A week and a half ago (Tuesday), I started developing a sore throat. Unfortunately this was a day when I travelled to Tel Aviv in order to train a new worker, so this was quite awkward. By lunchtime, I was feeling very worn-out; I asked someone if they had any paracetamol. She answered that she has in the same container paracetamol, Advil (ibuprofen) and optalgin; I told her that as a retired pharmacist, all three come from different families of drugs and shouldn't be mixed up that way. I took two paracetamol. As it happens (partially by design), a few senior managers were in the same room, so they could see and hear that I wasn't feeling well.
I worked at home for the next two days; it was very painful to swallow but otherwise I was feeling almost normal. By Thursday lunchtime, though, I started feeling very weak and took to my bed. The weekend passed without any change, for better or worse. I had started coughing, a very 'dry' and unproductive cough; I joked that it was like someone who has smoked for thirty years. On Sunday I managed to see a doctor in the kibbutz clinic; she said that it was almost certainly a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract and that there was very little that could be done. Apparently this year there are some nasty variations of the normal virus that is causing the infection. She prescribed a medicine that dissolves solidified phlegm and makes it easier to express (via the coughing).
On Tuesday I felt a bit better and managed to work for a few hours, if only to clear the backlog of about 300 letters that had been sent - most of these automatic letters that didn't require too much attention. But there were also at least three letters from fellow workers that really annoyed me: instead of thinking a little and trying to solve their own problems in Priority, they felt no compunction in transferring them to me. I know that I lose patience when I am unwell, but I do think that these people could try a little harder. It must be very tempting not to bother when they know that there is someone (i.e. me) who can solve their problems, be them trivial or complex.
When I was in Tel Aviv, my manager wanted to discuss the possibility of my retiring; for some reason she thought that I was only 63 years old when in fact I am 68½. She told me that she wanted that I should give two years notice! I said that until now we had talked on the basis of one year's notice. The following day I prepared a list of all the activities that I execute, divided into sections such as development, high level Priority maintanence, inventory management and solving problems for other people that they could solve had they wanted to. So this list was very much in my mind when I connected to work.
The following day passed without much change, but on Thursday (yesterday), I began to feel worse again. There were many discharges from my eyes and my wife said that my left eye was somewhat red. The hearing in my right ear seemed compromised. So I went again to the clinic; a power cut and no doctor available that day sent me to the regional clinic in Bet Shemesh (near the train station). I repeated everything to a nurse there and waited a while before seeing a doctor.
This one noticed that the oxygen saturation level of my blood was on the low side - around 90% - and that when taking into account my slightly reduced kidney function (and age), he thought it best that I be checked out in a hospital emergency room where they can do blood tests, X-rays and consultations all in one place. So this doctor ordered for me there and then an ambulance that turned up after about 20 minutes. They put me on a mobile chair that turns into a bed then took me to the ambulance. We sped towards Jerusalem.
Although I've accompanied people (mainly my father) in this situation, it's the first time that it's ever happened to me. As it was the clinic that was sending me to the hospital, I wouldn't have to pay for the ambulance, although getting home would almost certainly involve a taxi ride at some stage. The ambulance driver also handled some of the red tape in the hospital.
I then sat around for a while before a triage nurse heard my story yet again and probably took some measurements (I don't recall this but they are mentioned in my discharge sheet). Another short wait and then bloods were taken. And ... a ... very ... long ... wait before I actually saw a doctor. Once again I explained my symptoms; she said that the saturation had improved slightly when measured in the hospital so she was less worried that there might be pneumonia or similar. She sent me for an X-ray, and then shortly after saw me again, prescribing antibiotics and more rest.
So that was an exciting Thursday! It wasn't exactly what I had intended to do that day but it's not as if I had anything better to do. So far I've taken the antibiotics twice: I can't say that there's much of an improvement yet. I'm still coughing away merrily but at least I don't feel as weak as I have felt.
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 235 | Still working even when feeling lousy | Programming, Organisation behaviour, Blood pressure | |
| 457 | Sequencing "Lost" | MIDI, Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill, Reason | |
| 552 | Sansa clip+ mp3 player | MP3 | |
| 1726 | The Dublin Murder Squad, continued | Literature, Song writing |
