Did anybody do a formal diagnostic for Covid at any point in your care? The symptoms, and especially the persistent fatigue, sure sound like it (I had fatigue for 2 months following my last bout with Covid.)
And, yes, you always need somebody to advocate for you in a hospital setting (can be you if you're able, or else family/friend.) Hospitals are complicated, and things go wrong; advocacy helps to straighten them out again, or correct them before minor problems become major ones. (Recently helped with an elderly parent's hospitalization. Had to ask a nurse to clarify what meds had been -given- vs. -ordered- to the team of doctors overseeing her care, as two meds hadn't yet been administered, but docs assumed they had and were drawing conclusions from those assumptions... :-| )
Hi Paul, yes I had two separate nasal swab antigen tests and when I was admitted to the hospital they did a BioFire nasal swab PCR that tests for 19 pathogens including covid, all were negative.
It is certainly overwhelming and if I didn't know what all of the medications and treatments were already I'd have been lost. They definitely don't go out of their way to explain things in layman's terms...
Hi Eric, I’m glad you are discharged and on the upswing, and you are right it can take weeks if not months to get back to 100%, which I think you will based on your age, but some older people never get back to baseline. You will. Listen to your body, rehab yourself intuitively, and send me a personal message if you have any questions. A little breathing exercises if you can do them without coughing might help, full inflation and deflation of the lungs over five seconds each, but this might trigger some coughing right now! Yes, this stuff comes on so suddenly and our lives can change in an instant. Take good care my friend.
Thanks, Ryan! That is great advice and will try to incorporate the breathing exercises. They had me working with an inspirometer in hospital but I don’t have one at home, will use the time based approach. I’ll definitely ping you if I have specific Qs 👍
Oh Eric! I’m so glad you are feeling better. Thank you for sharing. I’m finishing my first week of locums and I can’t imagine being sick so far from home! Do your spirometer exercises!!
So sorry to hear of your illness! I had a bout of "walking" pneumonia years ago that left me at reduced lung capacity for nearly 6 months. I'd get winded easily and tired often. Nasty business. And a huge challenge when I had 3 little kids to take care of and work to do. Good thing you got help.
Yes - thanks. I felt incredible vulnerable to any kind of coughing for a LONG time after that. Even years later now I become pretty aware of chest pain related to coughing and think - could this be the start of pneumonia. Awful! I'm glad you got help and didn't wait.
"CYA" -that explains a significant portion of the dissatisfaction with modern healthcare. On the one hand, there is no denying the advancements in medical care over the last few decades. It's magical, to say the least. The CYA phenomenon transcends national boundaries and economies. I work in India, where per capita spending on health is minuscule compared to the mind-blowing figures for the USA. Still, doctors are defensive everywhere. The refusal to commit to a diagnosis with firmness increases with technological sophistication. The vacillation and dilly-dallying are annoying to the patient and serve to decrease confidence in the doctor. Forty-plus years ago, when I did my medical training, senior doctors had a veneer of diagnostic confidence that I just don't see anymore in young members. They were wrong quite often, but confidently so; they always had a reason up their sleeve for the error.
Yes, I agree. When the CT report interpretation line said "suspect bronchopneumonia" I almost rolled my eyes, all of the doctors walked me through the scan and the lesions were obvious and impressive; no one treated it as anything other than diagnostic for pneumonia.
In my own practice as a cytopathologist, I cannot always provide a final definitive diagnosis, but I try to provide the most clear and unambiguous report I can with an eye towards helping the clinician narrow their differential list
How scary! We are never as fully in control of our health as we like to think we are. I’m glad you got the care you needed. Taking it easy and following Dr. Ryan’s advice above on breathing exercises, now might be a good time to read James Nestor’s book Breath if you haven’t already. A fun and interesting read. Wishing you a gentle but sure recovery!
Glad you are on the mend. Pneumonia is a monster, even when you can sort it with cultures and appropriately targeted abx. It bothers me a lot how much self-advocacy Americans must perform when we are ill or injured; I’m grateful you had enough capacity.
Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery. ✌️ You're so right about needing advocates in the hospital. So far, I've been on this side of that situation but know it can change at any time.
Dear Eric, Thanks so much for this post, and I hope you will make a full and speedy recovery. All these encounters are so sobering. I've recently started to write on substack at halgrotevant.substack.com, and posted a piece recently entitled "Seeing the Whole Person," which addressed the siloing of US medical care. If you're not familiar with Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, I heartily recommend it. Again, I hope you are feeling better very very soon.
Thanks for the kind words, Hal. Yes, Atul Gawande is a hero of mine, and I've read Being Mortal along with his other books Complications and Better. Wonderful communicator about modern medicine, especially the murky gray areas of mystery and uncertainty
Glad you're feeling better.
Did anybody do a formal diagnostic for Covid at any point in your care? The symptoms, and especially the persistent fatigue, sure sound like it (I had fatigue for 2 months following my last bout with Covid.)
