Having returned from being away from Christmas I hadn't been at work for very long when I was taken ill. I was experiencing a bit of a tight chest and felt I was coming down with a cold. Then it really started going wrong. I felt terrible the next day; really achy.
Then the coughing started.
I decided to take time off work. Little did I know I would not be able to return to work until nearly two weeks later.
I'm sure Andrea was getting fed up of my coughing and complaining, but she was an angel and very patient. Men aren't good at having colds and seem to complain too readily; this seemed to be different though.
After three days there seemed no improvement so I went to the doctors. The doctor said I had a chest infection and was concerned I was developing asthma. He gave me Inhalers and antibiotics.
I was still coughing very badly. The evening of the day after I had seen the doctor I had a particularly bad coughing fit and felt I could not breathe. Sarah-Jane rang NHS Direct for advice. They immediately got an ambulance to come round. I was a bit embarrassed, I didn’t want any fuss. They were very good though. They sat me in the ambulance and gave me a mask for oxygen. That was a new experience and made me feel so much better. Whilst I was enjoying the oxygen (if enjoying is the right word), the ambulance paramedic checked my heart. Sticky pads were placed on my chest. I felt a bit silly; I knew what they were worried about. I was a first aider at work and we had, many times, gone through signs of a possible heart attack. I was sure that wasn't happening but they had to do their job.
Andrea was with me. She had traveled with me in the ambulance. She was very good. She doesn’t like anything medical but she coped admirably. I, although I was short of breath, was making light of it. I wanted Andrea to take a photo of me all wired up. Of course she declined.
We arrived at St Thomas hospital and I was fairly quickly seen at first. They took blood and again checked my heart; then came the long wait. The doctors wanted to check the results and decide.
There were many characters waiting in casualty as well. Some drunk and noisy; saying hello to everyone passing by. Others had there head bowed with a bowl under them. They were obviously suffering from this winter vomiting virus going around.
My friend, Alvin, rang me up to see how I was doing. He was a qualified doctor and after a little discussion of my situation, he was keen to come and sit with me. I have known him a while and he is a very good friend. He had to come all the way from Hackney, East London so it took about an hour for him to arrive.
Now that he had arrived it gave Andrea a chance to go home. It was gone midnight at this point and she was wilting a bit. Sarah-Jane had hired a car so she could help her get home.
Once Alvin had come he was keen to tell me all the doctors may be considering. He, many times, in his training, had been an emergency doctor so this kind of thing was not a problem to him.
We used the long wait as an opportunity to catch up with news and what was happening in each other’s life. It was a real encouragement. Although he is a good friend, I don’t really get a chance, very often, to chat to him.
I was breathing better by now and so talking was not as unpleasant as it might have seemed. The clean hospital air seemed to help significantly; not to mention the oxygen I had had in the ambulance!
Eventually I was seen after 4½ hours. I wasn’t tired and, surprisingly, I hadn’t been too bored either.
The diagnosis was I had Pneumonia. Not serious pneumonia but enough for them to worry a little. They sent me home after giving me antibiotics.
Alvin dropped me off home at 5 in the morning. I was glad it was all over. It took another week before I felt well enough to return to work. I was still coughing badly and I think it was not helping by having hairy cats every where. Andrea and I made the decision to get the fold up bed out in the other room and not let the cats any where near us. I think it helped. The cats looked all forlorn and quizzical in the morning, wondering why they could not sleep on our bed.
