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?

Awareness of a feeling of general dread or doom as a symptom of sepsis is so important – but it doesn't always manifest specifically as the thought: 'I'm going to die'. Two years ago I (unknowingly) had a burst appendix, plus sepsis. Alongside the terrible pain, I remember my dominant thought was that I just could not see how I was going to get out of this terrible experience – it felt like there could be no way out.
I wouldn't have expressed this as a sense that I was going to die – that would have been too horrifying to contemplate. But what I was feeling was that sense of doom that's typical of sepsis. I was advised by 111 that I didn't need an ambulance. But I realised it was serious so ignored them and rang 999 – I really hope the OP did this or went directly to A&E.

This is terrible advice. Despite having been taking paracetomal and ibuprofen prior to going to hospital when i had sepsis my temp was unmanageable. I was having rigors which were incredibly painful, I was convinced I was cold and trying to pile blankets on top of me when what I actually needed was stripped of those blankets and fans aimed at me. .

Nurses and docs are fully capable of understanding that a temp has been lowered because of paracetamol. Why suffer more than you need to?

Well hopefully we get an update that it’s just the flu or something. None of us know how bad OP actually feels we’re just reading a few symptoms. She could be down playing them she could be being dramatic. Only OP knows how she truly feels. If I’d been poorly for 5 days with what sounds like flu then yes I’d personally give it a couple more days, if OP feels she can’t wait and is worried about pneumonia then she should get medical advice (not from MN!)

I'm sorry you went through that too. You've triggered a memory I had completely forgotten. It was winter for me and I remember looking at the grass which was all frosted and being desperate to walk on it bare foot. I hate the cold, actively avoid it but similar to you it was that one last time outside and it looked so nice a cool when I was burning up beyond any temp I've ever had.

I'm so glad you fought it too.

Hoping OP is OK, and hopefully not sepsis but either way sounds very much like treatment was needed ASAP.

'Just the flu'. There is no such thing as 'just the flu.' I was working as a nurse in ICU one afternoon, and my patient needed frequent sheet changes. As the afternoon went on, the sheets seemed to get heavier and heavier, and I just couldn't seem to coordinate my arms to roll them.

I finished my shift, and decided to have a bottle of Coke before travelling home. I still don't really know what happened. I took a swig of Coke and seemed to choke. A passing ICU doctor saw me and came to me. She suggested that she should take me to A&E. All I could think of is that I needed to get home (45 minutes away) I just needed to go to bed. I'm pretty persuasive, so she compromised and said she'd drive me home because I was clearly unfit to drive. I didn't know I was ill. I thought I was just a bit tired. When I got home, I took my temperature and it was 38.9°c.
I spent the next 2 weeks in bed, largely asleep. I had flu. It had come on literally in hours.

Flu can, and does, kill. Flu does put young, fit, healthy people into ICU.

There is no such thing as 'just the flu.'

I knew as I wrote just the flu someone would have something to say about it…. I should of wrote the flu

No problem. It's only when you see young, fit, well, people on complete life support because of flu that you realise how bad it can be. So many people say they have 'flu' when they mean that they have an unpleasant cold. Although, to be fair, people can get a mild strain of flu and be none the wiser.

@Lougle, may I ask why you mentioned about choking on the coke?
I'm only wondering as I choked on coke once and ended up in hospital with pneumonia. Which came on within hours. Drs all told me it wasn't related to the drink incident even thought I though it was, so just wondering why you mentioned it.

It was bizarre, really. I generally have a bit of a weak epiglottis - have a habit of inhaling beans, peas, etc. I took a swig of Coke and it was like I had inhaled a bit, but then my epiglottis snapped over my wind pipe and I couldn't breathe. I had to really strain to move any air and when I did manage to breathe, it was all really hoarse and restricted.

I've never had it before or since. It was really weird.

It’s called dry drowning and it’s terrifying !
it’s happened to me as well after some water went down the wrong way .. If you close your mouth and breathe deep through your nose the epiglottis opens up again but it’s blimmin frightening

It was terrifying. Because I was in a basement corridor in the hospital, so very little passing traffic, and I couldn't make any noise anyway. I was lucky that the doctor was also on her way home so passing through, because I really wasn't fit to drive but I didn't know I was ill - I think I'd got past the point of rational thought.

The sepsis doom is real. A sense of shit, this could go wrong. My septic shock started from a sore throat. So when I googled my symptoms I thought calling 999 was an over reaction. Luckily my dh intervened (the rash had started) and took me to hospital. Apparently I was the sickest person in there and given 2 hrs to live. I dismissed the severity as my main issues were sore throat and sickness.
I've had the flu and I actually felt physically worse with that but I just had this weird feeling with sepsis that made me question if I would make it.
Please google the signs of sepsis and always re Google when someone is ill (or has strange symptoms and had a cut, an op, or anything that has done something to your body).

Heya OP are you doing ok? X

Sorry to leave everyone hanging. After I posted I threw up and then slept for hours. Still not feeling any better I called 111. Spoke to doctor on the phone who said viral, wait it out.
I feel so ill it is unreal. Went to see the same doctor this morning in person who said the same thing and I burst into tears. Went over symptoms again because I was so distraught and he prescribed antibiotics but advised me to think carefully before filling the prescription as he doesn’t think they will be of any benefit.
So I’m back in bed praying for relief.
Thanks for all the concern. Not sepsis it seems but just the most f-ing awful virus of my life. When I asked why I feel so ill he said he thinks the fever is driving everything and that I can take ibuprofen and paracetamol together to get it down.

@Daffodils9 did he take your heart rate, or your blood pressure, or both?

I don't normally agree with bowling up to A&E but I seriously think you need to override your GP and get seen. Even for rehydration it would be worth the trip.

I didn’t see what blood pressure was. Temp was 39.1, heart rate 116 bpm, oxygen 96. Heart rate high because of the fever apparently.

When did you last wee? The throwing up is a big red flag for me. I would honestly go to a a and e and ask why not sepsis?

My gp dismissed me as viral throat infection. My other gp friend has says she had never seen sepsis in her life at the surgery.

My neighbour nearly died because her gp told her she didn’t have sepsis.
She ended up unresponsive and her dh called an ambulance. It took her months to fully recover.

If you still feel impending doom please go to A&E.

I'm surprised that the GP wasn't at least a little bit interested.

Hope you feel better OP I would go to A&E