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Old 20th May 2020, 04:28   #61
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

UPDATE

DAY 14 - May 17th

Finally the D-Day arrived. Woke up, got ready. The dreaded house arrest was getting over today. That feeling was hard to put in words. Stepped outside, got into the car, sanitized the whole of it, from spraying the seats to wiping the interiors. The car looked dreadful with all the bird droppings from last 2 weeks. Googled the nearest car wash which was open here. Went there and gave the car a much needed wash and polish, all while maintaining ample social distancing. The car looked absolute drool worthy and it just made my day a hundred times better. Later, a friend of mine accompanied me for getting some home essentials and was back after being outdoors for a couple of hours. No signs of any exertion or lethargy. Feel good factor was immense and I was rearing to get back to work the next morning.

Day 15 - May 18th

Woke up at 7:30AM. Got ready as usual. Went to work at 9AM. Was pleasantly greeted by many colleagues asking about my well being. Spoke with occupational health and they sent me a form to be completed for my time of absence from work. Came to know, a nurse from our ward also tested positive after a couple of days I had gotten my result. She had a tough one week but was on the mend now at home and was hoping to be back at work by next week. The number of Covid patients within the hospital have come down drastically. We now just have 4 in ITU and 27 positive patients in the isolation wards. Our clinics are about to re-start and things have started moving towards normalcy. I did not do a full day's work as I would usually do, as my consultant just made me take it slow and sent me back home at 2PM itself. The only thing i noticed all day, was that wearing mask all the time made my throat go dry and I had kept some strepsils lozenges with me which helped immensely. No other symptom to report. It felt amazing to be back and also knowing that things are getting much better at work now. My parents were really delighted to see me back at work and going about my day as usual. I think their anxiety levels should start to settle down as well now, Or at least, I'm hoping it does.

DAY 16 - May 19th

Second day back at work and I went around the business as usual. Did see a couple of positive patients as well. Still taking full precautions as before. No new symptom noted and didn't really think about the sickness I had in the last week or so. It felt like just any other regular day at work. No tiredness, no mental exhaustion. Had the mask on all the time today and did not feel any excessive dryness in the throat, probably took 1 strepsils all day. Kept myself well hydrated throughout. I'm enjoying my time back at work much more than the two weeks I spent at home. Happy times are back.


Quote:
Originally Posted by anjan_c2007 View Post
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.
I'm absolutely flattered by the support I've received here from fellow members. It is extremely heart warming. I just posted here with a simple intention of sharing my own experience and trying to answer some doubts if I could. Glad that it has ended on a happy note.

Quote:
Originally Posted by akash_v12 View Post
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
Thanks a lot for your kind words. Two weeks seems to be the average time for recovery in mild to moderate disease with Covid19. Some symptoms can linger around for a few weeks such as occasional malaise, bodyaches, sorethroat, etc but they should not be too troublesome.

Hope everyone is taking good care of themselves. Stay safe folks!
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Old 20th May 2020, 17:30   #62
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

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Originally Posted by GameOfCars View Post
The dreaded house arrest was getting over today.]
Congratulations! And now you are one of the guinea pigs for the big question can we catch it more than once? Hoping that you are now immune to this disease
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Old 20th May 2020, 21:46   #63
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

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Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Congratulations! And now you are one of the guinea pigs for the big question can we catch it more than once? Hoping that you are now immune to this disease
Also, would like to know would there be any long term impacts on vital organs after recovery.
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Old 21st May 2020, 15:38   #64
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

Thank you so much GameOfCars for taking the time out to pen down your entire experience with the dreaded pandemic . I'm sure this thread will help several people (including me) overcome certain fears and anxiety they had regarding Covid-19. Glad to know you have recovered, stay safe !
Cheers and thanks again
BeemerBug_06
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Old 21st May 2020, 20:17   #65
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

UPDATE

DAY 18 - May 21st

Absolutely nothing new to report. Working back as normal now. Doing about 10000 steps everyday with no excess malaise or tiredness. I’m on nights on-call this weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday i.e. 12:30 hours duty, each night in emergency department and managing acutely unwell patients on the medical wards. Although my circadian rhythm is going to go for a toss, but i’m sure my body should be able to handle it as things are back to their baseline.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Congratulations! And now you are one of the guinea pigs for the big question can we catch it more than once? Hoping that you are now immune to this disease
Thanks a lot for your continued support. I guess time will only tell if I can catch it more than once. Hoping that doesn’t happen. I’m going to get the antibody test for Covid19 in the next 2 weeks time. Hope that will give my mind a little more reassurance. But again, worldwide, very few cases have been reported for re-infection.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JMaruru View Post
Also, would like to know would there be any long term impacts on vital organs after recovery.
People who have had severe disease requiring ICU/ITU admissions will most likely have an effect on their vital organs. Patient’s who had changes radiologically in their Chest X-rays and CT scans of chest are also likely to have these effects for long term. The ones having mild to moderate disease with full recovery and not requiring oxygen support or mechanical ventilation would most likely have no long term organ damage. However, these are still early days to comment for any long term implications.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BeemerBug_06 View Post
Thank you so much GameOfCars for taking the time out to pen down your entire experience with the dreaded pandemic . I'm sure this thread will help several people (including me) overcome certain fears and anxiety they had regarding Covid-19. Glad to know you have recovered, stay safe !
Cheers and thanks again
BeemerBug_06
Thanks a lot for your good wishes. Happy to help and answer questions best to my knowledge.

