COVID-19 Self isolation - again!

Lorcan

Lorcan

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Stuck like this til Friday, most likely. I knew I had a bit of a temp (though I don't own a thermometer, so I don't know how high it was - just better safe than sorry) and I thought it was maybe just my ears playing up. They get minor infections a lot, nothing serious (the odd bit of vertigo but it passes quickly), but it's now 2.45am on Monday morning and I know it's not my ears. It's even worse.

IT'S MY KIDNEYS.

I'm still waiting on an injection I was meant to get 3 weeks (or is it 4? Because at this stage I've lost count) and I had to cancel the appointment on Thursday just to be sure. There's no point in calling OOH now because it's not like I can get any medication from them anyway but damn if this doesn't hurt, lol. Why'd it have to be my kidneys? Whyyyyyy. Self isolation is much less fun when there's pain involved.
 
Aw sending hugs @Lorcan I've also just had to cancel some blood tests I was due to have on Friday because I've got a sore throat and earache and upset stomach, I think its probably just a random virus not THE VIRUS but these days you can't be too careful!
Kidneys can be a bit of a , make sure you take care and if things get worse go to A&E in a mask and get sorted straight away!
Its silly but I often suffer with things myself that if it was a piggy I would have had them straight to the vet... GPs just aren't taking any chances right now, its impossible to get anything out of them except a promise of a phone call in a few days time that you have to chase up when they don't call you back x
 
I did end up phoning out of hours just to see if they could speak to my GP because my sleep is all over the place and the chances of me being awake early enough to call them were slim to none.
So many mentions of "could you even get to Bury" "you'd need to see a doctor to get the urine tested" and so on and so forth before I had to ask her what part of "I have to self isolate" she wasn't getting. Apparently all of it because she was still insistent that whether it was out of hours or my own GP I'd have to get the urine sample to them somehow. Sorry, but I don't drive and I'm not getting in someone else's car, even if its a taxi, right now. Sod off with that.

The pain has eased off again, though, which makes me wonder if there was a kidney stone involved. I seem to remember stones being much more painful? But then I spent half of yesterday in an on-off delirious fever which has, incidentally, disappeared too. Now I'm just knackered lol. All I can think is that maybe I should've gone to that urology appointment that I was on my way to when I broke my ribs instead of just going on home and avoiding it instead lol.

Ah, life.
 
Thank you all :) I'm feeling much better today. No real pain anymore, but still no appetite, everything still tastes weird, and I'm currently on a "be awake for 6 hours, sleep for 2" cycle. I have a Tesco delivery this evening and I'm hoping nobody closes the second door to the building (we have a building front door and an internal door - I can open the first one from here but not the second) because even though I'm not hungry, I need to eat, and cold food is better than hot at the minute. Or to be more accurate - something I can just pick up and eat, because screw cooking.
 
Hope you feel better soon. Be persistent with your doctors though if you end up feeling rotten again. A telephone consultation with your own GP is better than out of hours as they know you. We had one last week and it was very efficient (more than normal actually)- she called us the day after it was requested.

Hopefully you are on the mend 👍
 
Darcey15 said:
Hope you feel better soon. Be persistent with your doctors though if you end up feeling rotten again. A telephone consultation with your own GP is better than out of hours as they know you. We had one last week and it was very efficient (more than normal actually)- she called us the day after it was requested.

Hopefully you are on the mend 👍
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I've been waiting for a week for them to phone me back about something unrelated (although equally as urgent) and I really don't know if I can handle having to be...pleasant, with them again any time soon. I'm supposed to have an injection every four weeks that was due, uh, 4 weeks ago and they STILL can't manage to let me know what the deal is with it. Sorely tempted to just get the needles and a sharps box from the pharmacy and do it myself, sod them.
 
Lorcan said:
I've been waiting for a week for them to phone me back about something unrelated (although equally as urgent) and I really don't know if I can handle having to be...pleasant, with them again any time soon. I'm supposed to have an injection every four weeks that was due, uh, 4 weeks ago and they STILL can't manage to let me know what the deal is with it. Sorely tempted to just get the needles and a sharps box from the pharmacy and do it myself, sod them.
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That's no good. I'd keep pressing until you get hold of someone helpful, especially if you are 4 weeks late for an injection. Just take a deep breath before you do 😊.
 
