away and it didn’t go away, if anything things got worse!
The doctor was called, he examined me saying my chest sounded clear. A bottle of jollop was given, red cough mixture. The next visit... ditto, only this time orange tincture. By the third visit, I had developed a pain that I can only describe as a sabre being plunged between my ribs deep into my chest. I laid in the bed to all intents and purposes like a corpse in a coffin. The reason being I was scared to move because the pain was excruciating.
As luck would have it on this visit my GP was accompanied by a young doctor who said
‘Could it be psittacosis?’
A blood sample was immediately taken and sent away for analysis. Back came the results, a large percentage parts
per million of the virus!
Back they came with an antibiotic that had not long been discovered that tackled it. The doctor said a few years ago without this drug you would have died! With the cross over between birds to humans the symptoms don’t develop or show in the same way. That was why he couldn’t hear fluid on my lungs. Pneumonia, but not as we know it! The next question was how all that way from civilisation had I picked it up?
I wracked my brain as to just how; the only conclusion I could come up with I had not long before visited my father in Deal and had stepped into a pet shop. A long shot especially as the shop didn’t have a resident parrot!?!
The final thought was maybe I had breathed in the dust from my hens’ feathers?
The Coronavirus sweeping the world has reminded me of my skirmish with the disease crossover from animals to humans. How so little us supposedly intelligent beings know about the weird and wonderful world we all live in and I ought to say take totally for granted. Best we all wake up!
Hear hear
ReplyDeleteInteresting times we are living in, best we all get a wiggle on and in our own small way... do something!
DeleteLX
That sounds quite horrific. You were lucky that other doctor came along that day. This Coronavirus thing is horrible. I worry for my mum as I'm not sure she washes her hands as much as she should! That said, her hobby is cleaning the house so perhaps that will save the day! Its as much about all the things its going to affect too. Businesses will go under, people who are already very isolated will become more so, people will lose jobs, prices are bound to go up on certain items - toilet roll anyone?!! What is that all about anyway!! I make my own soap so we're sorted on that front and I've still got lots of hand sanitiser from my brush with the big C so I can pull up the ramps and stay merrily in my wee house for the forseeable future if I need to. It is a huge wakeup call, I agree. x
ReplyDeleteHi MG good to hear from you again, hopefully things are sorted?
DeleteThe psittacosis event had been lost in the mists of time, it was only the Coronavirus that reminded me of a weird time in my life in the highlands.
I have I ought to say started today digging out an Anderson shelter at the bottom of our garden, I am taking the precaution of lining the walls with jumbo packs of loo rolls... Perish the thought I am stockpiling! I am most definitely not, I am using them to muffle any noise, give a cozy feel, far better than Bronco, don’t you know!
LX
You probably did pick up the infection from your hens. You spent farm more time with them each day than any other source.
ReplyDeleteIs the Anderson shelter a relic of the war?
An Anderson shelter is also known as an air-raid shelter. They were built in back gardens in the second world war.
DeleteYes, I think you are right about the hens. They shared the byre with the goat which I milked twice a day, giving me lots of time up close and personal with them as they settled for the night. You might imagine the wise-cracks I got as I recovered? You have got to laugh!
LX
You were lucky that the young doctor was thinking outside the box! A couple of years ago I had a multitude of various " symptoms" and saw various doctors over a period of a few months. Eventually one of the older docs sent me for a blood test, and that very evening I got a call from the surgery to come immediately and get a scrip for steroids ( very high dose). Tomorrow might be too late!! They said I had GCA and it could have left me blind if not treated! I was on those damned pills for 18 months, and they were never entirely sure what I had got was all tests came back negative, but very grateful to the doc who thought....blood test!
ReplyDeleteWe were both very lucky otherwise I might have gone through the rainbow of colours of different cough mixtures when all I really needed was a box of Trill!?!
DeleteLX