Haven’t updated recently. Not because I’ve been doing nothing – the Worldcon workshops are getting organised and the WIP is advancing – but because I’ve been ill. Properly ill.
I don’t usually get sick – winter colds sure, who doesn’t? But nothing much more than that so the last couple of weeks have been an unpleasant surprise. It started with a stomach ache, feeling full after eating not much then developed into a tightness of the chest not unlike a moderate asthma attack (I’ve have allergic asthma in the past). Just another winter lurge I thought. Expect it didn’t progress. I carried on going to work then had a crap weekend with no energy to do anything and used up all my inhaler to no great effect. Then Monday night I woke up in the middle of the night soaking wet, really as wet as if someone had chucked a full bucket of water over me. Only this wasn’t water it was sweat.
Same again Tuesday night.
At this point my wife intervened. Having looked up nightsweats online and seen that they are major red flags for infection. i was ordered to the GP. The GP was thorough and sent me off for blood tests and a chest X-ray. So I went, at this point I was actually feeling better than at the weekend but my chest was still tight.
The surgery phoned at 8am on Friday morning, pretty well ordering me to come in and see the GP. He sent me straight to hospital and I spent the rest of the day there getting more tests finishing up with a diagnosis of pneumonia at around 8pm.
So now I have at least a week off work (writing time!) and a small mountain of antibiotics to take, which at this point feel like they are working.
So the moral here is, if you get nightsweats go straight to your doctor and tell them about it! They are a major warning something is wrong.
martinowton 