Well, that was unpleasant
Dec. 2nd, 2020 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrMonday started fairly normally, breakfast, map out my list of things to do. Rode my trike down to Santa Clara Square, planning to stop in at the credit union, deposit some checks and sort out a problem with my e-statements. Turns out they were closed for special cleaning, but I still was able to make my deposit, ride home again in the fairly chilly weather.
After lunch is when it got weird. Fever, chills, headache. Being hyper-aware of symptoms, like everybody else these days, I knew it wasn't likely COVID, but they didn't fit a cold or flu either. (And I'd had my flu shot.) So I took some acetaminophen, took my temperature (99.7° F), and crawled into bed.
Continued to take the temperature hourly--in a way, it was like firing a kiln. Timer goes off, you check the pyrometer. In this case, it kept going up, eventually topping out at 101.7°.
If it seems I was a little obsessive, know this: three years ago, on a Sunday before I was to fly back to Wisconsin to work on clearing Denise's mother's house, she got sick. Thought it was just allergies, at first, stuffy head, tired. Couldn't find our thermometer, but BiMart wasn't closed yet, so I ran down to get one. Got home and found out she was running a 103° fever. She was also confused, maybe hallucinating? Drove down to Urgent Care, who immediately sent us across the street to Emergency. Where she was diagnosed with pneumonia, and admitted to the hospital. And I blew off any plans to fly back to Milwaukee.
So you see, a fever that wasn't flu, cold, or COVID still scared the crap out of me.
The fever finally broke between 8 and 9 pm, down to 99.5° at 8:45. Slept fitfully until 2 am--I'd been napping all day--got up and read for a bit, went back to bed. When I got up in the morning, my temperature was normal, but my right calf hurt. Tight, hot, red, like a sunburn. Read a little online, saw it was likely to be cellulitis (soft tissue infection), and the knock-on effects looked awfully scary. So as soon as they were open, I called my primary care doctor's office.
Had to wait half an hour for the triage nurse to call me back. She agreed cellulitis seemed likely--and in fact was the cause of the fever--but they couldn't rule out blood clots either.
Which is how I spent all of Tuesday morning in Emergency at the downtown PeaceHealth. Talked to the physician's assistant, who agreed with triage nurse, but wanted bloodwork and sonogram to make sure. Waited three quarters of an hour. Phlebotomist came in, took blood and a COVID swab for good measure. Waited some more. Realized I had my Kindle with me, so read for a bit. Sonographer came in and took me on a tour of my venous system--kinda fascinating, but my "sonic screwdriver" joke went right over his head.
Wait some more. Eventually, Paul the PA came back with the expected diagnosis, and a prescription for doxycycline. Waited again for the nurse to come back with my first dose and release papers. Put my pants and socks back on, went to find a security guard to get my my pocket knife back.
And finally, at 12:45 pm, I got to go home and have breakfast.
tl;dr: I'm not dead yet.
After lunch is when it got weird. Fever, chills, headache. Being hyper-aware of symptoms, like everybody else these days, I knew it wasn't likely COVID, but they didn't fit a cold or flu either. (And I'd had my flu shot.) So I took some acetaminophen, took my temperature (99.7° F), and crawled into bed.
Continued to take the temperature hourly--in a way, it was like firing a kiln. Timer goes off, you check the pyrometer. In this case, it kept going up, eventually topping out at 101.7°.
If it seems I was a little obsessive, know this: three years ago, on a Sunday before I was to fly back to Wisconsin to work on clearing Denise's mother's house, she got sick. Thought it was just allergies, at first, stuffy head, tired. Couldn't find our thermometer, but BiMart wasn't closed yet, so I ran down to get one. Got home and found out she was running a 103° fever. She was also confused, maybe hallucinating? Drove down to Urgent Care, who immediately sent us across the street to Emergency. Where she was diagnosed with pneumonia, and admitted to the hospital. And I blew off any plans to fly back to Milwaukee.
So you see, a fever that wasn't flu, cold, or COVID still scared the crap out of me.
The fever finally broke between 8 and 9 pm, down to 99.5° at 8:45. Slept fitfully until 2 am--I'd been napping all day--got up and read for a bit, went back to bed. When I got up in the morning, my temperature was normal, but my right calf hurt. Tight, hot, red, like a sunburn. Read a little online, saw it was likely to be cellulitis (soft tissue infection), and the knock-on effects looked awfully scary. So as soon as they were open, I called my primary care doctor's office.
Had to wait half an hour for the triage nurse to call me back. She agreed cellulitis seemed likely--and in fact was the cause of the fever--but they couldn't rule out blood clots either.
Which is how I spent all of Tuesday morning in Emergency at the downtown PeaceHealth. Talked to the physician's assistant, who agreed with triage nurse, but wanted bloodwork and sonogram to make sure. Waited three quarters of an hour. Phlebotomist came in, took blood and a COVID swab for good measure. Waited some more. Realized I had my Kindle with me, so read for a bit. Sonographer came in and took me on a tour of my venous system--kinda fascinating, but my "sonic screwdriver" joke went right over his head.
Wait some more. Eventually, Paul the PA came back with the expected diagnosis, and a prescription for doxycycline. Waited again for the nurse to come back with my first dose and release papers. Put my pants and socks back on, went to find a security guard to get my my pocket knife back.
And finally, at 12:45 pm, I got to go home and have breakfast.
tl;dr: I'm not dead yet.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-03 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-03 05:06 am (UTC)