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A land that you never want to visit
Nov. 29th, 2011 09:36 amI think it's a given that, when we are ill or in pain, not much else really matters apart from a desire not to be ill or in pain. We often read rather shallow homilies on FB pages about "if you think you have problems...", followed by a remarkable tale of fortitude by some poor soul, as if this was meant to make you suddenly realize that, hey, my problems aren't so bad after all! and then you feel cheerful. Of course, you don't. You just feel a bit more guilty for not giving a shit about remarkably brave so-and-so of Wooton Bassett, and a bit worse about yourself. I mean, do people who post these things really think that someone who has lost an eye in a car accident is made more cheerful by a tale of someone who coped with losing both eyes in Iraq?
So I've spent most of today feeling, in no particular order - ill, and sorry for myself. I made it Walgreen's; I saw a nice doctor. I got prescribed amoxycillin and benzoatate, all for a not particularly high price. Mind you, said doc did ask if I wanted some, I feel, not-too-necessary additions (a nasal decongestant spray and an asthma-type inhaler in case I suffered breathing difficulties) mainly, I presume, on the grounds that the insurance company would be paying for it.
On the NHS, when I suffered a not dissimilar illness a couple of years ago (albeit significantly less severe) I got prescirbed the amoxycillin and nothing else. Cough? Live with it until you get better or buy something over-the-counter.
You're meant to take the amoxycillin with your meals, which is a bit hard when you have no appetite. I took one fairly quickly (counting the Dnish I had eaten two hours earlier as a "meal") and the other one at 11pm local time when I forced myself to eat something. I felt like death. Came back to room, attempted to sleep. not much good. Lying on my back causes in a rapid build-up of phlegm on the lungs, resulting in a 20-miinute coughing fit that sends a knife of pain through my right-side ribs ( remember the ones that I hurt last Thursday in the gym? Yep, them ones) with every spasm. The coughing fits are hard enough on the throat, without the ribs perking up with "hey, don't forget us! We're in pain too you know!" Well, yes, I do know. And forgive me for not thinking, in the middle of this trunk-doubling body spasm, of that poor bastard in wherever-it-is who coped with far worse misfortunes, and with a smile and a wave to boot.
There are periods of relief -- a few hours this morning and a couple of hours this evening. I even managed to get in about four hours of cards (little of interest, net profit - $23). Worryingly, those periods of comfort seemed to get shorter, and I now feel no better, and perhaps a bit worse, than I did 24 hours ago. With luck the amoycillin will start kicking in within 24 hours, but it does feel to me as if my cough/wheeze is now distinctly bronchitic. I think that the amoxycillin can still cope with full-blown bronchitis, rather than a pre-bronchitic chest infection, but it doesn't make for a fun time. No energy to concentrate on reading a book, no chance of a decent sleep, and basically every moment a focus on finding a comfortable position that won't bring on another side-knifing coughing fit.
I spent a couple of 15 minute sessions with my head under a towel at the sink, running hot water (thank goodness that got fixed promptly!) and breathing in as much hot moist air as possible. That's meant to help. It also passes the time and does at least postpone the coughing.
I remain optimistic that I'll feel better fairly soon, but I wish that it would hurry up! TTFN
*later*
One thing that I meant to mention, but forgot, was that it's becoming clear that my chest is now vulnerable to any kind of ordinary viral infection. Two of the four colds I have got in the past 18 months have gone either straight to my chest or from my nose/sinuses to my throat and thence to my chest.
This is bad news in two senses. The first is that these chest infections are far from fun. And that's the good news of the bad news. The real bad news is that, if this keeps happening, eventually the antibiotics will stop working, and then the doctors will have to find some other super-antibiotics, or I will die from pneumonia, or some other chest-related illness.
This definitely means that I shall have to be careful about not catching things from other people. But how does one do that to a "sensible" degree, without going all Howard Hughes? There are a number of simple sensible options, and one of them is clearly to stay indoors away from everything at the first sign of a cold. Bugger "working through it". I can work through it from home. If that means last-minute cancellations, then that is how it will have to be.
