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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 bugger, 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!
 
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