Feel so ill I’m scared

[Daffodils9]

Started Tues just gone. Can’t type much as so exhausted but frightened now. I’ve been seriously ill (hospital) twice before in my life and this feels like that but I can’t point to why exactly.
Fever, chills, intermittent muscle and joint pain, stomach pain, sore chest, breathlessness, cough, nausea and vomiting. Vomiting had stopped after the first couple of days but has come back today even though I’ve eaten virtually nothing for five days (handful of dry cereal, a cracker, etc.)
So completely exhausted and weak. Can’t sit up.

I’ve done three covid tests and they’re all negative. I’m vaxxed and boosted. The constant fever is worrying me - it comes down to 38/37.9 with paracetamol but never lower and never for more than half an hour so I am raging with it day and night.

I feel utterly desperate. We decided not to ring 111 today as I simply couldn’t cope with travelling an hour to our out of hours. We live rurally. I’m trying to make it to morning and hoping more local gp can see me.

Husband is worried and he doesn’t get worried by stuff like this usually. I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this. If flu how long before there is some respite? If not that then what? I am wondering about pneumonia or something?

I’m a nurse. I’m sorry, but 93 on oxygen is too low to go home, especially if lying in bed. Ideally they want you to be maintaining 94-98 off oxygen before going home is considered and may want you to do a “sit to stand” stress test too, to make sure that your sats don’t immediately crash when you begin to move about. The reason why they get you to take a deep breath is twofold. Firstly, people on oxygen have a tendency of breathing rather shallowly which then reduces the amount of oxygen going in. Secondly, 93 is actually lower than the target range which, as I said above, is 94-98 so they’re making sure that you can reach 94% saturation on the level of oxygen you’re on and that they don’t need to increase it or change the delivery mechanism. I presume you’re on a nasal cannula rather than a mask? I do hope you feel better soon and that this is useful x

Thank you for the super helpful responses. That is so useful. Yes, nasal cannula now. I had a mask for the first couple of days and we slowly worked down to lower levels.
I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how things go. The one thing I want is not to have to come back! Don’t want to go home and have levels go dangerously low again.
I’ve bought an oximeter - we had a child’s one for my son who has severe asthma but thought I’d better get on designed for adults!

I think one thing that’s throwing me off is because I’m much younger than most of the other patients here I don’t need so much help with ordinary things like eating and washing and so I feel like a bit of a fraud. That said I have an oxygen tank that I’m taking with me when I shower or anything.

Sounds so scary OP. I've been following you from your first post (but didn't comment).

How did you end up in hospital in the end? Did you go to A&E, or a 111 ambulance call, or another way?

Can see there was a big gap between a post saying you still felt dreadful and then the next post you were in hospital getting care.

So glad you're recovering, even if it's a slow process.

Went back to the same doctor who said ‘I’m sure it’s clearing up’ and then had a look at my oxygen levels and called in another doctor for a second opinion. Second doctor said within 2 minutes, you have a serious infection I’m sending you to hospital…

Thank goodness for the second doctor!

It's terrifying that Dr 1 just assumed it was a virus instead of sending you to be checked properly.

Sending you all the best wishes for a swift recovery.

Generally care has been excellent but there is one nurse I struggle with who just came in and said with a particular tone ‘Still here? I thought you’d be gone by now. Your kids must be missing you.’
Great. Thanks. Bloody hell should I be here or not?

I'd be saying - the care has been so excellent, from you in particular, that I'm still here.

I'd say "Sorry, I must have misheard you, could you repeat that please"

and wait...

‘One of us shouldn’t be’ would have been tempting but it’s so hard when you’re at their mercy!

Don't be in a rush to get home. It's totally understandable to be wishing madly to be at home again, and you will be before you know it, but you need to accept that this is a long-term healing process.

It feels like it's taking forever while you're in it, but it's really not. I was seriously ill a few years ago with a chest infection followed by a sinus infection. I avoided hospital but was bedridden for a couple of months. I felt like I had been in bed (and off work) FOREVER! I think I went back to work too early, because I felt like I simply couldn't take any more time. When I look back, though, it was only a couple of months. Yes that is a long time, but a serious illness takes TIME for a proper recovery. So a few months is actually not a long time to be recovering from a serious illness. I still have scarring on my muscles (from my incessant cough) that flare up when it's cold and damp, and I wonder whether some more rest before going back to work could have helped them heal better.

