Covid

[Fiz]

Am I right in thinking no Ouchers have had Covid yet?


I did my first ever PCR today as I have been feeling rough. I'm expecting it to be negative as I think it's just a cold but thought I would get a test so I know whether to meet up with my sons on the 28th. It was as unpleasant as I expected it to be! I very much hope that I never have to do another. 

[Sunny Clouds]

If I've had it, it's been symptomless or fooled the PCR.  On just one day I've had a persistent dry cough and had a PCR, but all was well, and by the end of the day I wasn't coughing any more anyway.

Naturally, it's up to you whether to get coviddified, nevertheless appreciate it if you avoided any temptation to get really ill, and dying would be most inconsiderate.  Not that I care about you or anything, of course. 

Have this cup of anti-lurgy ouch-tea to keep you well.   

[Fiz]

Here's hoping that will get me back to sleep. I'll have it with the blackcurrant max strength cold relief that I have just made




ETA PCR negative 

[ditchdwellers]

That's a relief Fiz! 

[Sunny Clouds]

See, you can't spend Christmas in intensive care after all.

Ok, I'll be serious - I'm also relieved.

[Fiz]

I just have to say what a nightmare booking the PCR was! I tried to book online using my phone but it insisted part way through the booking process that you type in the code they email to you. Going to your email on your phone loses you the place on the booking site so you have to start the process again and the code you previously retrieved from your email is invalid for the new booking process so they want to email you a new code which would repeat the blasted process. I gave up and phoned 119.


There you go through nine questions with each question listing up to 6 options which you have to listen to in full before choosing your option just to speak to someone to book your PCR. After the first nine questions and choosing my option each time it cut me off rather than put me through so I had to go through the whole nine questions with lists of options all over again!


In contrast, once I was at the test site the staff couldn't have been more helpful. I hadn't done a PCR so needed more guidance than by now they are used to I suspect but they were great. And the result in just 24 hours was quick and such a relief. To think many of these people are volunteers working in high risk environments and they're working through Christmas and on to do these tests and get people their results asap. It's amazing.

[ally]

We had a virus that lasted for over three weeks.  Very bad sore throats, constant coughing etc.  our lateral flow tests at home were negative.  Eventually my husband tried to get PCR tests.  They wouldn’t deliver due to how long we’d been sick.  We couldn’t book tests at the covid stations either.   When my husband saw the GP about something not related to the above, he told her about how sick we’d been.   She thought it was crazy that we’d ran out of time for PCR tests, and, we could’ve had covid.  She thought the  system wasn’t working

[lankou]

My wife and I were waiting for a knock on the door and there to be 14 monks outside with two stretchers. However there is no way it was Covid. Temperature normal, oximeter 96, blood pressure 120/60, resting heart rate 71, flowmeter  400. Just a bad cold in nose and throat.

[Sunny Clouds]

How boring.

Oh well, you can big it up if you play with language.  We keep calling sars-cov-2, and also the condition it usually causes, i.e. covid-19, just 'coronavirus'.

But of course coronaviruses are a sort of virus, of which sars-cov-2 is just one (with some variants).  Others include various versions of the common cold.

So anyone here who thinks what they had was 'just' a nasty cold can impress people by saying they were stricken with coronavirus.

On the other hand, I try to be careful to play down anything that could possibly sound like manic exaggeration, so even if I end up in an ICU, it has to be 'just a cold, I don't want to trouble you'.  Another priority if I get lurgified is to stress any symptoms that couldn't be attributable to bipolar, even if it's the ones that could be blamed on my moods that are the more relevant ones.  Very important that I should never sound 'delusional', particularly saying anything that could sound like 'delusions of grandeur'.

[Fiz]

I've cancelled my sons and their families coming here on Wednesday. My face is so painful and not being able to breathe means I am struggling to sleep. Decongestants are no longer helping. I did phone the surgery on Thursday to ask for some stand by antibiotics but was given the nurse practitioner and she wasn't having a bar of it. My GP would have allowed me some. Tmi sorry but thick green snot means I am fighting infection which definitely could be viral but potentially may be bacterial and the pain in my face is significant. I'm gutted not to be seeing the boys. I've only seen them once this year and da2 who lives in Wales I didn't see at all last year due to lockdowns. I'm feeling so ill 😥

[Fiz]

Awful experience with 111 tonight. I phoned them and the initial call handler wanted to send an ambulance as I have previously been diagnosed with adrenal insufficiency and am fatigued. Even if I was still adrenally insufficient my symptoms are not crisis symptoms! But I do get that adrenal insufficiency is serious and should be red flagged if you do have crisis symptoms so I can understand their over caution. It's down as a refusal now though because obviously I don't need an ambulance for a cold!


When a doctor called me back she asked me if I am Margaret *my surname* and I said that was my surname but I am not Margaret. She asked me if my DOB was .. and I said the day and month was correct but I was born ten years later than that. She then said she had the wrong details up as the call handler had input the incorrect DOB. She spent some time sorting that then asked me if my GP surgery was Moorcroft Medical Centre to which I said no and gave her mine. She then listed 'my' medication none of which I take! She then said she has the wrong person, will find my details and will call me back. So I now know the name of someone, their DOB, where their GP surgery is and that they're on strong antipsychotic psychiatric medication! I can only hope MY information has never been handed out to a stranger on the phone by the NHS!


When she phoned back she told me off for taking hydrocortisone because it's not listed on my medications and wouldn't listen when I said that my GP has full knowledge of what I take and why and it's authorised. And apparently sinus infections are never treated with antibiotics any longer and the pain will go away eventually.


I'm overdosing on decongestants as the same one is in the Sudafed extra strong capsules as in the cold and flu relief but I simply don't care. I feel like I have been punched in the face and my nose is broken. It's totally impossible to sleep with pain like this.

[Sunny Clouds]

 

I don't know whether antibiotics are what you need, but you certainly need something. 

I always seem to rely on steam inhalations but they don't necessarily get far enough up into the sinuses for me.

I hope you start feeling better soon, because it's horrid being in lots of pain.

[ditchdwellers]

This sounds absolutely dreadful Fiz 
Having never experienced sinus problems I have no experience of the pain, but you certainly paint a vivid enough picture for me to know I certainly don't want to experience it either!
It's a shame to miss out on family visit. Can you reschedule for when you feel better?


Sending you virtual interwebby healing vibes 

[Fiz]

Statement from number 10

[Sunny Clouds]

Well I trust Larry the Cat in a way I'll never trust Boris and his chums, so I'll believe him.