Tag: malade

Viral Christmas [en]

Today I’m finally feeling “well enough” to try and blog, after five days of fever. This is the third time I’m ill since mid-November. As I’m sick (!) of lying around, doing puzzles and watching TV series, and I don’t really feel up to much, I figured I could try and chronicle this – for science. So don’t expect anything really exciting from this post. My neurones are still reconfiguring.

It’s not impossible my first illness mid-November was covid, come to think of it. It could explain the two next back-to-back bouts. It might also be that my poor immune system is feeling down in the dumps after Monique’s death and the difficult times that have been following for me.

Illness 1

Late in the evening of November 14th I was suddenly hit with an awful sore throat. The last time that happened was in early July 2022 when I got covid. Why didn’t I think it was covid this time? The next morning, aside from the sore throat, I felt “fine”. Went to work the two next days with a mask and painkillers, but I didn’t seem to have any fever.

I remember being surprised at how functional I was, because usually, as soon as I come down with any kind of cold I feel like utter crap. Here, my throat was hurting, but I felt “generally OK”.

On the 16th however, I had a very strange episode of motion sickness. On the train back home to work I felt so nauseous I thought my midday sandwich was to blame. I got home, ate something felt better, took the car to drive to my dad’s where I was expected for dinner. After 10 or 15 minutes driving, I found myself wondering where on earth I was going to stop the car on the packed motorway with no emergency lane if I was sick. I couldn’t go any further and had to turn the car around at Morges. I arrived home feeling so horrible I expected to barely have time to rush to the bathroom, but no: between the time I got out of the car and into my flat, it had started to subside, and was back to normal within a short hour. Clearly the virus I was dealing with did something really weird to my inner ear.

On the 17th I rested. My nose was runny and I was coughing, but I’d seen worse. On the 18th I felt well enough to go and help out with the garden at the chalet. Maybe not the best idea (no hint of motion sickness though). I gave in mid-afternoon, and the next day I was out of it and my cough was worse (no surprise). I put myself on codeine and worked from home on the 20th. The next day I felt on the mend enough for my normal work regime, though the cough lingered on, as it usually does.

Illness 2

By December 2nd I was feeling ready to pick up judo again the next week. Woke up on the 3rd with a sniffly nose, and by end afternoon I was knocked out and slept a good 2.5 hours until 7.30pm. Had a dreadful night, not feeling well and upset that I was falling ill again. Stayed at home in bed on the 4th (nose and couch and slight fever, “my usual”), and bravely (stupidly) decided that after this day of total rest I would be well enough to go to work the next day.

Bad idea. After 10 minutes on the train I knew I had made a mistake. The friend I sometimes travel with was there and told me (kindly) that I looked like crap. I headed back home early afternoon, as soon as “the meeting” I’d been going for was dealt with. I took the 6th off (couch and rest), and saw my doctor on the 7th as I was still not feeling fit for work (I still had some fever). She put me on leave until the 11th, included. It was needed, though I felt terribly guilty about missing work and being ill. Symptoms this time around were mainly cough, cough, cough, some fever, a stuffy nose and feeling generally weak and miserable. The usual cold for me.

On the 12th I was back to being “normally” functional again, but taking the lift instead of stairs, though. At least my brain was back.

Illness 3

The cough lingered on as it always does but within a week I felt in good enough shape that I was running up stairs again and looking forward to finally going back to judo and skiing during the winter break (though I skipped singing practice on the 13th).

On the 21st morning I woke up with a painful trachea and a nastier cough than the day before. That didn’t bode well. Thankfully I was working from home. In the afternoon I noted that the two flights of stairs between my office and my flat felt like an exhausting trek and that I was pretty out of breath. As I suspected, my temperature was rising. I saw my doctor the next day, who checked that nothing scary was afoot, and I went back to rest, hoping I’d be fit for our first family Christmas party on the 25th.

As I’m trying to determine objective indicators I can use to decide if I’m “fit for work” or not (after the fiasco of illness 2), I though I’d keep track of my temperature and associated symptoms.

I can therefore confirm that when I’m running 37.1 or even 37.0 I feel like crap: my body is painful, moving anywhere is a huge effort, to say nothing of walking up a flight of stairs. My brain is mush. I am, however, able to watch TV series and listen to podcasts. When it climbs up to 37.5 or a bit more, it gets worse. Concentrating on a TV show or a podcast feels like an effort, and I’ll find myself not wanting to or giving up. I can cook a simple meal, however. You know, fry some fish fingers in the pan, make some pasta and heat some frozen vegetables. At 38.5 or more, we enter the world of “just let me close my eyes and wait until it’s over”. No podcasts, no TV. I can still crawl out of bed and put a frozen pizza in the oven. But no more than that. Mainly, I will be lying down, awake or asleep, mind blank, waiting.

