Christmas was a bit of a tough time for me this year.
If you read my previous post, you will know that a knee replacement on the 13th November left me dealing with constant pain, exercises to be done, the inability to drive for 8 weeks and getting present ready for everyone before the big day.
Thankfully I managed to get most of my purchasing down before my operation, and the rest was more of an online affair.
Some of my recuperation time was spent wrapping gifts and putting them in bags ready to be collected by people for either themselves, or distribution to others.
Food had been ordered online for collection and I had really gone all out with some of the additions (thanks to M&S, Aldi and Tesco)
For Boxing Day, I had Festive sausage roll wreaths, a huge rib of wagyu beef, king prawns and handmade pate were all on the menu and I was really excited to give them all a go.
I had included some amazing desserts; a jewelled pannacotta, caramel sponge pudding, caramelised biscuit breads and an extra special Christmas pudding with different kinds of cream.
Unfortunately, I got an extra special gift on Christmas Day evening.
A bit of a wicked cough.
Overnight, it went from just a little cough, to me not being able to breathe very well, with severe pains in my lungs and chest. I was sweating profusely and shaking uncontrollably.
A call to 111 had me turning up at the local A&E department at 0900 on Boxing Day morning.
To my shame, I was in my pyjamas and robe, as I was simply too unwell to get clothing on.
The staff at the hospital were absolutely amazing. Of course, there was a wait, which is always the case. However, my details were taken quickly, I was told I would be triaged and then any treatment would be discussed then.
A wonderful man called Justin took me into the triage area. I explained how I was feeling, which was getting worse and worse by the hour. I literally was all over the place.
My knee scar was quite hot and it was throbbing a little, which made him wonder if there was a slight infection or issue there.
He took my vitals, before telling me that I had a temperature of 39.4, and a hear rate of 136 and my Sats were very low.
Justin told me that he wanted all my bloods taken, and an x-ray of both my chest and knee taken.
So far, I had been in the department for about 45 minutes which was pretty good going!
I was sent to x-ray and had a small wait there, before being processed and sat back in the waiting room.
Within about 10 minutes, I was called into a room and a canula was put into my left hand.
I have to say, more blood than I have ever had taken before was siphoned out of me. The normal test tubes were taken as well as huge round bottles that looked more like a squat baby milk bottle.
After the bloods, I was sent back to the waiting area until being called into a room again.
This time it was for swabs of my nose and throat in case it was COVID or a new highly contagious strain of flu.
Well, I had COVID a couple of times during the epidemic and this didn’t feel like that, but I had no idea about the flu.
About 20 minutes later I was called back in to be told I had tested positive for the flu and I also had pleurisy, which is an inflammation of the pleura layers in the chest and lungs.
Terrific!
What a Christmas present, indeed.
I was moved into a private room where I was hooked up to IV’s with fluids, painkillers and antibiotics.
Thankfully, I was allowed to leave much later that afternoon and went straight home.
The day was nearly over and the plans I had with family and friends had to be cancelled as I was highly contagious.
Even worse, I was told by the hospital it would take up to 6 weeks to fully shift the cough!
What a fabulous way to start the New Year.
To be honest, after a couple of weeks I was back to my old self; no cough or other side effects, thankfully.
The sad part of it all was that over those two weeks I was too unwell to really have much of an appetite and I didn’t get to try much (if any) of the special food I had ordered in.
