Saturday, 17th October 2009
Swine ‘Flu?
I’ve been pretty sick the last few days.
I can’t decide whether or not I’ve had swine ‘flu or just a nasty URTI. I started a week of nights on Monday and the first two shifts were fine. Fi started getting ill with ‘flu-like symptoms on Tuesday night and my problems began whilst I was at work on Wednesday. I had a streaming cold and a bit of a sore throat but I just carried on at work. Mercifully, I managed to get an unprecedented 5 1/2 hours of sleep at work but when I woke up I felt dreadful. I had muscle aches, a runny nose, sore throat and I felt a little “warm”.
When I got home Thursday morning – I found Fi at home looking unwell. She had taken the day off sick (you know when Fi is really sick as she never has time off work!). To cut a long story short – I’ve been off work since Thursday night. I have never felt so rough as I have done in this illness. I had rigors and night sweats on Thursday and Friday night. I still feel pretty unwell but I think I have turned a corner. I may even be able to face getting out of bed.
I’ve been feeling really guilty about not being at work (especially since I’m supposed to be working night shifts) but not only could I not have physically gone to work as I was so sick but it would be irresponsible to expose elderly and infirm patients to what could be swine ‘flu. I phoned David (the day on-call SHO) to find out how staffing is looking and he told me that the department have paid for a locum for the entire weekend. That makes me feel slightly better as at least I’m not shafting one of my colleagues. I’m not allowed to go into work until I’ve been symptom-free for 24 hours so that would be tomorrow at the earliest opportunity (I’m still coughing now though). The worst thing is that I have a week of rostered time off starting from Monday (to make up for the fact that I would have worked a week of nights). I can’t help but think that I should go into work next week instead of having the time off but I have made plans with Fiona and she has taken annual leave on the expectation that I would be off. I guess if I had become ill during my time off, no one would have given me more time off to make up for it would they?…