For Week Ending Sunday 3rd September
to be continued
I came home from the Pilgrimage with a nasty 'cold.' The cold had been with me for a few days. I joked with a friend in New York that this was the first time ever that I had actually wanted to go home. I just wanted to put a note on the door saying do not disturb, climb into bed and curl up with my cat. That led to a lovely discovery that we both had black cats.
On the way home my suitcase-wheels were torn off during the transit, so I had a tricky journey back from the airport by public transport.
Next morning, in addition to feeling rough because of my cold, I also had a funny 'tummy pain.' I guessed I'd pulled a muscle while manhandling my suitcase. I phoned my doctor early to get an appointment. The receptionist asked me to take a covid test first. If it was clear, she would make an appointment. It was not clear. I had covid. I stocked up on the usual lemon, ginger, turmeric and honey and prepared to hibernate in bed, with lots of hot drinks. But first I wanted to make sure the tummy thing was nothing to worry about.
Years ago, when I was teaching on Supply, I had a nasty tummy pain. It made me sick, but after I was sick I felt a lot better. I stopped eating and ignored it because you only get paid while you are working and I didn't want to take a day off to go to the doctor. I thought it was something I had eaten. A few days later, when I started to eat again, it got worse. I went to A and E at night, hoping they would sort it out and I would not need to take time off work. I had an internal infection which had spread to the liver. It would have killed me if I'd not gone to A and E that night. They took me straight in to intensive care and I was on and antibiotic drip for three days. That taught me to pay more attention to what my body might be telling me. So before I went into isolation to deal with the covid I went to A and E again. I felt foolish, a bit of a fraud wasting people's time for what was probably a pulled muscle. It wasn't. It was appendicitis. I had an emergency operation and my son and husband came up from the Midlands to kidnap me as soon as I could be discharged.
The moral of this story is - listen to your physical body and if you feel an unusual pain, get it checked out!