worse than a relapse

Ok. It'd probably be wise to start getting some of this down while it's still relatively fresh.

Christmas Day / Boxing Day were lovely. But immediately afterwards I started getting those old familiar feelings, this time with an irritating hacking cough.

To give Mrs.D and Little Ms.D a break it was decided that I'd move back in with my parents - primarily because their shower and bathroom are more accessible.

SPOILER ALERT: 12-ish days later I still haven't used the shower, although I have washed.

Kindness of strangers

As my mobility worsened, a seemingly endless stream of people - family members, my folks' neighbours and their relatives, old friends, district nurses - busied around the house. Moving furniture, bringing in new equipment, and eventually moving me from an upstairs room to my parent's dining room. Literally picking me up on a chair, and carrying me slowly downstairs.

I can't thank these people enough for the help they provided.

Eventually, I spoke to an MS Nurse who said that what I was going through was likely to be caused by a chest infection - that cough hadn't gone anywhere, either.

 
A course of antibiotics was prescribed and that was that.

 
Over the next week there were many challenges - getting to the toilet, moving around anywhere, the fact that any type of food both tasted like shit AND felt completely bizarre in my mouth. There were small signs of improvement, but overall I worsened.

So. At the end of that week, I called the MS Nurse team again.

The one I got this time has already appeared on this blog. She is lovely, a bit bats, but passionate about helping people.

When I told her my story she was fuming. Why did they give me such a weak antibiotic? That's not 

going to do anything. Get back onto your GP and get some proper antibiotics. (As an aside, I have temporarily transferred my medical care to my parent's surgery. This helped speed up a lot of things.)

In order to get more medication I would need to be examined - note that this is the first time I've been seen to get a diagnosis of what's actually happening.

A new diagnosis

I got a home visit on Friday evening and relayed my conversation. The visiting doctor said that the antibiotics I'd been prescribed were some of the strongest available. Also, that if I'd been given any more I'd have been taken straight into hospital and if I'd been given steroids (to combat a relapse, for example) I'd have needed to be placed on isolation.

After observing a temperature of 39.8 C (which for our American friends is something like 103.6 F), he diagnosed me with a particularly nasty strain of influenza - I was the third person he'd diagnosed that evening, but the first one he hadn't ordered into hospital.

So I'm currently in the grips of a very strong strain of flu. I feel incredibly lucky that I have not been placed into a hospital. Sleep is very hard to come by.

Today is day four of my course of Tamiflu (remember that? So retro!). It is very powerful but feels to be working. There are very small but noticeable improvements appearing every day. I'm so disoriented.

According to the doctor I saw, over the 10 days of Tamiflu I should expect to see a lot of improvements, followed by a long slow recovery of around 4-6 months. This is all very much worst-case scenario.

So at least it's not a relapse, right?

Unfortunately things are never that simple. Get diagnosed with a relapse? Ride the insomnia / metallic taste charabang back to an easy recovery.

With this flu I'm still living all the greatest hits of an MS exacerbation with added psychosis, hallucinations, weakness. And all without the possibility of steroids to move it on.