Here’s what happened after I finished disinfecting upstairs yesterday.
Out of the blue, I felt cold. Very, very cold. I could not continue disinfecting downstairs.
Husband took my temperature, it was 38.5 degrees. He decided something was very wrong and I simply had to go to the hospital, so he got a referral letter from that GP, and I asked for all the itemised receipts so that I could tell the hospital all the meds I had taken for the last three weeks.
I was trembling and shaking so badly even while at home. It was something that had not happened before. I could not even use my phone to type anything. My hands were unsteady.
But husband had given me two Panadols before he left the house. The Panadols worked and by the time we reached the hospital, my fever was down. I said I’m fine, let’s go home. But he said no. Luckily he said no.
Waited and waited and the emergency dr checked me. She ordered a CRP and chest X-Ray, something which should have been done after one week of prolonged coughing, which the GP never did. It had slipped my mind as well, because our vets would always order a chest X-ray for our cats. You know how it is with caregivers, we always put ourselves last. One sneeze from our pets, we rush them to the vet’s. When we are sick, we wait until we are almost dying only then we go. And to the nearest GP, not even to a specialist.
The emergency dr was amazing. She understood everything I told her. I understood everything she told me. She was super fast too. My kind of person. She said I might have to be admitted depending on the chest X-ray and the CRP reading. I said I didn’t want to be admitted. I have pets at home. She said she would consult the lung specialist.
Chest X-ray done. I was so sure I would have been fine. I felt fine because Panadol had brought down the fever. I told husband, what if they found cancer on my lungs…yikes. I got to live for another 20 more years.
Soon it was my turn. The emergency dr showed me my lung X-ray. Oh my….it looked exactly like Juno’s and Hiro’s when their lungs were infected and each one had a collapsed lung too. I saw those white patches and I knew…that’s inflammation. My lungs had been badly infected for three weeks, which has led to what it is now.
The GP whom I had seen for 3 weeks never ordered a chest X-Ray at all, just kept saying my lungs were clear and I was getting better, and pumped me with antibiotics after antibiotics to clear the mycoplasma. The emergency dr at the hospital said that’s not their protocol, why repeat the antibiotics when you have already completed the course? Different protocols.
I still didn’t want to be admitted. Can I come and go to get treated, I asked. Not advisable. Best you get admitted and we can start treatment tonight itself, she said. Yes, true. She said she would try to get hold of the on-call lung specialist.
She did. She found the on-call lung specialist and he attended to me. Admit, he said. We start treatment tonight. Your lungs are infected badly.
Okay, fine.
The emergency dr did a swab test for a rapid test of 20 different bacteria to check what else has infected my lungs so badly. A swab test, not a blood test. There is a difference. The GP had done only a blood test. Was it an antigen test or an antibody test, I wasn’t told. I was just told, “You have mycoplasma pneumonia.”
So based on the advice of the lung specialist, I was admitted, and I was trembling and shaking so badly I could not even reply messages on my phone. I had 4 layers of blankets and was still shivering. The fever was very high.
They administered IV antibiotics. I don’t really remember what happened as I was shivering to the point of delirium. But I did send husband back. Stay with the cats, I said. I am fine. So he went home. He’d have to feed the cats tomorrow morning. We will figure that out. It can be done because I have labelled all my cat food.
Luckily I was finally able to sleep. After the 48 hours again. I did ask the emergency dr, what did the GP give me until I could not sleep? She says sometimes it’s the cough mixture. I had been given so many medicines for the past 3 weeks by the GP. So many! You don’t need any of these meds anymore, she told me.
So I could finally sleep, shivering and trembling, but at least I could sleep. But the nurses had to keep waking me up to check this and that. I know, I understand that. And the IV-meds had to be administered and each time, the beeper would sound and I had to call the nurse to attend to it. Despite all that, I could still sleep.
By 2.40am my fever finally broke. I was sweating and feeling so much better. At last!
And I’ve been up since 2.40am. I feel fine now. Since the fever broke, there’s been no more fever.
But I still cannot be discharged because the lung specialist has three conditions for discharge and I have not fulfilled them yet. No worries, the cats are okay, I’ll stay.
He did say that if I insisted on being discharged, he would have to discharge me, but he advised me to stay and be monitored for at least one more day. With all the cats in good hands, I’ll stay.