I'm tempted to avoid buses as much as possible, and one obvious route to longer-term survival would be to leave London (and work!). Financially that isn't really an option, and at least my life at the moment can be arranged to avoid mixing with too many potential germ-carriers.
And that's about all I can think of. Avoiding parents of nursery/school-age children would probably be a wise move, but I think that that might be seen as a tad excessive.
PJ
So I've spent most of today feeling, in no particular order - ill, and sorry for myself. I made it Walgreen's; I saw a nice doctor. I got prescribed amoxycillin and benzoatate, all for a not particularly high price. Mind you, said doc did ask if I wanted some, I feel, not-too-necessary additions (a nasal decongestant spray and an asthma-type inhaler in case I suffered breathing difficulties) mainly, I presume, on the grounds that the insurance company would be paying for it.
On the NHS, when I suffered a not dissimilar illness a couple of years ago (albeit significantly less severe) I got prescirbed the amoxycillin and nothing else. Cough? Live with it until you get better or buy something over-the-counter.
You're meant to take the amoxycillin with your meals, which is a bit hard when you have no appetite. I took one fairly quickly (counting the Dnish I had eaten two hours earlier as a "meal") and the other one at 11pm local time when I forced myself to eat something. I felt like death. Came back to room, attempted to sleep. not much good. Lying on my back causes in a rapid build-up of phlegm on the lungs, resulting in a 20-miinute coughing fit that sends a knife of pain through my right-side ribs ( remember the ones that I hurt last Thursday in the gym? Yep, them ones) with every spasm. The coughing fits are hard enough on the throat, without the ribs perking up with "hey, don't forget us! We're in pain too you know!" Well, yes, I do know. And forgive me for not thinking, in the middle of this trunk-doubling body spasm, of that poor bastard in wherever-it-is who coped with far worse misfortunes, and with a smile and a wave to boot.
There are periods of relief -- a few hours this morning and a couple of hours this evening. I even managed to get in about four hours of cards (little of interest, net profit - $23). Worryingly, those periods of comfort seemed to get shorter, and I now feel no better, and perhaps a bit worse, than I did 24 hours ago. With luck the amoycillin will start kicking in within 24 hours, but it does feel to me as if my cough/wheeze is now distinctly bronchitic. I think that the amoxycillin can still cope with full-blown bronchitis, rather than a pre-bronchitic chest infection, but it doesn't make for a fun time. No energy to concentrate on reading a book, no chance of a decent sleep, and basically every moment a focus on finding a comfortable position that won't bring on another side-knifing coughing fit.
I spent a couple of 15 minute sessions with my head under a towel at the sink, running hot water (thank goodness that got fixed promptly!) and breathing in as much hot moist air as possible. That's meant to help. It also passes the time and does at least postpone the coughing.
I remain optimistic that I'll feel better fairly soon, but I wish that it would hurry up! TTFN
*later*
One thing that I meant to mention, but forgot, was that it's becoming clear that my chest is now vulnerable to any kind of ordinary viral infection. Two of the four colds I have got in the past 18 months have gone either straight to my chest or from my nose/sinuses to my throat and thence to my chest.
This is bad news in two senses. The first is that these chest infections are far from fun. And that's the good news of the bad news. The real bad news is that, if this keeps happening, eventually the antibiotics will stop working, and then the doctors will have to find some other super-antibiotics, or I will die from pneumonia, or some other chest-related illness.
This definitely means that I shall have to be careful about not catching things from other people. But how does one do that to a "sensible" degree, without going all Howard Hughes? There are a number of simple sensible options, and one of them is clearly to stay indoors away from everything at the first sign of a cold. Bugger "working through it". I can work through it from home. If that means last-minute cancellations, then that is how it will have to be.
I'm tempted to avoid buses as much as possible, and one obvious route to longer-term survival would be to leave London (and work!). Financially that isn't really an option, and at least my life at the moment can be arranged to avoid mixing with too many potential germ-carriers.
And that's about all I can think of. Avoiding parents of nursery/school-age children would probably be a wise move, but I think that that might be seen as a tad excessive.
PJ