So, I've got an update. Of sorts. Apologies, because this one's a long 'un:

I'm transgender. That injection I keep being unable to get is a hormone injection. Without it my uterus is going "back to work" and unfortunately it's causing a good bit of havoc in the process - kidneys, bowels, my psoriasis has basically exploded again, migraines and hot flushes. Those can last for a few minutes to a few hours, I don't know if and when they'll start, and they're always accompanied by a temperature spike. Always. This has been the case since I was a teenager.
This is a problem because uh oh, temperature spike.

I can't get tested for Covid. I've asked. Hell I've begged. Nope, it's too late for it, even for walking myself a couple miles into town and out again to get tested at the walk through centre. The NHS won't test because funnily enough it's been several weeks. But I'm not allowed into my GP surgery again until I get tested and yes, I told them I can't. Hell I rang up at 7am on the dot when they opened yesterday (Friday) just to be sure, but I'm almost certain somebody's saying I'm not bothering to make the calls. THEN they told me that really, people were dying and since it wasn't going to physically kill me to not have my injection, well then I could just wait til next Thursday to discuss it with a GP then.

It was due on the 19th June, it was due yesterday, it'll be due again 14th August with no sign it's actually going to happen. They haven't been in touch with the endocrinologist (which is always fun - half a decade of "no we can't prescribe this it has to be done under the care of an appropriate endocrinologist" but they're happy to screw with the prescription at the first available opportunity), there's been no attempt to even attempt to cover the prescription some other way and now I'm dealing with the fallout. Leaving the mental health side of things out, the psoriasis, migraines and inability to regulate my own body temperature are making me physically ill. I can't eat, I'm drinking all my calories at the minute because nothing else works lol. Once everything is back to some semblance of normal I'm going to be switching GPs because this is insane.

I've almost certainly got a bladder infection again but I can't do anything because I can't see the GP. I can't do anything about being tested for the anaemia _again_ because if my B12 levels have nosedived it's not like I'm going to be able to get the injections is it? I have to wait til Wednesday before I can even get speaking to the endocrinologist and I'm going to be asking if there's a way around this that takes my GP out of the loop entirely. I'm not a child, I won't be patronised with being told it'll not kill me and that I should keep quiet because people are dying by the reception staff.

They could have made an effort to let me have this injection that didn't involve me having to go into the surgery for it. When I started on the hormones I deliberately chose this option because the other injection options must be done by a health professional - this one does not. But banning me from my meds isn't discrimination, at all. Just good business, y'know?
 
I had somehow missed your thread @Lorcan but have just seen your update. I hope that when you get to speak to the endocrinologist you can see whether there is any way that you can be taught how to self administer or have your injection in OPD or some outreach clinic if your GP isn’t playing ball. And I think I agree with you that it’s time to change GP if you can. Hope things start to improve for you soon.
 
Thank you @VickiA. Pretty much everyone who is involved in this one way or the other agrees this is my GPs fault and not mine - except for the GP themselves of course.

Push comes to shove I might see if the depot clinic at the psych hub will do it. It's obviously not what they'd normally do but I have enough experience with both to know the preparation is the same.
 
I would say enough is enough. You need someone on your side to fight this. I would contact your local MP. People start to listen and act when someone with more power than them wades in. It's absolutely ridiculous. I'm sure there are lots of people in your area where not accessing their medication won't physically kill them but it's definitely detrimental to their quality of life.
 
Sorry to hear the difficulties you are having @Lorcan I think your GP sounds crap, positively negligent, or at least their receptionist does... it may not be a life-or-death injection but it is certainly detrimental to both your physical and especially your mental health not to have it, they should realise how important it is emotionally for transgender people to just be enabled to be themselves... you should definitely try register elsewhere or like @Lady Kelly says contact your MP or some sort of transgender lobby group or charity who might mediate or raise awareness of your struggles on your behalf... sending many hugs!
 
Well it turns out the hospital doesn't view me as a Covid risk - came up to speak to on call psychiatry, the hospital won't do a swab if I'm in the "clean" area where they placed me because, surprise surprise, they know what they're doing and they see Covid cases much more frequently than my GP would.
Apparently everyone's going to be having words with my doctor on Monday and I'm going to go through the list of GPs I can change to sometime in the week. Can't say I'm sorry to be leaving that mess.
 
