Wednesday 13 February 2008

Medstudentitis and Medstudentpartneritis.

Well it seems that between me and missbliss in the last 24 hours or so we've had more contact with medical professionals than ever before. You remember I saw my GP yesterday morning with a chronic sore throat that I’ve had since before Christmas, I didn't feel ill at all with it but the irritation is driving me bananas!

Anyway - I’ll start the story where the last one left off.

I picked missbliss up from work and we went straight back to the doctors, it was the end of surgery and they were running significantly late. I already had my own ideas about what was wrong with missbliss and fortunately the GP agreed. He looked up some protocol and considered admitting her for a millisecond, had she vomited, she'd have been spending the night in hospital apparently. He decided it wasn't quite that serious and instead gave her a prescription for antibiotics. This time I had got involved and said that I was a medical student which made the consultation much smoother in my opinion. The locum GP was very friendly despite his vibrating phone (which he later answered but was apologetic for) whilst examining missbliss. His explanation of a urine dipstick was also rather amusing, he didn't know I was a medical student at that point and told us all about the little sponges which change colour. Anyway, we went away happy, with some decent treatment and safe in the knowledge that my diagnosis had also been right - makes a change!

After deciding on an early night we tucked up in bed to watch some Buffy. At about 10:15 I woke up with a roaring fever, although I felt ridiculously cold and was shaking so much missbliss awoke thinking it was a repeat of our summer earthquake experiences. I'd never had a fever like that before; I also had an awful headache and felt really nauseous. I was actually quite worried, as was missbliss - I had no reason to have such a fever and it was very unlikely that I had the same thing as missbliss. I've never done so before but I had missbliss phone the out of hour’s service. I must say I was rather disappointed when a nurse rang back and told me to take paracetamol and ibuprofen in the most patronising manner possible. If I hadn't been slightly confused I might have explained that I was a medical student and wasn't stupid and that I was fully aware it was probably viral (although she saw fit to tell me it was definitely viral - no question about it!) So I laid there - awake for hours now burning hot despite not having any cover at all. There is no way I could have gone to my GP placement today so I phoned in poorly when I awoke this morning.

I kept myself dosed up on ibuprofen and paracetamol all day long and was beginning to feel better - although my chronic sore throat was taking its toll. But not long ago I began shaking again feeling awfully cold. I know it’s probably viral but I've never had such a fever before and it was pretty dam scary.

Meanwhile, missbliss has been looking after me all day bringing me food and squash, despite having an illness all of her own. Poor cherub.

Unless I'm substantially improved in the morning I don't think I’ll be able to manage driving to GPs tomorrow either, besides, I'll only infect my patients. Being ill sucks.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Being ill certainly does suck!
Now I am not one to endorse herbal remedies(but short of antivirals) tried the old ginger root, gum leaf and a shot of whiskey?
in fact you could throw out the ginger root and gum leaf and still be well on your way
(yes I did pinch that from a TV show, OK it was funny then!) get well soon.

David said...

And whom infected whom.....?

XE said...

Oh dear, must've caught something in the waiting room or from one of your patients. Feel better soon Little!!

PhD scientist said...

There is a particularly nasty cold / upper resp tract infection doing the rounds in the UK this Winter - includes all of sore throat, uneasy stomach, joint and muscle pain, fever/shivering and headache, usually "settling" after a wk or so to chest infection and productive cough that takes a couple of weeks to shake. I imagine GP surgeries must be full of it, as it is definitely a bit worse than the usual Winter sniffle. We've all had it successively in the PhD Sci family and it has made for a miserable last few weeks or so. And there I was congratulating myself on having dodged the seasonal Norovirus which all us parents of small children live in fear of.

Anyway, if it's that cold you've got, LM, commiserations. Nothing to do but take the painkillers regularly and wait it out.

PS You probably picked it up from one of your patients!!

AMiB said...

now i know i'm only a preclinical student and know very little about your symptoms, but from personal experience, flu-like symptoms+serious chills, with a recent history of 3rd world travel could possibly be malaria. when i was 7 i got malaria 9 months after my return from india, despite having taken all the anti-malarials necessary.

hopefully it's not that, however. hope you're better soon!

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Oooh that doesn't sound fun. Hope you both feel better soon.

ditzydoctor said...

poor tlm. get well soon soon soon!!!

Ms-Ellisa said...

Get well soon Little M...!!!

Calavera said...

Oh no, little! I hope you're better soon!

And hats off to MissBliss for seeing you through... angel!

Kelly said...

Hey LM - hope you are feeling better now. Patients are a right pain being so generous as to share their lurgy with you... ;-)