I received an email this morning from MDMK, who lives in Holland. She got back from Egypt on Tuesday and was in hospital with Corvid 19 on Thursday night. It's a fascinating story and well told (but don't tell her I said so...) that will undoubtedly be of interest to many. There can be no doubt she got off lightly, but she's a mere youngster (comparatively speaking...) and has no underlying health issues.
It's particularly interesting to see how efficiently she was dealt with. I hope I never have to find out how the NHS compares...
[EDIT: Before you ask, I have her permission to post!]
I get home lunchtime Tuesday, and I basically sleep for 48 hours. Then I wake up Thursday and checked my temp as I felt awful. Had no temp, no symptoms, but felt so bad (depressed bad, not physically bad) I decide I must be having a nervous breakdown. So it was a bloody relief when I took my temp at 6pm to find I was running a fever of 39.9.
At first I thought the thermometer was faulty, I mean 39.9 is exceptionally high (for an adult), so Mike checked his (after disinfecting, yes, lol) and he was 36.2. So I just called the out of hours GP post, which in our city is attached to the hospital's A&E department. They triage you over the phone, and you don't get into the building at all without having been told to come. The triage nurse or whatever said this was one for the doc, so doc called me back more or less instantly. Told him my symptoms, told him I was just back from Egypt and stayed in a hotel where 2 days after I checked out 2 people were tested corona positive. So he said to come in straight away.... but they have split the GP bit into clean and "flu type" areas. Mike was to stay in the car or go home. No one is allowed in the hospital at all except patients or 1 parent/carer for the under 16s.
I went to the main door. Big sign told me "flu type people use bla bla door 5 meters to the right" so I went there. Rang bell, gave my name to security, who let me in and handed me a surgical mask (I say handed, but it's like at petrol stations... he puts it in a basin type thing then slides the opening to my side, so zero contact. Only when my mask is firmly on and he has checked it through the glass did he open the sliding door. I report to the reception bit and they took one look at me and said I wasn't well enough for the waiting room, as the sweat was lashing outa me by this point. So I got to skip the queue of about 5 and go first. GP looks at me, takes temp, listens to lungs and picks up the phone saying "Corona protocol, room 5 (or whatever)".
Then a hazmat dolly came and took me along the corridor to the iso room. Where another hazmat dolly nurse did blood tests, corona test, all known seasonal flu test(s) (bloody hurt by the way.... a bit of wire into the nose but I swear it goes right up into your brain). Then a hazmat doc came and listened to my lungs (oh yes and in the meantime I was on a paracetamol drip, to bring my temp down, and that worked a treat, went down to 38ish in around 2 hrs). Hazmat doc declared I needed lung xray. This was also partially because Egypt is such an unknown for them, Egypt is on a list that they are Corona "number fudgers".
So a hazmat radiology person came and took me to a special area set up just for lung xrays for the corona/flu/airway folks. Got them, go back to my wee room. If I needed anything no one even came in to the room. Everything, medical equipment, test kits, glass of water etc, came via a knock at the door, which I was to wait 10 seconds then open the door and pick up whatever was in front of it. All quite efficient and well thought out I would say. Results were back 2 and half hours after me entering the hospital, except the corona one, that came friday afternoon. Hazmat doc came back and said they were 99.9 sure I was covid19 positive, they would know for sure the next afternoon. Asked me where I felt, happier, being admitted or going home. I chose for home with the agreement if anything changed I'd come back. They kept me in most of the night though as my temp was going up and down, but they didn't admit me to the corona ward, I was sooo grateful for that, I got to stay in my wee kiddy iso room with Nemo and Squirt (and Winston Smith) and just slept for a good 4 or 5 hours. Hazmat doc comes at around 3am and said I could home, or could get admitted, whatever I wanted, I was medically a "borderline case" for admittance, so they were happy to let me go (with just antibiotics for the lungs and paracetamol for the fever).
Got up Friday and felt not too bad. Slept most of the day. But was quite good. Went to bed with a temp of 38.1 at 10pm, and then suddenly around 10.30 I felt quite awful. Temp had gone back up to 40.1. I shit myself and went through the whole shabang again, spent the night again in another iso room in the A&E, intravenous paracetamol brought my temp down quickly enough, then they just left me to sleep for a few hours and I got home around ???? not sure... 4 ish I think. So apart from 2 extreme temperature spikes... it was an easy flu. Had a pneumonia years ago and it was MUCH worse than this.
But, I have no underlying issues except high BP which isn't an issue.