Lorcan said:
Well it turns out the hospital doesn't view me as a Covid risk - came up to speak to on call psychiatry, the hospital won't do a swab if I'm in the "clean" area where they placed me because, surprise surprise, they know what they're doing and they see Covid cases much more frequently than my GP would.
Apparently everyone's going to be having words with my doctor on Monday and I'm going to go through the list of GPs I can change to sometime in the week. Can't say I'm sorry to be leaving that mess.
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Fingers very firmly crossed that you have enough troops mobilised in your support and finally get back on track! Sadly your story is not at all uncommon; too many people are currently being left hanging out in the cold between services. :(
 
Wiebke said:
Fingers very firmly crossed that you have enough troops mobilised in your support and finally get back on track! Sadly your story is not at all uncommon; too many people are currently being left hanging out in the cold between services. :(
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Somebody tried telling me this morning, "Well, people are having appointments cancelled all the time...!" because that was an appropriate analogy for what's going on, apparently. I can understand appointments being cancelled, I really can, but that has nothing to do with this. And the hospital aren't happy. I don't mean specifically about my situation but there's a lot of talk about how hospitals are having to deal with the fallout of GPs with this sort of attitude - that it'll all magically sort itself out without any actual work being put into it. It's like hospitals are shouldering an extra burden because there are GPs out there who can't think for themselves where treatment is concerned. You know the hospitals will do it, but something somewhere's gonna give and I doubt it'll be pretty.
 
So, another update. Sigh. This one was meant to be so much better than it actually is.

I spoke to the GP on Thursday. He agreed, verbally (obviously) to let me have the needles in order to do this myself. I refuse to go anywhere near that damned building because apart from anything else, the injection would be given upstairs. I really can't cope with lifts, and I do not want to go up and down stairs with no glasses on, and I can't wear glasses with a mask. I still have 2 flats worth of furniture in here so I'm not comfortable with letting district nursing in to do it either, there's no room. So he agreed.

Turns out he lied. He did a prescription for the medication vial itself (which I don't need, because I still have the one that was due in June) but apparently decided after he hung up that actually, we were going to need to discuss letting me have the needles. Not that he bothered to tell me because I only found out this evening. The next appointment they'll give me to speak to a doctor is on the 10th August.

I think I might punch something.
 
Lorcan said:
So, another update. Sigh. This one was meant to be so much better than it actually is.

I spoke to the GP on Thursday. He agreed, verbally (obviously) to let me have the needles in order to do this myself. I refuse to go anywhere near that damned building because apart from anything else, the injection would be given upstairs. I really can't cope with lifts, and I do not want to go up and down stairs with no glasses on, and I can't wear glasses with a mask. I still have 2 flats worth of furniture in here so I'm not comfortable with letting district nursing in to do it either, there's no room. So he agreed.

Turns out he lied. He did a prescription for the medication vial itself (which I don't need, because I still have the one that was due in June) but apparently decided after he hung up that actually, we were going to need to discuss letting me have the needles. Not that he bothered to tell me because I only found out this evening. The next appointment they'll give me to speak to a doctor is on the 10th August.

I think I might punch something.
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BIG HUGS
 
Wiebke said:
BIG HUGS
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Thank you, lord knows I could do with a hug right now. I've fired a note off to the CQC to point out they're lying to their patients AND letting non-medical staff make medical decisions, and I've just sent a letter/email thing off to Tony Lloyd (my MP). Nothing else I can do for the moment. I hate that.
 
So sorry you’re being given the run around by your g. It makes you wonder which other patients have been lied to and distracted! fingers crossed others in your court will be able to rally round and help you get through this time. Mental health is very important and yours is being messed with at present. Not fair and not right. Hugs.
 
Thank you all, seriously. There's not quite enough words to express my gratitude, plus I'm a northerner and you know what we're like about saying nice things about people. I didn't punch anything though. I'm supposed to see my psychiatrist tomorrow and my social worker refuses to let me skip it, and turning up with a busted hand isn't really a great look. Plus I'm pretty sure I've done it before, and I like to switch up the stupid mistakes every so often lol.

As daft as this will sound, it makes me glad I'm not back in Northern Ireland. I can guarantee this is nothing compared to what hoops they'd insist I jump through over there. As it is, I just have to hope I have enough tobacco for the night. Too stressed for anything else haha. God that's sad.
 
just a disgrace that you are being treated like this.Not having your vitamin B12 injection is life threatening.you cannot just stop hormones as it effects the blood,kidneys.if you have the strength Lorcan please get the local MP involved.ask to speak to the head of the practise.you can ring 111,usually will divert you to another clinic.🤗
 
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