Peter’s Hospital Diary

Yes, I know that my next sheduled visit isn’t until March – however…

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had had a bad cold, and when I went up for my checkup, Dr Raj was not best pleased that I hadn’t told them. I was just about over it, when another bug went round the office, but as it was a male member of staff, we just ascribed it to man-flu, which as you all know is a completely fictitious ailment! However by Thursday, I was staking the boxes of tissues on my desk, and by Friday, I was feeling a bit under the weather. Worse, I thought I was developing conjunctivitis, which I probably caught from Olivia.

Saturday started really well though. I had a bit of a lie in, then went down to pub for lunch with Mark (fellow blogmaster) Gabor (podcaster extraordinaire) and Mike – who encourages us from the sidelines. The reason was Mark’s Birthday – so any excuse! However we did note as we left that our table was littered with coffee cups, and that a few years ago, that would have been beer bottles and glasses! (In fact the only glasses of significance were our reading glasses to look at the menu…)

I dropped Mark off and went home, feeling a bit cold a shivery, so I had a lie down and sleep for an hour – followed by an early night. Sunday saw little improvement – I did get up for a few hours, but started feeling shivery again, so after taking my temperature – which as about 1.5 degrees above the ‘normal’ and about 2 degrees above my normal, I sent a text message to my boss saying I wouldn’t be in, and resolved to call Guy’s this morning.

Their comment – predictably was ‘Come in – but don’t go into the unit because we don’t want to expose you to other patients” I did suggest tomorrow the reply was “What’s the matter with today?” A pretty clear message, even to me!

So off I went. Nasal suction, bloods, an upper and lower chest X-ray, and eye swabs, and a prescription for some antibiotics and eye drops. I have to say I felt better for getting out, although I feel tired and a bit cold now.

The diagnosis is that it is probably a virus, but the additional antibiotics are a precaution in case there is a low level bacterial infection. However the visit was reassuring in that the physical examination revealed no raised lymph nodes (had there been, it could could have been due to two possible reasons – one of which would be MOST unwelcome) so I did return home feeling more at ease. So just a little hiccup to overcome on the path that winds…

Onwards and Upwards!