Tag Archives: whooping cough

1884 Penny Britannia

Cough, cough, cough . . .

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This is Monday’s post, which I didn’t complete until Tuesday. There should be two Tuesday posts. Or at least, that was the plan. I have just spent the evening wheezing and feeling sorry for myself, so I am now posting the Monday post on Wednesday morning. I may well continue to write the real Tuesday post on Wednesday too. Catching up can be very complicated.

I have a cough. It became a little worse on Saturday night, stabilised for Sunday, then worsened again today. It’s an intermittent dry cough. So far I’ve hovered on the point of having a sore throat but avoided it. I have, however, had a few periods when my head or my neck have felt quite sore, and today I pulled a muscle in the abdomen with the effort of coughing. This was annoying as I was trying to keep everything as gentle as possible, to avoid this.

I’m beginning to think that this might be the “Victorian” disease also known as the “100 day cough”. Though it is delighting the doomsayers that write tabloid headlines it’s just Whooping Cough, as it used to be known in my childhood. As I’m not under six months, or pregnant (despite appearances) I’m unlikely to be in danger, even if I am infected.

But it is most likely that I simply have a cough. I’m prone to coughs in winter. I’m also prone, as we all are if we aren’t careful, to fall victim to cyberchondria or other faulty self-diagnosis. The one I find most interesting is Medical Students’ Disease or Second Year Syndrome. This is where medical students, despite being warned abut the condition, start to believe they have the disease they are studying in class.

I have a tendency not to go to the doctor for a cough if I can help it. They tend to find other faults, or investigate me for things i don’t have. I’m not fond of either. As a result, it’s been about five years since I’ve been to the doctor for a cough. It eventually clears on its own, and life is a lot simpler without a doctor fussing round. They mean well but they are paid for finding stuff wrong with me, and they try their hardest to do their job.

Victoria Bun Penny

The other side of the coin.

A Good Day

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The X-Ray went well. I caught the tram with time to spare and took the correct one (having written it on the back of my hand). It wasn’t too crowded (lunchtime/early afternoon looks like the time to travel) and I arrived with two minutes to spare. Nine minutes later I was walking out. All done. It would have been less if I’d remembered to take my wallet out of my right leg cargo pocket when we started.

It’s important, I think, to mention when the NHS does well. The receptionist I spoke with this morning to make a blood test appointment was very cheerful and efficient too. I was “Number One” in the telephone queue and I can’t recall the last time that happened.

Very little else happened. We had veg stew with dumplings tonight. Tomorrow it is sausage sandwiches with soup –  that will be bean and vegetable soup, which is, by coincidence, the ingredients I have left after the two stews.

Daffodils at Mencap garden

I now have a notebook full of ideas too, as it’s the first time I’ve done anything part from work and blood tests for many months.

There were very few masks in evidence. Just three on the tram and a couple in hospital. I can see problems resulting from this.

It seems we have a re-emergence of Whooping Cough as a disease of note. Lockdown and masks just about put a stop to it, so we have brought up a group of kids with no natural immunity. Add this to low vaccination rates and we are looking at a potentially serious situation. Of course, scientists always say this, as do newspapers, who are calling it “the 100 day cough” and “the Victorian disease”.  What they don’t tell you is that what they are reporting as “an explosion” of cases is merely a return to the levels we had before lockdown.

Then we have measles.  It has killed millions. It can leave you with permanent problems.  We have virtually eradicated it, but vaccination rates are a little lower than ideal. On the other hand, I had it as a kid, as did my sister, and we are fine. It’s all a question of balance and it’s easy to get hysterical about these things. I’m sure that there’s a module in Journalism courses “Hysteria and How to Provoke it”. That’s the only explanation for some of the headlines they come up with.

Forsythia

Pictures are random spring flowers from previous years – roll on spring.