So here I am now, with the IV-port still in my arm, but drip already removed. The IV-port is just kept to administer the IV-meds. They are still checking me for fever, taking my blood pressure and O2 sat periodically. Everything has been normal so far.
One of the criteria for discharge is “no fever for 24 hours”. I haven’t fulfilled that yet. 2.40am tonight….
Another criteria is a decrease in the CRP (C Reactive Protein). My CRP has actually gone up but that’s normal in such cases, it should be coming down, hopefully by tomorrow. CRP is a measure of inflammation in the body. My lungs are still inflamed. Yes, thanks to the prolonged lung infection which had remained undetected for 3 full weeks.
Third criteria is lungs are clear. My lungs are clear. So I’ve fulfilled this criteria. Just waiting for 2.40am tonight and the CRP reading tomorrow.
Finally, the results of yesterday’s swab test was ready. Guess what, out of the 20 bacteria they tested, I had NONE of them. So as of yesterday’s time of testing, there is no more bacteria in me. And definitely no mycoplasma too, but this doesn’t mean I did not have mycoplasma earlier. Maybe I did, but as of last night, there’s no more of it. And true enough, why on earth did the GP keep pumping me with antibiotics? If your antibiotics work, my body would have got rid of the pathogens. Why did you overdose me with antibiotics?
My urine test was also clear. It’s my sputum test that needs 4 days of culture to get the results. Maybe this would shed some light on what infected me so badly. 4 days of culture, yes, that’s the same with our cats’ cultures too. My vets know what they are doing.
I’m beginning to think that my vet’s clinic is actually a hospital, isn’t it? They do everything so professionally and so right. And they have all the facilities too.
And I know the difference between an antigen test and an antibody test. Don’t take me for a fool. I may not be a doctor, but from my cats’ many tests, I know what it means. The GP did blood tests on me without telling me whether it’s an antigen or antibody test. My vets explain it clearly to me, that’s how I learn. Vets don’t treat us like idiots. They treat us with respect. Likewise, we respect them too, for being so professional in what they do.
So, I’ll be staying on another night, but I know all our cats are in good hands.
Now, that GP had to ask me what was going on. Big mistake. I hadn’t plan on telling him anything anymore. But since he asked, I will answer.
So I asked him, why didn’t you inform me about the potential hazards of SJS from the antibiotic you gave me? His answer was: Anything also can cause SJS, even eating prawns. That was not my question, Dr. Why didn’t you inform me? I was wasting my time.
I asked him, why didn’t you order a chest X-ray for me after one week of coughing. He said, “Didn’t you say you were feeling better already?” So if I said I’m already feeling better, does it mean I’m really better? Aren’t you supposed to listen to my lungs, or order a chest X-ray to be sure? Why do I pay you for your service? I’m not the doctor, you are. I pay you to get your professional service, knowledge and skills. But yes, I’m wasting my time.
With these kind of answers, I knew I was talking to a brick wall, so I ended the conversation. Time to look for a new GP, or better still, go to a hospital the next time I have any lung issues.
I actually told both the emergency dr and the lung specialist that I was feeling fine because I was, so let me go home. But they told me no. You are not fine. Your X-Ray shows you are not fine. You have to be admitted. See the difference here?
I also expressed my concerns about SJS to the lung specialist. He did not brush it off by saying something as stupid as “eat prawns also can get SJS”. He explained what SJS is, how we detect it, etc. He didn’t take me for an idiot. He explained it to me. Now, I understand. He respected my concerns because someone friend’s had died of SJS and I was once given a medication that could cause SJS and that doctor did not tell me about it. See the difference? He didn’t treat me like an idiot.
Apparently, pneumonia is quite prevalent now, post-Covid. That’s what the superpowers have done to us, they have weakened our lungs with Covid-19, we have become susceptible to new diseases. Yups, carrying on destroying the earth. That’s what you people do best.
In the past, during my teaching days, I’ve had prolonged coughs before, as long as 6 months, but it did not become pneumonia.
This was just a mild lingering cough for 3 weeks, so mild, so very mild, you won’t even pay any attention to it. And yet, it developed into pneumonia.
The world is changing too fast when it shouldn’t be. Superpowers, that’s on you.
Now I need to post a picture here, otherwise nobody on FB will read this. Haha….I’ll post a picture of my hand.
Yes, I’ve got my laptop and managed to use the hospital’s spotty wifi to connect. Wasn’t easy, though…. I’m a phone-dummy.
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