Basically, OP, let go of any sense of timescale. It feels like forever right now, but it's really not. If it takes you months to heal, so be it. That's normal. Don't rush to be getting "back to normal". You are entitled to take as long as you need to get better. Just "be".

Thank you. That is such a helpful post. I’ve been off work for 3 weeks and it feels like forever. I was so set on going home today but I’ve just been reviewed and they are saying I’m still not stable. I just need to process and try and accept that like you say.

This type of thing is horrible to go through, I've been there and so have a number of people I know. Just keep reminding yourself that this is a good thing to be checked and quickly, but most of the time people are spat out at the other end of the cancer check process because they in fact DON'T have it. It's just that the system checks you out.

How are you feeling in yourself? Remember you've made a lot of improvement.

My personal words of wisdom are ‘Get better ONCE.’ In other words, take your time and do it properly.

Taking shortcuts, going too fast, all that sort of hurrying leads to relapses and having to repeat some of your recovery. It will only take longer in the end, and you will feel more miserable.

Incidentally, a typical bout of pneumonia takes at least 8 weeks to fully recover from. Use that as a rough guide - you are likely to need longer.

Well today I am out of hospital with lots of meds and strict instructions to rest for the next 16 days (!) until my follow up appointment. 10 more days of oral antibiotics and steroids to go.
I am so happy to be home and to be fever-free and able to eat but struggling otherwise physically and mentally. Resting is hard! Feel a bit down about everything really, like my life just got this big knock off course and I don’t know what to do now. I will have been off work for 5+ weeks by the time of my follow up appointment and even though I know that’s not long on the scheme of things, it feels like an absolute age.
I was fine - I had goals and plans and to do lists and now bam, I’m not even able to get through a bedtime story for my kids.
Still I’m here. I’m here. I made it this far. What a scary time!

They told me that the harder I pushed my recovery, the more drawn out it would be.... and they were very right. Take it easy, your body needs to recover. Glad you're home, there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

If you follow the instructions then life is just put on hold for a bit.

I really feel for you OP, but time passes and you'll be ok. x

Good to hear your news. Take care of yourself.

They did all the cancer tests they wanted to do whilst I was in hospital and it didn’t throw up anything sinister thank goodness. Consultant’s latest take is rare form of pneumonia + immune system issue that needs further investigation. They did a repeat chest X-ray and it hadn’t really improved so I’m home but ‘on probation’ as it were, subject to being able to maintain oxygen levels.
I think I feel better today. It’s hard to say but I’m just a smidge brighter. I’m wondering if the high dose steroids I’m now on are really giving this thing a kick. Oxygen level is consistently 94 - allowed to stay home so long as it doesn’t go below that for any length of time.

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better, but don't be lulled into a false sense of security. Keep resting up, for at least as long as you were in hospital for, to make up for all the sleep you probably missed out on due to all the tests and the noise etc.

Rest, rest and more rest. Rest on rest on rest on rest.

5 weeks is nothing. Some people have to take months off work, for whatever reason. It's fine.

As you're resting, visualise your body beginning to gradually grow in strength, heal the parts that were damaged, and gradually reject the illness. Not for woo woo reasons, but to help remind you that rest is not passive, it is active. Important things are happening while you're resting that simply can't happen if you're up and about.

Glad you're home Daffodils.

Plenty of rest, don't underestimate this, these things can take time x

Hi op, how are you?

@OfCourseItsMe Slow but steady recovery is on track. Beginning a phased return to work soon.
Final diagnosis from the consultant: atypical double pneumonia; pneumonitis; laryngitis. On the way to becoming septic when I was admitted.
No permanent damage but I am likely to have breathlessness and fatigue for some time. I have ongoing physio and steroid treatment which I hope will be concluded by Christmas.
We’re thinking about how to address this with the GP as I was left in quite a dangerous situation when a blood test or chest X-ray would have shown the way things were heading earlier.