I’m not feeling great, got some symptoms which might be related to #covid19 – here’s a thread about my experience, including trying different symptom checkers, testing, and #selfisolation 1/n

So yesterday I woke up and noticed occasional shortness of breath and a dry cough. I wasn’t coughing a lot, more like I would cough for a few seconds a once or twice an hour. I wasn’t feeling 100%, sort of 90% of normal, as if one is under the weather but no fever 2/n

Being in the UK, I turned to the NHS online symptom checker, quick to use, and based upon the questions they asked me and my answers, it came back saying it’s unlikely that I have the virus – the definition of the virus is relatively narrow in the UK from what I’ve read 3/n

So since the NHS symptom checker told me to use the regular 111 online service to check my symptoms, I gave that a go. Honey and lemon it is then. 4/n

Out of curiosity, I tried the symptom checker from the French government as they as many more questions (22!) and it came back saying I may have covid-19 (autotranslate in Google Chrome) https://maladiecoronavirus.fr/  5/n

The French checker asked about unusual muscle ache, and the thing is that 7 days ago, I had a sudden onset of acute pain in my feet whilst returning home from my morning walk. The pain felt like the bones in my feet were breaking apart. I’ve never had pain like that ever. 6/n

Since then I’ve also had sore and tight calf muscles which ache all the time and soreness in tendons behind the knees I stopped going for my morning walks, figuring maybe I was walking too much every day (even though I’ve been walking 5-6 miles every day in London for years) 7/n

I used an ice pack/ibuprofen, thinking it was inflammation – looking online, I see that some covid-19 patients are having joint pain and/or muscle ache – are my symptoms 1 week apart, connected? 8/n

I was curious what other symptom checkers online would conclude, so I tried some of them. The first one I used was Ada, I could use it on their website without creating an account, it doesn't think I have covid-19 https://ada.com/  9/n

The next symptom checker I tried was Babylon, again no account needed, but it thinks I might have covid-19 https://www.babylonhealth.com/ask-babylon-chat 10/n

So Babylon had then offered a covid-19 care plan, which would need me to download the app, and I could log my symptoms and more - I thought that was a nice touch 11/n

Even though the Apple screening tool is designed for the USA, I thought I would give it a go. Looks like similar advice as Babylon, self isolate for 7 days 12/n

So I find it fascinating that you get different questions (with different wording) asked depending upon which covid-19 symptom checker you use, and the advice/result provided back to me isn’t always the same – makes me wonder, whose symptom checker is the most accurate? 13/n

So how can I know if I really do have covid-19? When I told a number of friends in the US about my symptoms over WhatsApp, their first reaction was, have you been tested? So I looked up to see if the NHS would test me. They do not, according to what I found 14/n

BTW, the screenshot in last tweet was based information from this UK govt web page which still uses "wuhan novel coronavirus" in the actual URL https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-initial-investigation-of-possible-cases/investigation-and-initial-clinical-management-of-possible-cases-of-wuhan-novel-coronavirus-wn-cov-infection 15/n

So right now, at home, I have no way of knowing if this is covid19, a regular viral infection or something else? 16/n

So, I’m assuming I do have #covid19 & self-isolate at home for the next 7 days – It's not simply staying in one part of the home, I didn't realise about not shaking laundry and other guidelines according to UK govt site https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection 17/n

Note that in previous tweet, the UK govt do not recommend I use a facemask during self-isolation, but the WHO guidelines do recommend I use a facemask during self-isolation - Why the inconsistency? https://www.who.int/publications-detail/home-care-for-patients-with-suspected-novel-coronavirus-(ncov)-infection-presenting-with-mild-symptoms-and-management-of-contacts 18/n

Luckily, I have a room with my own bathroom, so I can stay isolated from the rest of my household and if I have to interact with other family members during the day, I’m not staying in the same room as them and am keeping more than 2m apart 19/n

So 24 hours after the shortness of breath and cough first appeared, I woke up, and no sign of either. However, a few hours later, I found myself coughing, and this time, it’s a more intense cough than the day before, but still only once or twice an hour. 20/n

With regard to self monitoring, I had heard that using a pulse oximeter might be useful. I managed to order one yesterday (most places were sold out). It arrived this morning and I was reassured by the result. I’m not treating this as a diagnostic test though! 21/n

Friends/family are asking me how I caught it. I’ve been far more cautious than them over the past 8 weeks, hand hygiene, I was social distancing 2m apart from 10th March, and 1 week before the UK lockdown began, I was staying at home apart from getting food and morning walk 22/n

For getting food (as can’t get home delivery from big supermarkets), I have been going once a week to the local petrol station at opening time (6am when no customers inside), and literally running in, grabbing required items and running out as soon as I could (after paying!) 23/n

This thread is not complete - Twitter will only let me add a certain number of tweets in a thread at once - more tweets being added in the next 30 minutes 24/n