[StallionAmit]

Hi Dr great work and service to humankind. Get well soon .
Humanity is grateful to the medical staff in these difficult times.
Hoping this pandemic ends soon.

[GameOfCars]

Originally Posted by alphadog

Good to hear that you have recovered well. I did my Orthopaedic fellowship at Nottingham in 2011 and looks like you are in that part of the country.

I did almost all my postgraduate training in the UK and worked as a consultant there before relocating back to India. I am a Brit national myself and a part of my heart remains there. It was heart breaking to hear from my friends and old colleagues in the UK, on how NHS was being overwhelmed with this pandemic and more due to the lack of a proper masterplan from the administration to handle this. In fact, one of my ex colleagues, from the north-west of the UK, an Orthopod, who was in his early 50s, sadly succumbed to CoVid.

Cheerio!

Thank you for your kind words sir. Great to see a fellow alumni from UK. I guess I'm following your footpath. Planning to come back to India once I complete my Oncology training here.

Extremely sorry to hear about the loss of your colleague. If you don't mind me asking, what ethnic background was he/she from? Its astonishing to note that almost 90% of deaths amongst doctors here in NHS has been among the Black, Asian & minority ethnic groups.

Originally Posted by carfreak

Hi doctor,

Going through your thread was a totally different experience for me. It got back haunting memories. My father was a general practitioner in the Sultanate of Oman. He was 76 years old and he too probably contracted Covid from one of his patients. He developed the same symptoms like you- severe lethargy, lack of appetite and fever, though it was a low grade one. However, he passed away fighting the virus on the 17th of last month. He was on ventilator support for 2 weeks before he finally succumbed. And being in different parts of the world and the country, in the middle of the lockdown, we could not be together during this horrible time, neither could we see him one last time.

I'm seriously at a loss of words reading about your father and the whole lockdown situation. Really sorry to hear about your loss. May his soul rest in peace. It sure has been a very scary environment for the last 2 months for all of us working in the healthcare setup. I would have to believe now, I'm probably one of the fortunate ones to have come out of it mostly unscathed. I just pray that the situation gets better from here onwards and we get to hear about more recoveries than new cases coming in. Stay strong, stay safe!

[Sebring]

It takes great courage to be a front liner and your story is revelatory in all respects, thank you for sharing it with us. I have a question and you may dismiss it if you find it too silly. Having experienced the virus firsthand, do you think it behaves like what a normal virus does or is it too alien, as if it is cooked in a lab? There is no doubt this virus is potent and destructive so this question hangs on everybody's head. I'd like your view on this please (from your perspective)

Originally Posted by GameOfCars

Everyone is more or less at risk of contracting it. The lesser you step outdoors and come in contact with the outside world , the lesser chance you'll get it. Unfortunately, here in UK, they are not repeating a swab once you've tested positive. Ideology behind being that once you've had the virus, you will continue to test positive upto 6 weeks as there will be elements of dead virus still traceable on PCR testing, however a person cannot infect or spread the disease after day 5-7 of having first symptom. Antibody testing is being ramped up now and I'm hoping to get tested for that by the end of this month. I will be going back to work from Monday without getting a repeat swab, provided I remain symptom free.Attachment 2005571

[alphadog]

Originally Posted by carfreak

Hi doctor,
My father was a general practitioner in the Sultanate of Oman. He was 76 years old and he too probably contracted Covid from one of his patients. He developed the same symptoms like you- severe lethargy, lack of appetite and fever, though it was a low grade one. However, he passed away fighting the virus on the 17th of last month. He was on ventilator support for 2 weeks before he finally succumbed.

Sorry to hear about your father. Condolences to you and your family. I can only imagine what it would have been like to not be by parents side in the final phase of their life. In these situations, there is nothing more that could have been done, I guess. May his soul journey well.

Originally Posted by GameOfCars

Extremely sorry to hear about the loss of your colleague. If you don't mind me asking, what ethnic background was he/she from? Its astonishing to note that almost 90% of deaths amongst doctors here in NHS has been among the Black, Asian & minority ethnic groups.

I guess you are right, a disproportionate number of healthcare deaths are among the BAME (Black, Asian, Middle Eastern) ethnicities. This doctor who passed away was of West Asian origin. I would not know about his co-morbidities though. May he rest in peace.

[skanchan95]

It is great o know that you have recovered well Doctor. I cannot imagine the courage and drive it takes for doctors and paramedics like you to got to work in these tough times. God Bless you all and thank you for your service.

[tanmoy1245]

Hi Doc, First of all a special thanks for serving in this difficult time.
Congratulations on your speedy recovery,wish you will get back to your normal schedule as soon as possible. Thanks you so much for sharing your experience with all of us, you made few points very clear like take proper precaution, timely action and dont panic.
Your this firsthand experience will definitely boost up our moral.

