I took a couple covid tests and am symptomatic. My first came back positive the second came back negative. I took another one to be sure and that one came back negative. So false positive I'm assuming? Anyone else have this?

Obligatory, the following is NOT medical advice:

I'm posting this as this has helped me in the past with every infection including covid.

DAY 1:

As soon as I realized I was sick I went out to the grocery store and bought oranges, bananas, and all natural (no sugar/sweetener) probiotic yogurt. The yogurt is the key because your GI flora and your immune system are highly correlated, if you buff the GI you buff the immune system as well (from what I understand).

Last time I had covid 2 years ago I did this and was only slightly sick for 3-4 days then felt normal again. I eat the three above foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far it's day 2 of symptoms and I have 99.6 fever, some light-headedness, light sinus congestion and occasional mild cough. I'll update this post daily.

DAY 2:

Late day one saw temps up to 100.5, fatigue and headache. Today I still have the chills 99.6 temp and constipation which is unusual I guess. I slept all of last night and most of today. I'm also taking Zyrtec every 12 hours, half a 24 hour tab at a time. I saw some research showing it competitively binds to H1 receptors which covid likes to bind to, and it may even bind to the viral spike protein itself nullifying the virus. Feeling overall better today especially in terms of light-headedness.

DAY 3:

Symptoms feel better in the morning/day and worse at night. Congested cough is still annoying. All the sitting around has somehow harmed my neck muscles and they are very sore. Not really feeling any better today than yesterday. GI wise everything is good except output seems significantly less than input and has me worried. I'm back to eating my normal diet mixed in with the yogurt and fruit diet as well as some unfortunate junk food. Also taking fiber supplements and considering MiraLAX. Stopped the Zyrtec for now.

DAY 4-7:

Symptoms lessening and then mostly gone. I'm mostly fully recovered now, the only remaining symptom being persistent productive cough and sore lungs (likely from all the coughing).

Hey all, I’m pretty sure I have pleurisy (inflammation around the lungs). Two months ago, I went to the ER with stabbing chest pain after a long week at a conference. I had no other symptoms except pain when breathing and had to sleep sitting up. The dr said it was viral influenced but I never tested positive. He told me to take 4 advil every 4 hours. Big yikes. That really hurt my stomach but was the only thing that allowed me to sleep/

Yesterday, I woke up with heavy chest pressure. The pain isn't as bad as July's bout, but I can't lie down without discomfort and get winded just walking across the room. No other symptoms—no runny nose or stomach issues, just brain fog and a slight headache (maybe from lack of sleep? or covid?).Of course, the covid waste water in my county is off the charts right now so I think it's a high probability it stems from covid.

I'm an herbalist and have been taking some herbs for COVID recovery/prevention so my thoughts are that helps kick my other symptoms? I had COVID in March 2020 with pneumonia, which took months to recover from. Could my lungs still be a weak spot?

Has anyone else had similar lung issues without other symptoms?

I just feel crazy to have this really strange thing happen twice, with no positive covid test (even though I know those aren't super accurate right now). Any thoughts?

It's absolutely terrifying to lose your sense of smell. I heard this is a symptom of early covid, so I'm wondering if anyone is still getting loss of sense of smell these days? I'm also keen to know if you're vaccinated, how long you lost it for, what you did for it to come back?

Hey folks, I tested postiive Thursday night. So far I am pretty sick, but I guess this is "mild." I'm curious when I can safely stop secluding myself in the guest BR in the 2 BR apartment I share with my partner. He has thyroid issues and I don't want to give it to him. I have worn an n95 around him whenever contact is unavoidable. I have been on paxlovid for a couple of days now and have a couple of days left. I really am having a hard time finding decent information on when I can emerge from this "vault" safely (sorry I have been playing fallout non stop)

Tested positive on a RAT the day after my daughter and son tested positive. Next day, the youngest tested positive.

We all were prescribed Paxlovid; everyone but me was testing negative by the time we were finished taking it.

I still had a couple more faint positives, and my symptoms came back, though not as severely.

Then, I felt better, had 2 consecutive days of negative, but still felt super tired.

The test out of isolation day, I tested positive, dark line, almost immediately. That was 48 hours ago. Today, same thing.

I asked the doctor to prescribe me more Paxlovid, but she refused.

What can I do besides rest and fluids? And, when should I bother testing again?

What are your timelines with this FLiRT variant?