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Originally Posted by bimal_67 View Post
Have been following your journey to full recovery. Congratulations once again.
Thanks a lot.
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Old 26th May 2020, 07:29   #66
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

UPDATE

DAY 23 - May 26th

I was working on night’s on-call over the weekend. Basically working 9PM till 10AM for three nights in a row. The workload was busy as our hospital has started to get the inflow of regular medical admissions which had trimmed down considerably since the Covid19 outbreak had started. Even after working 40 hours over the last 3 days, my body seems to be coping quite well. There has been a few times when I felt, there is still a little tickle in my throat, which generally clears up on its own or with strepsils lozenges which I keep handy with me all the time. Monday morning when I was about to finish my duty, I started feeling a bit flushed for a few minutes, maybe due to the continuous exertion and the upset sleep cycle. Checked my body temperature, it was absolutely fine. Never in the three nights I felt any weakness or lethargy. Feel these few post viral symptoms will take a couple of weeks to completely go away. I’m still avoiding eating or drinking anything cold. Continuing to have hot drinks every 3 hours and doing salt and hot water gargles twice a day. Trying to eat healthy as much as possible.

Interestingly, I’ve seen a couple of young patients who had come to the hospital with shortness of breath after testing positive. However, it was more to do with anxiety, panic and stress of the news itself. They seem to be hypo ventilating. Assurances from the medical staff have been a key factor and most have been sent back home to self isolate as they don’t need any active medical interventions. Probably some will need a bit of psychological support as the situation can understandably be extremely stressful. Number of new casses have been steadily going down here and hope the trend continues.

Stay safe!
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Old 8th June 2020, 23:08   #67
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

Many thanks for penning this down and also for the regular updates on thread from your side. Kudos to people like you . Great to hear about your story and courage you have shown. You guys are real heroes in true sense and have deepest of my respect. I am sure we all people will share stories like this and from this pandemic for generations to come.

As other fellow members have mentioned, hearing something coming from a Bhpian is a different thing altogether. Given how biased our media is these days, it is difficult to trust anything and I am so glad we have such an option of team-bhp forum which comes handy and covers all these aspects of life.
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Old 12th June 2020, 16:00   #68
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

Congratulations on the recovery doc and thanks for sharing that experience. Hope someone took care of the beamer while you were laid up :-)
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Old 12th June 2020, 16:20   #69
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

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Originally Posted by GameOfCars View Post
DAY 18 - May 21st

Absolutely nothing new to report.
Good to hear. A Quick Question, do you went through a Test to check if you are Negative now? and are you testing everyone after 14 Days?
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Old 13th June 2020, 19:28   #70
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

Thanks everyone. I’ve been doing absolutely well, thanks to all your good wishes. I did drive around the Welsh countryside last Sunday and it was absolutely gorgeous. Lockdown restrictions are still on, but I had some official work at my old Hospital, so had the excuse to hit the roads.

My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!-07c2508c70c04198878789ed8aaa86a7.jpeg

My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!-5560b97965404f05996b2c0b0785c64a.jpeg

My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!-e00b41208ff3461ebbcc4a05b1f674da.jpeg

My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!-2e0b95a04de34dec9f864aa124edb295.jpeg

My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!-60ef20c2bcd443d0a38c6fdb00268337.jpeg

Number of new cases have steadily been going down in UK and so is the case in my hospital. We are still seeing 2-3 new admissions everyday with Covid19, however, it is much much better than what it was in End March till May 20th. Hospital has started to get super busy with patients who had been staying in for last couple of months and trying to avoid coming to hospital as much as they could. Our clinics have re-started and they are running supremely overbooked.

Track & Trace has now started in UK from June 01st. So from now onwards, anyone who catches Covid19, the contacts will be traced and asked to isolate for 2 weeks. Not sure why they’ve put it in place now when already extensive community spread has happened. The very famous “Herd Immunity”.

Also the Black,Asian and minority ethnicities (BAME) staff members have been risk assessed as it has turned out that they are the ones who are at higher risk to have a severe and fatal disease.

It mentions you are basically at a higher risk if you are in one of these minorities with age > 50years, underlying chronic disease such as Hypertension, Diabetes , Chronic Kidney disease, waist size > 36inches and those at high risk have been re-deployed into non-frontline work.

