What Next?

I'm not usually an ill person, sure I get the occasional bout of man flu once or twice a year but other than that I'm usually quite healthy. That was until this year, I've been ill almost constantly since before Christmas with one thing or another.

This weekend I was struck with a mysterious vomiting bug! It only lasted about 36 hours or so but I'm still feeling the effects now. Vomiting is not fun, especially when there is nothing left to bring up apart from tiny amounts of water that you've managed to drink to keep you hydrated.

I'm thoroughly fed up of being ill, it is quite literally, driving me insane!

What is wrong with me?

I'm Improving - just a little

You'll* be pleased and relieved to know that I'm improving.
*I know some of you won't, but still.

Its slow though, I'm taking my Pen V religiously and I think its probably that which is helping. Having caught sight of my tonsils I've decided I probably have tonsillitis with a bit of sinusitis thrown in for good measure. I'm thoroughly fed up of being ill but I want to get right, which I'm still significantly far from, before I venture back into hospital. As a result I think this week has been a complete washout, rain-stopped-play!

I did the washing up this morning, something which is usually a something and nothing job, there wasn't even a lot of it but it almost killed me. Half way through I was fighting exhaustion, pain and hotness and clinging on by the skin of my teeth. I purposefully sprayed the cold tap at my face on several occasions to prevent me collapsing. After the mountainous load of a few cups and plates I couldn't face the the pan and promptly went to bed, collapsed and fell asleep for about an hour, I was absolutely shattered, it was like I'd run 7 marathons in 7 days.

I've also started to eat a little bit, which ought to improve my energy as for about a week I've had a bit of scrambled egg and a bit of toast. I'm wasting away. I even refused fish and chips last night and that is NOT like me!

I'm looking forward to hopefully (crossing fingers, touching wood and praying) feeling better next week when hopefully I'll have something more interesting to blog about than my temperature and mucus.

Poorly

I'm so very poorly and its driving me fucking insane! This year so far, I've had more illnesses than I've had in my entire life.

WARNING GROSS DETAILS BELOW FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A FRAGILE DISPOSITION

For the past 3 months I've had sort of a chronic sore throat, except its not actually my throat its more my nasopharynx (the bit above my throat) It was more of an irritation than anything most of the time with a feeling of sticky mucus I needed to clear. Sounds a bit like PND (post-nasal-drip) right? well yeah, that's what the doctor thought that I saw about a month ago. Unfortunately that night I awoke with a raging fever and was ill for a good few days, my throat became acutely worse, was painful to swallow, I felt generally like shit, had a headache, was clearing some greeny mucus from my nasopharynx and had a few days off. I couldn't get a doctors appointment and I improved but was left with the same chronic PND like symptoms, I checked myself out for malaria and glandular fever, both were -ve but I did have some raised white cells.

Last week I awoke with the same fever- even with the same accompanying dream. By this time it was starting to drive me slightly crazy. The symptoms got worse and worse over the weekend and I finally got to see a doctor (I basically had to crawl there feeling atrocious) He didn't have much of a clue but agreed that it might be time for some antibiotics so gave me some penicillin.

So what were my symptoms? Fever, vomiting, Very painful swallowing (but I don't think in your typical tonsillitis type way) Lots and lots of mucus I had to clear which was green and brown (clearing this did offer mild relief), foul taste in my mouth, being barely able to talk due to throat, sinus headache and feeling generally like shit.

Things do seem to have improved in the last day or so with the antibiotics in that my fever and generally shitty feeling have gone now but my throat/nasopharynx is still ridiculously painful and is producing lots of mucus which since the antibiotics has become black and reddish. Drinking cold water relieves my throat temporarily, I must have drunk litres and litres of it this last week.

I've been taking loads of paracetamol and decongestants as well as my penicillin which is helping too, at least to make the mucus a bit less sticky. missbliss has been looking after me but all I've managed to eat is a bit of scrambled egg.

I've missed the start of my A&E placement which I'm really pissed about as it only 4 weeks and i'm probably going to miss about a week of it. I was really looking forward to it too. I'm thoroughly, thoroughly pissed off with life at the moment.

What the fuck is it and how do I get rid of it for good?

Tonsillitis?
Sinusitis?
Something else?

sorry for not blogging recently
This illness is DRIVING ME BLOODY BONKERS!

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.