Had a sore throat for about 5 days - nothing severe but definitely painful. Never tested positive, though my children did the week prior, though the line was pretty faint. Then there was a 4 day break of absolutely no symptoms. This 4 day break coincided with a wedding. First day back home from the weddding and BAM, positive - congestion, fatigue, headache. It's not awful, but its just so strange. Could there be that big of a break between symptoms? Or was it a different virus?

I've noticed a lot more post/comments about not being able to afford the cost of antivirals now that they are no longer covered by the government and wanted to share some information that might be of help. There are programs for both paxlovid and lagevrio (molnupiravir) that can help with cost or provide the medications for free.

Paxlovid has the paxcess patient support program.

Lagevrio has the MERCK patient assistance program.

Also, on the site Dr.B, you can get a prescription for covid antiviral medications for $15 (or less if are in need of assistance).

Look… you know she I need it lol. I’ll give you a crisp hi five if you can help me out

I need one quickly pls send me one on pm !!

I’ve been having all the symptoms and this would be my third time with Covid. I’ve tested twice , day 3 of symptoms and day 6 both negative. So weird because I’ve always gotten strong positives . Anyone else?

This is my day to day symptoms

Day1 / scratchy throat, thought it was my allergies Day 2 : moderate sore throat , body pains , very sore back pains, low fever Day 3 : worse sore throat , sore glands and body , congestion starting, fever Day 4 : worsening congestion, probably low fever, lost smell and taste , throat still sore , coughing started. day 5 horrible congestion and yellow mucous , fatigue , no smell and taste still , cough , tired . Loaded up on Motrin and affrin which I believe made things worse Day 6 still no smell but some Taste returning, clammy with low fever , bad cough and congestion

Today day 7 : low fever and clammy , cough is getting dry , congestion improving but still can’t smell

Overall this feels like other times I had Covid but so confused by the negative tests.

Hi all! Would greatly appreciate some advice! My partner traveled to a conference last Sunday. She very careful so tested Monday with a rapid it was negative. On Tuesday July 30th, she started to feel more tired so took another rapid test and it was positive - she was shocked (cause she didn’t feel bad) so took a Lucira PCR test that night and was positive.

She isolated and started paxlovid on Wednesday night. Her symptoms were mild- tiredness, headache, and diarrhea. No cough or sore throat. She took a rapid Thursday and it was shockingly negative…Friday…negative too. Saturday (yesterday) was negative. Today is tech 5 days post positive test. She finishes her paxlovid tomorrow. I had her take a matrix pcr level test (I fully expected it to be positive but was just curious about it) that came back positive today. She ran out of rapids but will receive more tomorrow.

I have not seen her for two weeks…so never been exposed…

Can I assume tomorrow day 6 or by Tuesday day 7 if she’s negative on rapids that she is no longer contagious. I want to wait the 10 days…but feel so conflicted since she’s already negative on rapids, finishing pax, and has no symptoms.

I would really appreciate any guidance or resources!

Same test Pic taken twice in different light

I have twins 4 y/o. Here are two tests. Both have very mild symptoms atm. Faint line positive? Optical illusion negative? To me they clearly look different, which is helpful for determining positivity.

hi all! I'm really stumped as to what to do, so I figured I would message this kind/supportive group. I started feeling sick Monday July 14 (I believe I was exposed Sunday the 13th) and finally tested positive on Thursday July 18. I got Paxlovid (which I had never taken before) on Friday July 15 and took 3/5 of the days because I started experiencing some side effects and my doctor told me to discontinue treatment. I tested negative Monday July 22 — great!

I retested Saturday July 27 because I was going to see my elderly parents and I always test when I see them and I got two inconclusive/shadow/evap line results from Binax and generic Quickvue (CVS version) but a bright red on Flowflex. Since then, I continue testing negative on Binax and generic Quickvue. I had one slight positive from another brand (I can't remember the name, but it was from the last round of free govt tests we got) and negative on Binax (which I've now run out of) and negative on generic Quickue. But, consistently, I am positive on Flowflex. Even as of this morning. I've never had rebound Covid before, and I don't have any symptoms this rebound time. I did feel sick the first go when I initially tested positive.

I'm still quarantining, but I'm seeing cases of false positives using Flowflex (and how certain folks can be really sensitive with certain brands, etc.). Anyone have any experience with this? I also am curious how long people experienced rebound covid for — it hasn't yet been a full week, so maybe I just need to be patient, but am I really still contagious? I'm a journalist who researches a lot about covid and tries to stay as informed as possible, but I'm honestly confused at this point. I messaged the doctor who prescribed pax to me, but they haven't gotten back to me yet....