure that it was handling packages which infected me, as I was always careful to wear a mask due to my reaction to 'flu', and I don't get many packages so I could pinpoint the probable infection fairly easily. After the second time the connection dawned, and I have not had Covid since.
WOW 5 Times that is incredible, good to hear you have not added to that total. I would describe my experience of the flu I had as, If someone said to me in the corner of your bedroom there is a suitcase with £ 1 million inside, it's yours all you have to do is get up out of bed, walk across the room and pick it up.!!! I couldn't lift my head of the pillow , never mind get up and walk.
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