"I told you I wasn't feeling well!"

[J.R.]

To explain my recent absence from the forum I have been hospitalised for the last week and have been released into the care of some very kind friends for the twice daily infirmière à domicile visits for treatment, monitoring blood testing etc which is for another week, basically once again, for this is far from the first time I have cheated death, I feel very lucky to be alive and also to still have vision.

 

Last Friday morning I went running and was struggling well off the pace, then I helped a friend sprading a limestone driveway and had no strength, I thought it might have been Covid, I had an irritation in the corner of my left (blind) eye and slight swelling under it, I went to the pharmacie and then to bed after taking Doliprane.

 

By 20.00 the right lower eyelid (the other eye, the functional one) was very swollen and I started to have uncontrollable shakes like when I had Malaria or Sepsis, I did not feel hot, was not sweating and was unaware I had a high temperature and fever. I got the shakes to abate by controlling my breathing.

 

At 23.00 the shakes were back uncontrollable in all members and the core, the (good) eye looked like a boxer after a fight time to call an ambulance, I was not expecting to really have to fight my corner to get one, thankfully my French was good enough or I would be dead.

 

12.30 ambulance and paramedics arrived temperature was 40.6° yet no shaking, 5 minute ride to hospital (a reason in choosing my village) hot summers night yet I put on a winter fleece to feel warm.

 

Admitted to A&E and immediately put on IV anti-biotics, within 2 hours the eye was swollen closed and I was blind which I remained for 3 days.

 

Within 12 hours my head was swollen like a pumpkin, I could feel it but not see it so I asked them to take photos on my phone.

 

Swelling continued and the cheek ripped open like a tomato from the corner of the eye like I had been slashed, it then advanced down my neck across the collarbone and started across the chest, I could feel the passage by the pain and swelling but not see it, I felt I would be intubated very soon as the airway constricted, they said so too.

 

Unbeknown to me behind the scenes they were contacting specialists in Bordeaux, then Paris to try and find an IV antibiotic that worked, the above was despite being flooded with the stuff and them going through several options, it takes 5 days for a blood sample to yield results in a petri dish.

 

Finally one worked and the advance stopped and started to roll back.

 

I will stop there for now, as cathartic as it is to write this its also upsetting, I will carry on later, at least you know I came through.

 

The cause was nothing to do with my recent cataracte surgery.

[Gaz]

Jeez John 😳

 

Glad they found antibiotics that worked and you're here to tell the tale.

 

Gaz

 

[MikeTheThinker]

What he ^^^ said!  You don't do things by halves, do you mate?

 

Have the medicos explained what was going on?  It sounds like rampant cellulitis but there would be a cause somewhere, an initiation point or condition.

 

P.S. The heart symbol above was in thanks for your survival; you can take the sympathy as a given.

Edited 6 May, 2023 by MikeTheThinker

[Gaz]

5 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

Have the medicos explained what was going on?

 

Encepholopumpkinheaditis I reckon!

 

Unusual time of year for it though, isn't thanksgiving in November?

 

G

[Breezy_Pete]

All the best for a swift return to good health. 🙂

[MikeTheThinker]

19 minutes ago, Gaz said:

isn't thanksgiving in November?

In this instance it's now as he made it through getting a swelled head!

[@Lee]

Gute Besserung aus Deutschland, John 👍

[Graham Butcher]

Crikey John, that really sounds scary, it's a good job that you couldn't see what was happening, if it was cellulitis it would have brought out in huge blisters and turns your skin bright red, I know, I had that over Christmas and also Covid at the same time, really nasty. So glad to hear that you're on the mend again and hopefully you'll be up and doing things again just like you were before, keep us all posted.

[mac11irl]

@J.R.

holy Jaysus! Hope the recovery continues on the right trajectory.

whatever it turns out to be, at least youre here to recover!!

[MikeTheThinker]

24 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

cellulitis it would have brought out in huge blisters and turns your skin bright red, I know, I had that over Christmas and also Covid at the same time

That had to be rough!  I've had localised (ie one limb at a time) cellulitis a couple of times and I can confirm - you certainly don't want to wear the T-shirt ...

[Robjon]

Thoughts are with you, JR. Wish you a speedy recovery. 

[Mickvrs220]

Hope you feel much better soon jr fingers crossed 👍

[skomaz]

Blimey @J.R. that sounds like a close call!

 

good luck for a quick and full recovery 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Get well soon, @J.R..