So, on the 21st, 37.1; 22nd, 37.5; I don’t know what happened during the night between the 22nd and 23rd, but I know I hit 38.7, woke up at one point so drenched in sweat that I had to change, woke up another time shivering, woke up another time feeling my symptoms were much diminished (pain, inflammation), and in the morning of the 23rd I was still above 38.5. At some point in the afternoon I got so fed up that I took something to bring the fever down. 38 already felt much better, and 37.5 was positively wonderful – in comparison. I hovered around 37 and 37.5 on the 24th, and yesterday (the 25th) I was “almost normal”: down to 36.3 at times, my “base temperature”, but then back up to 37 in the evening.

Back to now

Today, on the 26th, is the first day I really feel “ok” and my temperature is normal (so far). Of course, I’m still coughing my lungs out, exhausted, and my whole body is painful. Codeine is going to continue being my best friend for the next days. I won’t be going to family Christmas tomorrow, but with a bit of luck I’ll be able to attend the one we postponed until the 29th.

I hope you enjoy all these calendar and numerical details. As you can see, it’s what’s coming out of my brain right now.

For those of you who may be concerned: of course I’m taking medicine for all this. As we all know, with viruses all you can do is rest and treat the symptoms. And I have the nasty, efficient, deadly drugs you need for that. Codeine, cortisone inhalers, decongestants that you shouldn’t take for too long, painkillers when needed, antihistamines for the night, steam thingy with an essential oil mix, stuff you pour down your nose, you name it, I have it. Yes, the sad reality of life is that you can “do everything right” and still fall ill.

Well, I’m not exactly doing everything right. One thing I have trouble doing is resting enough and taking it easy when I need to. A topic for another blog post.

I’ll leave you with a selection of TV series I’ve been watching, as I’ve gone through the existing offering of Star Trek. Definitely watch Slow Horses and The Night Manager if you like spy stuff. Catch up with Good Omens for something funny (and wicked). As Doctor Who season 14 is starting, have you caught up with the three 2023 Christmas specials? If you’ve missed them so far, I also recommend making your way through The Mandalorian, Picard, Ms. Marvel (love the South-East Asian cultural context) and, last but not least, Loki (even if you’re not into the Marvel stuff). Currently watching: The Wheel of Time (medieval fantasy, friendship, adventure, a quest, magic, powerful women…). Away from fiction, if, like me, you’re wondering if you maybe missed something by not knowing much about Taylor Swift, watch Miss Americana. I might be a fan now.

Giardiose: ma copine giardia lamblia [fr]

[en] My friend giardia lamblia has probably kept me company for a good couple of years. Two antibiotic courses later, looking at a third. If you have any kind of tropical parasitic infection, go see a specialist.

Je dis que giardia lamblia est ma copine parce que ça fait probablement deux ans ou plus qu’on traine ensemble. Oui oui, probablement chopée en Inde, mais ça existe aussi dans nos contrées (chats, chiens, et jeunes enfants).

L’histoire? Je vous la résume, si vous n’avez pas suivi le feuilleton sur Facebook. Début décembre, “gastro” qui tarde à passer. Analyse de selles. Giardiose! Premier traitement. Rechute. Deuxième traitement. Rechute. Médecin spécialiste des maladies tropicales.

Si j’ai un tuyau à vous donner: la prochaine fois que vous avez un truc tropical, allez directement voir un spécialiste.

Des mots dudit spécialiste, c’est une “belle saloperie” pour s’en débarrasser. En fait ça me rassure et me soulage infiniment d’entendre ça. Il confirme que je me balade certainement avec depuis au moins deux ans. Oui, l’intolérance passagère au lactose, c’est ça. Les douleurs, ballonnements, gaz, et diarrhées intermittentes. Moi qui croyais que j’étais un peu trop relax avec le nombre de jour que je gardais mes restes au frigo (ou le nombre d’années au congél).

Semblerait que dans nos contrées, ce sympathique protozoaire soit même responsable de “mauvaises classes” chez les enfants. Celles où ils sont fatigués, pas à leur affaire, absents…

Je n’ai aucune peine à l’imaginer. Depuis des mois voire des années (et maintenant, je me dis “depuis en tous cas octobre 2015”), je me trouve fatiguée, sans énergie, et à la digestion souvent pénible. J’en ai même parlé à mon médecin, on a fait des analyses sanguines, quelques mini-carences, mais rien de profondément anormal. Et c’en est resté là.

On est toujours plus intelligent après: en gros, ça fait probablement deux ans que j’ai une infection parasitaire qui a un impact négatif sur ma capacité à être active dans ma vie. Con, hein.

Ce qui me fait penser ça?