[Rustom Mistry]

Thanks a lot dear for putting to rest all speculations the social media has created and really delighted to know that you recovered so fast. And above all, you have some gem of a friends that supported you through this. A very knowledgeable thread making me feel that it’s just another flu that we have to learn to live with

[Memnon]

Thank You for sharing your experience with us. Medical personnel have all of a sudden become like the special forces. What you do is special, and at any point in life when you look back you will certainly feel that what you did was worthwhile. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Currently there is too much information from various sources making it difficult to understand what is really going on.
I have one question, it would be great to get your view on it. I heard that initially countries like UK were looking at herd immunity as an option.
But is it true that once you get it , you will most likely not get it again? Like say chickenpox.
Now that you have recovered, does it mean you do not expect to get it again? What is the experience of the other medical staff there on this topic?
I read conflicting reports about this, therefore I am curious to know from a person in the frontlines.

[Ranjith812]

I am so glad that you're better. Thank you for your encouraging experience Dr. We must take very good care of ourselves and others in this difficult time. I am proud of everyone working in the healthcare around the world.
This should give some strength to those infected and encourage the ones treating them.
Thanks for sharing!

[GameOfCars]

UPDATE

DAY 11 - May 14th

Thank you all for the lovely wishes and support. I feel back to my normal self. No symptoms to report what so ever. No issues with the throat now, not needing any Strepsils lozenges, however I continue to do salt and hot water gargles twice a day. I'm sleeping the usual of 7 hours now. Did a bit of light exercise for 20 minutes today and feel quite well in myself. I had a lengthy conversation with Occupational Health team this morning who have advised I'm fit to step out of the house from today and can get back to work as early as tomorrow, although the ball remains in my court to make that decision. I have decided to continue to rest for another 2-3 days and complete my house arrest of 14 days and will join work from Monday. Will keep pushing myself a bit more everyday for the next 3 days so that I'm not suddenly overwhelmed with the exertion when I go back to work.

Originally Posted by Sebring

It takes great courage to be a front liner and your story is revelatory in all respects, thank you for sharing it with us. I have a question and you may dismiss it if you find it too silly. Having experienced the virus firsthand, do you think it behaves like what a normal virus does or is it too alien, as if it is cooked in a lab? There is no doubt this virus is potent and destructive so this question hangs on everybody's head. I'd like your view on this please (from your perspective)

I think lots of people are putting out different theories about it. From my experience, there is one thing which is quite odd about this virus. Many patients(mostly elderly population) who got the virus remained fairly stable for the initial few days and then suddenly deteriorate very rapidly on Day 8-10, within a matter of few hours, with worsening shortness of breath being the major symptom. Its difficult to pin point what triggers this sudden deterioration, but that's been a trend with a few patient's I've seen. Also, it causes a state of hypercoagulation in the body( layman terms - means blood starts to become a little thicker than its normal form or excessive blood clotting) leading many patient's to have thrombotic events such as Stroke and heart attacks(myocardial infarction).

It's rather difficult to say if its natural or a one made in Lab, but surely we've not seen something like this before.

Originally Posted by Memnon

Thank You for sharing your experience with us. Medical personnel have all of a sudden become like the special forces.

I have one question, it would be great to get your view on it. I heard that initially countries like UK were looking at herd immunity as an option.
But is it true that once you get it , you will most likely not get it again? Like say chickenpox.
Now that you have recovered, does it mean you do not expect to get it again? What is the experience of the other medical staff there on this topic?
I read conflicting reports about this, therefore I am curious to know from a person in the frontlines.

My understanding is that there is still a small possibility of re-infection, unless one has been tested to have antibodies against COVID19 after recovery. I will try to get tested for covid19 antibodies end of this month once the test becomes available here. As mentioned earlier, there has been an article from Germany stating that not everyone who recovered from covid19 infection, developed antibodies against it. That implies, one can still get re-infected. However, it has been reported in very small numbers as of now.

My initial impression about the UK govt's approach about herd immunity was Herd immunity is basically making 50-60% of your healthy population infected with the virus, so then they recover, and therefore the spread of the disease is cut off to the vulnerable population such as the elderly and with significant underlying conditions. This is more or less the same principle how vaccines work. For example - if someone with measles is surrounded by people who are vaccinated against measles, the disease cannot be easily passed on to anyone. At present, this strategy doesn't seem to be working and UK may come out of this crisis as one of the worst hit countries in the world. Countries like South Korea, Taiwan & New Zealand who took the approach of vast testing and contact tracing have fared much much better till now. However, it is to be seen which strategy works out to be beneficial in the longer term as the above mentioned countries have not eradicated the disease completely either. In my opinion, UK took the wrong approach and is bearing the results of the same.

[carfreak]

Originally Posted by GameOfCars

I'm seriously at a loss of words reading about your father and the whole lockdown situation. Really sorry to hear about your loss. May his soul rest in peace. It sure has been a very scary environment for the last 2 months for all of us working in the healthcare setup. I would have to believe now, I'm probably one of the fortunate ones to have come out of it mostly unscathed. I just pray that the situation gets better from here onwards and we get to hear about more recoveries than new cases coming in. Stay strong, stay safe!

