I'm still not fully recovered from my recent illness but here is what I have just been suffering from.
I have talked over the last year or so about my ear infections. Ever since I was five I have had hearing problems and they have resurfaced over the last year or so and become a little bit more persistent. Consequently I am seeing a specialist in Oxford and will be seeing him within a week. In the meantime I caught yet another infection a few weeks ago and for one reason or another didn't get it seen to. So I went on my latest trip knowing that I had an ear infection and also knowing that within a week or so of my return from that trip I will be seeing the doctor.
To cut a long story short, I began to feel a little bit off a week last Thursday and began to feel worse and worse day by day. Given the sort of person I am, I fight these things and refuse to be beaten by them. However, I decided I needed to see a doctor and did so in Oman last Sunday afternoon. That doctor gave me some antibiotics and a few other odds and ends and sent me on my way. I didn't expect a miracle of course and the following day I felt no better. I did my work as best I could but could only potter round and sleep when I wasn't working. I left to come back home in the evening and when I got to Dubai International airport I decided to go to the medical centre there.
I went to the medical centre then and was seen by a number of people: paramedics, nurses and a doctor. They treated me extremely well; but the first thing that surprised me with is that I was running a very high temperature, 38.3°. The doctor in Oman hadn't taken my temperature and I have to confess I didn't feel hot. So the ear infection had gone out of control and was causing me problems manifesting themselves as a fever. Now they knew the problem they set about solving it. They gave me an injection which proved to be not powerful enough. They then gave me an intravenous injection which made me sweat copiously in fact in such quantities that even the nurses were worried! Not so the Dr of course since that was the effect he wanted! After two hours or so they got my temperature down 2° and had begun to give me additional oxygen. The doctor was pleased with progress and said I could leave whenever I felt like it and although I took the offer of a wheelchair ride back to the plane I did feel a lot better and rather than moping around like a very old man I did feel quite a bit more alert and quite a bit more lively.
I slept quite well on the plane and was even able to drive home with no incidents. So I got home within a couple hours of landing and then the rot set in.
The weather on arrival was very poor: cloudy and cold. This meant that by late morning I had started to shiver and to feel ill again. I talked to my GP by phone and he prepared a prescription for me for some further antibiotics. The following day I didn't feel a great deal better: this just goes to show the power of a fever; and it was only by Friday that I began to feel more of a permanent recovery was on the way and went outside to the first time since I had got back. However, I was drained by the time I got back in.
It is Sunday now and I am feeling a lot better but still my guess of Wednesday being the final day of feeling so poorly is probably still an accurate one.
I bought a thermometer on Wednesday and I have been using it two or three times every day ever since. Then something very interesting with this: even though I might feel hot and sweaty, my temperature was normal; similarly, when I feel cold again my temperature may be normal.
That little bit of the history of me of the last week or so with a major lesson learned: don't let any ear infection go too far. So simple!
DW
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