The trial which was happening at our hospital came out with no real conclusion as they did not see any benefits against no treatment/placebo. Remdesivir has come into trial in many hospitals at London. Will keep a close eye on how effective that is against other treatments.



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Originally Posted by Turbanator View Post
Good to hear. A Quick Question, do you went through a Test to check if you are Negative now? and are you testing everyone after 14 Days?
I was never re-tested if I was negative or not. I just had that 1 swab on 05th May which came back as positive. I’m trying to get myself enrolled for the antibody study, to check if I have developed antibodies against Covid19.

Hospital staff are not being swabbed regularly. Only when they become symptomatic, they are being swabbed. Positive patients who are poorly are being re-swabbed every 3-5 days, but I have a couple of patients in my ward who have been testing positive consecutively for last 8 weeks and are doing absolutely fine from Covid point of view. They were initially down with Covid symptoms, but have recovered from it in about 2 weeks but continue to test positive on the swabs. They are primarily in-patients for other medical reasons.
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Old 14th June 2020, 18:26   #71
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

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I was never re-tested if I was negative or not
Thanks for your answer. So, does that mean that after a while COVID patients won’t transmit to others?

Since you handle so many people, won’t it be risky without a confirmed negative? What’s the thought behind this decision?

Last edited by Turbanator : 14th June 2020 at 18:30.
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Old 24th June 2020, 18:17   #72
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

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Thanks for your answer. So, does that mean that after a while COVID patients won’t transmit to others?

Since you handle so many people, won’t it be risky without a confirmed negative? What’s the thought behind this decision?
To be honest, I have been of the same mindset from Day 1 when this pandemic was just beginning. However, we are being guided by Public Health England guidelines here which sometimes have been quite opposite to what other countries have been doing. As per their advice, if you come back as positive, you need to self isolate for 7 days only or until you become symptom free for more than 48 hours. As per them, there is no need for a repeat swab or swab until one becomes negative.

As I mentioned previously, we still have a few patients who have been testing positive for last 2 months now. Some of them are in open bays on the wards( not a separate room or cubicle) with other Non-covid patients. All of them have been regularly being swabbed and fortunately, they have not spread it to others in the bay. However, I still feel its a little premature to say that it cannot be transmitted after 7 or 14 days of one becoming positive. Everyone is just making their own estimates without any real evidence backing it.

If you’ve read my post, I was allowed by Occupational health to return back to work on Day 11 itself of my first symptom. However, I took 4-5 days more to give my body a little time to reboot and also didn’t want to be the one spreading the virus around to the already ill patients in the hospital. We are still having small outbreaks in some wards from time to time and my rational is that, its most likely being spread by the asymptomatic healthcare staff. Its difficult to track it down, but given that we are adhering to what the national guidelines are telling us, its not being much investigated into.

Now, with mass testing happening here for teachers, factory workers, essential non health workers, lots of people are coming back positive for Covid19. However, almost 98% of them are absolutely asymptomatic, which is very reassuring.

Antibody testing has also started here in the hospital. Its been prioritised to Emergency department staff at first. I should be tested sometime next week most likely. Many people I know who tested positive for Covid19 viral PCR swab, have shown they have not developed the antibodies. Some of them have tested positive for the antibodies. Its quite a hit and miss at the moment and we don’t really know what to make of this result and how long do these antibodies actually last and protects onself. Nevertheless, there have been no cases of re-infection being reported currently.
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Old 25th June 2020, 08:34   #73
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

Read the entire thread. Such a heartwarming story. Being in my Sixties, felt quite reassured as well. Thank you.
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Old 1st July 2020, 08:18   #74
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

Hi Gameofcars,
Thank you for sharing the experience. My father in law aged around 69, got infected and cured now. He has been discharged but the Oxygen saturation is around 90 from the time he is back home. Is it ok to have that saturation levels or we have to go the hospital again. We don’t want to have relapse, so thought of checking with you.

P.S- To all other BHPians I will be sharing my experience shortly. Waiting for the 14 days period for us, as we also got heavily exposed because the original PCMR test came Negative and the CT scan came positive after few days.

When we checked with our Doctor, he says we can put a home oxygen kit. He has no other symptoms or fever. Only tiredness and O2 saturation at around 90s.

Looking for your kind suggestions and Guidance.
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Old 1st July 2020, 20:10   #75
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Re: My experience with Covid-19: Got infected, and recovered!

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Originally Posted by Ananthang View Post
When we checked with our Doctor, he says we can put a home oxygen kit. He has no other symptoms or fever. Only tiredness and O2 saturation at around 90s.

Looking for your kind suggestions and Guidance.
Not the addressed person, but I think you should ask your doctors since they are obliged to tell you why to saturation is 90. It's St Louis, afterall.

On the face of it, looks like aftereffects:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ml#post4832102 (The Coronavirus Thread)
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