Top 5 Personal Worst Pathogen Sick

[Nanny]

8 days into my first covid experience, I have reflected on the worst sicks I can remember.

1. Norovirus (2014) - I have not felt closer to death before or since. 
2. 2009 flu - fever was long lasting, less vomity than Norovirus and could control my bum during it.
3. Covid - very bad headache, bronchitis, fever, pain in teeth, no appetite, diarrhea, tinnitus, anosmia, joint pain
4. Scarlet Fever (1977) - under an O2 tent in the pediatric ICU, only bare scary memories remain
5. Appendicitis.  Laparoscopic removal. Fever of 103 and pneumonia post op.

What say you? What is in your sick hall of fame for bugs? I've never had Lyme, West Nile, Malaria, etc, which would rank highly I suspect.


Also due acknowledgement that there a loads of awful diseases not necessarily related to pathogens and I am not trying to make light of these or the patients that suffer from them.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I once had a staph aureus that turned into a pretty severe case of cellulitis. Other than that,  nothing really.

Boru

[arewethereyet]

Not counting the cancer thing for the heart attack thing...I get one bad upper respiratory infection every year. And I break and rebreak the same rib or two each time. That sucks.

I got the chicken pox when I was 16 and was absolutely covered with the damn things. Fever and headache and my eyes were terribly sensitive to light. I spent about 10 days in the basement TV room to avoid the light from the windows. Missed the biggest party of my junior year in HS.

[Angrboda]

I've been pretty healthy. My covid is dragging into the second week, but it's been a very light case.

[The Valkyrie]

Kinda "died" for nearly 2 minutes.

[Jackalope]

From worst to least worst

1. 2013 flu gone bad to pneumonia. Nothing a week+ in ICU couldn't fix. Nothing else comes remotely close.
2. 1982 burst appendix.
3. 2021 COVID part 1
4. 2021 COVID part 2
5. 2000 Norovirus, thankfully it was mercifully short. I managed to cause a super spreader event.

[Bucky Ball]

I had a cold once.

[Anomalocaris]

i got such a high fever i was sent to emergency room and given IV for dehydration when I was 11. that’s about it. had covid twice first half of last year but neither time it was bad nor noticeably worse than the occasional seasonal flu.

[Rev. Rye]

1. 2015 onwards, idiopathic hypersomnia. I can count the times I've woken up refreshed in the morning in the past eight or so years on my fingers. Even on those days, I still end up nodding off at inopportune times. Modafinil helps a bit, but nowhere near enough to make me ready for anything resembling a normal sleep schedule.
2. 2013-4, severe stomach issues (eventually named "functional dyspepsia") that turned out to be psychosomatic. When I say severe, think "anything you eat will cause heartburn at an absolute minimum." Somehow, amitryptiline ended up fixing it.
3. One severe 24-hour virus in my teens. Don't know what year it is, only that it happened on a New Year's Eve. It was severe enough that I could hold nothing down, not even a sip of water. It's this high, because, well, can you imagine being able to survive for long if you couldn't even take a sip of water without puking it up?
4. Summer 2013. I was (likely) one of the victims of a Cyclosporiasis outbreak. I wasn't given a test for it, but the doctors thought the symptoms matched up.
5. 2022 COVID. It was a bit worse than the average flu, but I think my having three jabs at the time had something to do with that.

[brewer]

Mononucleosis the summer after 8th grade, symptoms lasted for a month. The funny part is that I contracted it while on a sleepover at a friends house. The transmitter was his older sister and/or her friend (~16yo) that was also there. Talk about pleasure followed by pain.

The Russian flu in 1978. At college, my room mate caught it also. We thought we could damp down the symptoms with fruit flavored brandy and drank for a week. Not sure if the flu symptoms actually lasted that long.

Can't recall any others more than the common cold.