And, yes, you always need somebody to advocate for you in a hospital setting (can be you if you're able, or else family/friend.) Hospitals are complicated, and things go wrong; advocacy helps to straighten them out again, or correct them before minor problems become major ones. (Recently helped with an elderly parent's hospitalization. Had to ask a nurse to clarify what meds had been -given- vs. -ordered- to the team of doctors overseeing her care, as two meds hadn't yet been administered, but docs assumed they had and were drawing conclusions from those assumptions... :-| )
Hi Paul, yes I had two separate nasal swab antigen tests and when I was admitted to the hospital they did a BioFire nasal swab PCR that tests for 19 pathogens including covid, all were negative.
It is certainly overwhelming and if I didn't know what all of the medications and treatments were already I'd have been lost. They definitely don't go out of their way to explain things in layman's terms...
Good to hear. Thank you.
And surprising... and likely super frustrating for you, especially (as a vet.)
Glad to hear that you're on the mend!
Hi Eric, I’m glad you are discharged and on the upswing, and you are right it can take weeks if not months to get back to 100%, which I think you will based on your age, but some older people never get back to baseline. You will. Listen to your body, rehab yourself intuitively, and send me a personal message if you have any questions. A little breathing exercises if you can do them without coughing might help, full inflation and deflation of the lungs over five seconds each, but this might trigger some coughing right now! Yes, this stuff comes on so suddenly and our lives can change in an instant. Take good care my friend.
Thanks, Ryan! That is great advice and will try to incorporate the breathing exercises. They had me working with an inspirometer in hospital but I don’t have one at home, will use the time based approach. I’ll definitely ping you if I have specific Qs 👍
Oh Eric! I’m so glad you are feeling better. Thank you for sharing. I’m finishing my first week of locums and I can’t imagine being sick so far from home! Do your spirometer exercises!!
Thank you Stacy, I will!
So sorry to hear about your ordeal. I hope the recovery goes well. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the kind words, Michael! Recovering slowly but surely, hoping to be back at full strength in a few weeks 🤞
So sorry to hear of your illness! I had a bout of "walking" pneumonia years ago that left me at reduced lung capacity for nearly 6 months. I'd get winded easily and tired often. Nasty business. And a huge challenge when I had 3 little kids to take care of and work to do. Good thing you got help.
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that! Even the "milder" "walking pneumonia" is no joke, I'm not surprised it was still a long recovery
Yes - thanks. I felt incredible vulnerable to any kind of coughing for a LONG time after that. Even years later now I become pretty aware of chest pain related to coughing and think - could this be the start of pneumonia. Awful! I'm glad you got help and didn't wait.
"CYA" -that explains a significant portion of the dissatisfaction with modern healthcare. On the one hand, there is no denying the advancements in medical care over the last few decades. It's magical, to say the least. The CYA phenomenon transcends national boundaries and economies. I work in India, where per capita spending on health is minuscule compared to the mind-blowing figures for the USA. Still, doctors are defensive everywhere. The refusal to commit to a diagnosis with firmness increases with technological sophistication. The vacillation and dilly-dallying are annoying to the patient and serve to decrease confidence in the doctor. Forty-plus years ago, when I did my medical training, senior doctors had a veneer of diagnostic confidence that I just don't see anymore in young members. They were wrong quite often, but confidently so; they always had a reason up their sleeve for the error.
Yes, I agree. When the CT report interpretation line said "suspect bronchopneumonia" I almost rolled my eyes, all of the doctors walked me through the scan and the lesions were obvious and impressive; no one treated it as anything other than diagnostic for pneumonia.
In my own practice as a cytopathologist, I cannot always provide a final definitive diagnosis, but I try to provide the most clear and unambiguous report I can with an eye towards helping the clinician narrow their differential list
How scary! We are never as fully in control of our health as we like to think we are. I’m glad you got the care you needed. Taking it easy and following Dr. Ryan’s advice above on breathing exercises, now might be a good time to read James Nestor’s book Breath if you haven’t already. A fun and interesting read. Wishing you a gentle but sure recovery!
Thank you for the kind words, Amy!
Glad you are on the mend. Pneumonia is a monster, even when you can sort it with cultures and appropriately targeted abx. It bothers me a lot how much self-advocacy Americans must perform when we are ill or injured; I’m grateful you had enough capacity.
Thank you for the kind words, Hanne!
Wow that was a scary episode, it sounds like - good to hear that you're on the mend now. Take care and may you heal fully 🙏
Thank you Lorraine!!
Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery. ✌️ You're so right about needing advocates in the hospital. So far, I've been on this side of that situation but know it can change at any time.
Thank you Suzanne 🙏
Dear Eric, Thanks so much for this post, and I hope you will make a full and speedy recovery. All these encounters are so sobering. I've recently started to write on substack at halgrotevant.substack.com, and posted a piece recently entitled "Seeing the Whole Person," which addressed the siloing of US medical care. If you're not familiar with Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, I heartily recommend it. Again, I hope you are feeling better very very soon.
Thanks for the kind words, Hal. Yes, Atul Gawande is a hero of mine, and I've read Being Mortal along with his other books Complications and Better. Wonderful communicator about modern medicine, especially the murky gray areas of mystery and uncertainty
Sending healing thoughts. Being a patient is one of the most difficult journeys in vulnerability.
Thank you Jim, I appreciate the well wishes 🙏