Originally Posted by alphadog

Sorry to hear about your father. Condolences to you and your family. I can only imagine what it would have been like to not be by parents side in the final phase of their life. In these situations, there is nothing more that could have been done, I guess. May his soul journey well.

Thank you guys! We are slowly coming out of the shock now but I am sure the memories will keep coming. Not being with him nor being able to see him or his body (the cremation was done in Oman) means it all feels like a bad dream to us. We just cannot believe it really happened

Whenever I hear success stories like yours, I feel happy that a lot of us are able to fight this virus and emerge victorious. The battle is far from over and all of us should continue to stay safe

Originally Posted by GameOfCars

[b]
I think lots of people are putting out different theories about it. From my experience, there is one thing which is quite odd about this virus. Many patients(mostly elderly population) who got the virus remained fairly stable for the initial few days and then suddenly deteriorate very rapidly on Day 8-10, within a matter of few hours, with worsening shortness of breath being the major symptom. Its difficult to pin point what triggers this sudden deterioration, but that's been a trend with a few patient's I've seen. Also, it causes a state of hypercoagulation in the body( layman terms - means blood starts to become a little thicker than its normal form or excessive blood clotting) leading many patient's to have thrombotic events such as Stroke and heart attacks(myocardial infarction).

It's rather difficult to say if its natural or a one made in Lab, but surely we've not seen something like this before.

Again this is the same course my father went through. He was showing improvement in the initial days and we were all hopeful. And suddenly, one day before he passed away he went into multi organ failure. A possible explanation being told is what they call a 'cytokine storm'- an over-reaction of the immune system. Though he was given medication for that, it did not help him much.

This virus is behaving very different from other viruses of the same family and differently in different individuals. Though I do not believe conspiracy theories (whether it was manufactured in a lab or not), this is something straight out of hell.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by GameOfCars

Sharing my experience of the COVID19 pandemic.

I read your experience the day you shared and I was overwhelmed to go through it. I'm really happy to see your day to day improvement. Wishing you all the best.

Also, it has finally given me a chance to possibly start penning down my Beemer's ownership experience. Someday!!

Please do this.

Originally Posted by carfreak

However, he passed away fighting the virus on the 17th of last month.

Really sorry for your irreplaceable loss. And equally painful to undergo this during current scenario.

[GameOfCars]

UPDATE

Day 13 - May 16th

There has been nothing untoward to report in the last 48 hours. I'm feeling back to myself - 100%. No drop in energy levels. Doing light workout as well and managing fine. Eating and drinking well. I'd seen people losing weight while recovering from the infection. I might have pushed myself a little too much in the last 10-12 days, have put on weight from the looks of it.

I've started to deep clean the house from the last 2 days. Sanitizing every possible nook and corner. Washing quilt covers, sofa cushions to bed linen with Dettol liquid. Wiping every surface, every door knob, electronic appliances, containers in the kitchen, fridge items with anti-bacterial wipes. Don't really know how much they actually work against virus, but doing it for my own mental satisfaction. Tomorrow, I will be heading out finally, will take the car out for a short spin as well. Good times!

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

I read your experience the day you shared and I was overwhelmed to go through it. I'm really happy to see your day to day improvement. Wishing you all the best.

Thank you for the well wishes. I have started penning down my ownership experience, however, it seems like a herculean task at the moment, given my technical knowledge is sub-par at best. Heck, I've not even actually opened the hood of the car in the last 2 years. Also, I need to do a detailed photo-shoot of the car, as all I got with me at the moment are some very random pics of my road trips. Hopefully I'll click some sane pics soon.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by GameOfCars

UPDATE

Day 13 - May 16th

There has been nothing untoward to report in the last 48 hours. I'm feeling back to myself - 100%. No drop in energy levels. Doing light workout as well and managing fine. Eating and drinking well. I'd seen people losing weight while recovering from the infection. I might have pushed myself a little too much in the last 10-12 days, have put on weight from the looks of it.

I read about your close encounter with the dreaded virus and shared the story with quite a few friends. A very well written first-hand account that turns spine-chilling at times. The number of THANKS to you by fellow members here are a revelation per se. And the help from friends and soothing long distance calls from home and relatives to you are very soothing in times like these.

It's on a very happy note, that the gruelling days have ended and recovery has picked up. Do please take utmost care and here's wishing you much, much better days ahead.

[akash_v12]

Congratulations on the superfast recovery from the virus.

Your experience seems quite different than what is being portrayed by the media here. Feels quite good to hear that the body can go back to normal routine work quite quickly if you are fit, my mind thought otherwise.
Hoping for yours and all others' complete recovery!

Stay Safe,
Akashdeep