114 – Slowing the Slide Towards Death Part 4: 7 December 2024
The photo above is me
on 14 June 2019, about 8 months before the events described in this Blog. I had ballooned in weight in the months after
the open heart surgery, but apart from constant sneezing, I was mostly in good
health at that time.
****
To give some context
to the events which happened to me and Margaret later in 2020, 2021 and 2022, I
need to give some background information about the impact of the Covid epidemic
in South Australia. This information
comes from Wiki.
|
On 11 March, the SA
state government announced its A$350 million economic stimulus measures. On 15 March, a
public health emergency was declared in South
Australia. On 22 March, a
"major emergency" was declared, giving the police power to enforce
self-isolation rules. On 24 March, state
borders were closed. People arriving in the state were required to sign a
declaration that they would self-isolate for 14 days and provide an address
to the police, with penalties for failure to comply. On 27 March, a
direction was made under the Emergency Management Act 2004 to
prohibit gatherings of more than 10 people, and a limit of 1 person per four
square metres. The African Nations Cup, a
soccer tournament for African Australian players which
had taken place in Adelaide annually since 2001, was cancelled. On 8 November the SA
government announced that in the state budget it would double its coronavirus
economic stimulus package to AU$4 billion. On 16 November,
"a number of significant restrictions" were reintroduced after an
outbreak of coronavirus in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. |
The last time I saw Dr Pant before my body restarted its seemingly unstoppable slide towards death was on Tuesday 31 March 2020. Because of the outbreak if the Covid epidemic, Dr Pant was dressed in a compulsory space suit, her body enclosed by the space suit to prevent me giving Covid to her and to prevent her giving Covid to me. As recounted in the preceding Blog, Dr pant commented that healing in my sinuses was “amazing”. Dr Pant prescribed a nasal irrigation to help with the healing. I scrupulously complied with Dr Pant’s treatment recommendations.
****
My recovery from the operation was rapid and without
incident until two weeks after my visit to Dr Pant on 31 March. Then the coughing started – and the coughing
rapidly acquired ta deadly potential.
At first, I assumed the coughing was nothing and that
it would go away. When the coughing got
worse, I assumed I must have a minor infection in my lungs. I took some antibiotics to make the “infection”
go away.
- I started amoxycillin previously prescribed for a tooth abscess on Friday 24 April 2020
- On Friday 1 May 2010, I got a prescription for amoxycillin from the hopeless locum GP who had refused to try and locate an earlier ENT appointment for me.
- I started a course of stronger antibiotics also prescribed by the same Dr Hopeless on Thursday 7 May 2020. I had the last tablet of this antibiotic on Wednesday 12 May 2020.
- I started a second course of the stronger antibiotics prescribed by Dr Hopeless on Wednesday 13 May 2020, having the last tablet of this antibiotic on 18 May 2020.
****
The courses of
antibiotics had no impact on my coughing.
The coughing got worse and on most nights it forced me to wake up somewhere between 12.30 and 1.00 am. I
usually then got up and had a cup of peppermint tea with 2 teaspoons of honey
to soothe the urge to cough. Usually, I
fell asleep on the sofa in the lounge room somewhere between 3.00 am and 5.30
am. I had a sleeping tablet before bed
on Wednesday 20 May. It made no difference
and I still woke up with coughing fit.
After coughing fits
set in, I started bringing up green sputum but this ceased while I was taking
the second course of the stronger antibiotics and the sputum then became white
or clear.
****
I did not know it then, but I was in deadly trouble. The only obstacle preventing my death was my stubborn refusal to die. I have been able to write this Blog only because I refused to die over the many months that followed.
It was the middle of July 2021 before my dance with death had been successfully concluded by the defeat of the illnesses that did their very best to make Margaret a widow,
The details set out in this and other Blogs have been extracted from notes I made at the time to try and help the doctors discover what was wrong with me by giving them detailed patient histories. I have NOT simply invented the detail years later and elaborated the invented details to make the story sound better. I have "cribbed" detail from contemporaneous medical histories that I prepared at the time these events were happening. The details I give in these Blogs is accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe initial antibiotic that I took was amoxycillin – but I can’t remember the dosage. I took amoxycillin for the two weeks preceding 6 May 2020. On 6 May 2020 the GP prescribed Doxycycline 100 mg and I started these on Thursday 7 May with initial dose of two tablets followed by another 5 days of 1 tablet. On Wednesday 13 May I started the repeat prescription – another 2 tablets on 13 May followed by 1 tablet per day up to and including Monday 18 May. No antibiotics since Monday 18 May.
ReplyDeleteChest X Ray taken on 6 May 2020 showed nothing in lungs; sputum test taken on 6 May 2020 showed nothing in sputum.