 

Aw tha best from sunny Scotland.

[J.R.]

I had been Docteur Google.fr'ing before It got serious & I had to call an ambulance, Cellulitus of the lower eyelid was coming out as the most likely and I do indeed have some blisters remaining on the upper eyelid but it was a bacterial infection that thankfully was making its way via the maxo-facilliary tissue and not at that stage via the bloodstream like the Sepsis in 2018, tired now but when I tell you what caused it (we worked it out) it's pretty frightening, could happen to anyone at any time, like most accidents a chance combination of circumstances.

 

Bacteria was unidentified when I left, it was not detectable in the bloodstream (thank the lord) only the markers of infection - C.R.P. was 100.1 against reference values of 0-3, they then took nasal swabs when the airway opened enough and swabs of the puss from the wound, 5 days later they will know but I reckon I do already.

 

I no longer look like a pumpkin and the rest of my head, face and neck is back to as before but the swelling below the eye and the gaping wound down the cheek looks like the undead in American Werewolf in London so I cant venture out in public but I feel very well in myself otherwise.

 

Bedtime now, thanks for all your kind thoughts and words, I"ll explain the rest and how it happened tomorrow.

[Gaz]

7 minutes ago, J.R. said:

... they then took nasal swabs when the airway opened enough.......

 

A quid says he didn't wash his hands before picking his nose, and the rest is history! 

 

Gaz

[J.R.]

3 hours ago, MikeTheThinker said:

You don't do things by halves, do you mate?

 

I have always thought that  I have such strong defences and natural immunity it's only the major stuff that can get through and then only when I am weakened with something like flu or Covid.

 

I have been disabused of that notion by my friends who are looking after me, she was a masters degree level medical professional and will tell me or anyone come to that, that I full of ****, that I have a weak immune system, that the Meningitus, Malaria, Sepsis not only prove that but have also weakened it further.

 

They are looking after me to save me from myself, my living conditions on site even I know would be impossible for a recovery, the caravan heats to 40 or 50°C every day and could only be entered the very last thing at night, the main building was and remains a biohazard as does the plot (hence the caravan) nothing inside but work to do which I would have to be getting on with as the only other thing to do would be to sleep in a hammock in the cooler sous sol, a damp mouldy environment.

 

Here it is idyllic, my room opens on to the terrace looking out over the swimming pool over lord know how many hectares of their land, I can walk the dogs down past the mill to the river meadow and back in the mornings, she is a great cook and the place is spotless, she has an auto-immune disease so has to practice what she preaches, the only other alternative would have been a recovery hospice which the assistant sociale would have organised after seeing my living conditions for herself.

[J.R.]

8 minutes ago, Gaz said:

 

A quid says he didn't wash his hands before picking his nose, and the rest is history! 

 

Gaz

 

Wrong but you do have a point, we have been debating how it could have transferred from one voie lacrymale to the other as they are not connected, my nose was blocking all the time and still is, my pal said there is something that connects then both and held up his index finger!

 

Moral of the story is use different hands for each side of your face, something I learned to do if I had arc eye or any other type of conjunctivitus.

[Gaz]

I was just joshin' 😁

 

WRT the title, I really like Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.  Winchelsea is on the way for me, so I like to pop in and pay my respects to Spike:

 

 

 

Glad you're not joining him - get well soon JR 👍

 

Gaz

 

[Graham Butcher]

Hmm yeah, arc eye, been there and got the T-shirt, not pleasant, feels like you have a bucket full of sand in your eye, where you trying to weld without a mask? I was looking at a train pantograph breaking down while in a station when I was a teenager.

[TMB]

Crikey, sounds awful. Get well soon, JR!

Edited 6 May, 2023 by TMB

[MikeTheThinker]

13 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I like to pop in and pay my respects to Spike:

One of my favourite Milligan quotes "I read a book once. Green, it was."

 

[TMB]

15 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

One of my favourite Milligan quotes "I read a book once. Green, it was."

 

 

I think that was Brian Glover in Porridge.

 

 

Edited 6 May, 2023 by TMB

[@Lee]

32 minutes ago, TMB said:

 

I think that was Brian Glover in Porridge.

 

 

Was it ever clarified if the colour of the book was green or if the author was Greene?

Either way Brighton Rock is a good read. 

[SteveTheElder]

@J.R. wow! What a week! So pleased you got the right antibiotics and are on the road to recovery. 
Take care, and in due course I look forward to hearing more updates on your project.