Après le premier traitement (3x250mg de metronidazole par jour pendant 5 jours, un peu léger en première instance semblerait-il) je me suis sentie plus en forme et pleine d’énergie que je ne l’avais été depuis “des siècles”. Digestion nickel, je dormais même pas plus que d’hab, mais j’avais la pêche. Et patatras dix jours plus tard.

J’ai vu quelque part (je ne retrouve plus où) qu’il suffit d’une dizaine de ces bestioles dans un verre d’eau pour vous faire une belle infection.

Deuxième traitement, albendazole (400mg 1x/jour pendant 5 jours, bon choix en deuxième instance selon le spécialiste). Et moins d’une semaine après la fin de ce traitement, me voilà de nouveau HS (vive les vacances de ski).

Au programme:

  • éviter les produits laitiers pendant 2 mois (intolérance passagère aux produits laitiers)
  • si dans 10 jours j’ai toujours des symptômes, commencer mon troisième traitement d’antibios (histoire de se donner une chance que les symptômes soient dus à l’intolérance passagère)
  • troisième traitement, dose de cheval: ornidazole 500 3x/jour pendant 10 jours, qui devrait liquider l’éventuel ami blastocystis aussi.
  • si dix jours après le traitement je pète pas le feu, je retourne et on relance les analyses.

Au-delà de mon propre cas et des conséquences de cette infection sur ma vie (qui est encore à mesurer, une fois que je serai guérie, et que j’aurai un point de repère pour ce qu’est “aller bien”), ce qui me fait vraiment frémir c’est l’impact des infections à large échelle sur des sociétés entières. Si giardia lamblia peut nous donner une “mauvaise classe”, on ose à peine imaginer son impact sur les populations de pays en voie de développement où 30% des gens peuvent être infectés.

Ça ne m’étonne pas d’apprendre qu’elle a été largement négligées jusqu’à il y a peu.

Cette expérience me fait penser à Unrest — de nouveau, on est à une autre échelle de gravité que ce qui m’arrive, mais il y a des parallèles: le mari de la réalisatrice explique à quel point il est délicat d’obtenir de l’aide. Si on dit trop peu, personne ne peut nous aider, et si on en dit trop, on passe vite dans la catégorie “patient psy”.

Que faire avec ces symptômes vagues ou sub-cliniques? J’ai mal au ventre, je suis fatiguée, j’ai des coups de barre digestifs… C’est vrai qu’à force de revenir à la charge avec ces choses qui objectivement ne sont “rien”, on finit aussi par se demander si on imagine des choses.

Correction cérébrale [fr]

Légère commotion cérébrale au judo vendredi. Quelques jours de repos s’imposent.

[en] Mild concussion at judo. Working this week hasn't helped. Seeing the doctor tomorrow and taking a few days rest.

Une “correction cérébrale” — voilà  ce que j’ai dit à  l’une de mes élèves hier, alors qu’elle me demandait si j’avais corrigé les tests de grammaire. Le pire c’est que je ne m’en suis absolument pas rendu compte.

“Zéro virgule zéro virgule zéro– euh… zéro virgule zéro zéro deux” — ça, c’était durant le cours de maths de la période d’avant.

Vendredi à  l’entraînement de judo, alors que je me trouvais au sol après avoir effectué sur mon partenaire un magnifique tani-otoshi (technique que j’affectionne particulièrement), le ciel m’est soudainement tombé sur la tête. Autrement dit, un judoka voisin (pas celui avec lequel je pratiquais) m’a chuté lourdement sur le sommet du crâne.

Résultat: un occiput pas très content, et la boîte crânienne un peu malmenée.

Conséquences concrètes: un mal de tête persistant, de la difficulté à  me concentrer, la nuque qui fait “bloc”, des absences, de petits trous de mémoire et troubles de la parole. Plus, bien entendu, l’effet “je me sens assommée” d’une légère commotion. Une fois que j’ai donné mes cours de la journée, je suis dans un état relativement moyen pour préparer mes cours, et surtout (à  deux semaines de la fin de la période!) faire mes corrections.

La pile de papiers fait maintenant une dizaine de centimètres d’épaisseur, et malgré ma visite chez l’ostéo mardi, mon état ne s’améliore pas. Au contraire, il empire presque — à  force de rester active et de courir dans tous les coins.

Les commotions, je commence à  bien connaître. Celle-ci n’est pas très forte, mais le fait que j’aie travaillé toute cette semaine, et que je sois également fatiguée et stressée n’aide pas du tout. Quand je conduis, je me rends bien compte que je ne suis pas en état.

Il a fallu qu’on me pousse un peu (“ah non, la semaine prochaine ils ont plein de tests, je peux pas me faire remplacer, peut-être dans dix jours, ou bien en début de période prochaine?”) mais demain, médecin, et arrêt de travail de quelques jours.