I'd hoped, by now, to be working on some new project, after the marathon that was the sump.... but, as it happens, I ended up spending Christmas & New Year in hospital again, as my pneumonia came back with a vengeance. Essentially, I ended up with a ball of infection between my lung & chest wall (in the "pleural sac" as it's called) approximately the size of my heart. To clear this, I had to have a chest drain fitted, and it had to go through my back - which meant spending 2 weeks sleeping in one position & I couldn't sit back against anything. In all, they drained 750ml of infected material, and I ended up with a hole in my lung where the infection had burrowed through. That took another week to heal. I now glow in the dark thanks to the number of X-rays I had taken, and I went through 2 CT scans which were entertaining in their own unique way. No MRI, though, so I don't have the complete set yet.
I tell you all of this not because I'm looking for sympathy - I'm now 100% cured and once I've rebuilt my strength a bit I'll be back at the machines - but because there's a lesson to be learned here.... I was feeling pretty crook for over 2 weeks before I went to see my doctor. So for 2 weeks the infection had free reign to grow. However, here's the thing, I didn't feel _that_ bad, just lethargic, a bit weak, and no appetite.
So the lesson is, if you're feeling a "bit" unwell, and it persists for more than a few days, even if you're not sure what it is or you don't think the symptoms warrant it, for goodness sakes get to your doctor! Had I got down there early enough - instead of waiting for a couple of weeks - I'd have probably been put on a course of antibiotics & would not have had to spend Christmas day in a hospital bed...
On the other hand, between November (1st pneumonia) and now, I've shed over 4 stone of weight. According to all the BMI calculators, I used to be "obese", now I am merely "overweight". So that's an unexpected bonus...
The final irony is, I've been given an immunisation jab against Streptococcus pneumoniae aka pneumococcus - but the bug that caused my problems was Streptococcus Intermedius, which of course I wasn't immune to. Typical...