A land that you never want to visit

[peterbirks]

I 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

Comments

Get Well Soon

[geoffchall.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear, etc etc. TO which the appropriate response is: I don't want your fucking sympathy, I just want to feel better. Quite.

My experience with antibiotics kick-in point is more in the 36-48 hour band. Anything sooner is mere placebo. However you do have one phase coming up that I always enjoy. Usually as an infection comes under control when you know inwardly just how dramatically better you feel. Everything's coming under control, the sun's coming out and one is going to be a better human being. Of course it's a false dawn and one doesn't turn out to be a better human being after all but it's a good theory.

Re: Get Well Soon

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Thanks Geoff. No, sympathy is good. Not as good as feeling better, of course, but at least something to be going on with when at 3am local time you have worked out that sitting up and staying awake is a preferable option to lying down and getting a minute's rest before that irresistible tickle starts at the bottom of the throat, leading, a minute later, to the same sitting-up position, but accompanied by the coughing.

Yeah, two-to-three days is when the antibiotics aremeant to start work, so I really should stop worrying that they aren't working. So let's play with 36-to-72 hours and stop being pessimistic.

Have added a coda to the above, rather than put the comment in here.

PJ

Get Well Soon Too

[miltonkeynesman.livejournal.com]

Peter - can only agree with Geoff and hope things improve. Its a particular bastard being ill away from home comforts, but if you do want consoling thought you could have been travelling back to Heathrow tomorrow.
Not sure on the avoidance strategies. Sure its a good idea to avoid obviously dying types in confined spaces, but they reckon its the ones just infected but with minimal symptoms who are pumping out the toxins. Best advice from me is keep fit, eat healthy and dont forget to look both ways when crossing the street. Hope sun comes out soon.

Re: Get Well Soon Too

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Thanks Richard. Yeah, being away from home makes it tougher in one sense, but if I was at home, I'd probably still be making myself produce the newsletter, so being isolated out here has at least one upside!

PJ

Kermode comment

[(Anonymous)]

Peye, dont go and see Contagion
Keith S

Re: Kermode comment

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[(Anonymous)]

Everytime I have had amoxycillin it took 5/6 days to "work" :-(

Hope things are better

redsimon

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Hi red: I didn't like the sound of this! However, overnight I began to improve, so it looks as if the two-to-three days predicted by the doc is going to be true. here's hoping. Nice to hear from you.

PJ

GWS

[bryangb.livejournal.com]

And maybe start wearing a mask when you're on public transport, Japanese-commuter-style.

Re: GWS

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

I just don't think that these are overly effective. But perhaps I think that because I think that they look so silly.

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AVOIDING COLDS

[john-f-hopkins.livejournal.com]

Something that is very simple, very effective yet difficult in practice to do is, during the colds season, to:-

wash (or disinfect) your hands whenever possible
never touch your mouth/eyes with your hands without having washed them

Doesn't protect from inhaled airborne droplet infection, but otherwise can make a substantial difference.

Re: AVOIDING COLDS

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Hi John: Thanks for that. It makes a lot of sense. A friend recommended hand sanitizer (she also recommended gloves when in public places, but that might be a bit excessive). I suspect that just keeping to this simple rule might be more than half the battle. All I have to do is assume that I am permanently in the middle of one of those occasional flu panics and to was and disinfect my hands accordingly.

PJ

Re: AVOIDING COLDS

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

Given that my mother died from this sort of condition (ie permanent susceptibility to chest problems), it's a fairly big issue with me. I'm definitely with John on this one. I'd also recommend anything that can boost the immune system (and here we get into shaky ground with superfruits and what-not, but my attitude is: if you like them anyway, why not give it a try?). And Mum used to recommend gargling with cod-liver oil every night as a way of avoiding infections from the kids at school -- not for me, but who am I to say? It seemed to work.

I sympathise with the concern over wearing out the effectiveness of each new anti-biotic, although you might be a little too worried about this. AFAIK, it's more the germs themselves that get immune, rather than the patient. But, it's never a good idea to dose yourself with endless amounts of the things. I'm particularly annoyed by GPs who cheerily prescribe them for viral infections whilst pointing out that (rather obviously) they won't do a thing for you...

I've never had a flu jab, btw. Are they a good idea?

Anyway, as usual it boils down to common sense and a bit of care. (I'd also recommend planning to retire somewhere out of London, but then I'd be planning on that in any case...)