another day in isolation
Yesterday morning i made a burst of comments before my phone died. By around 11am i was cut off from the world.
The terrific news i received from the doctor first thing in the morning - over the intercom, because he didn't even deign to come into my room and visit - was that waiting for the monkeypox PCR test results was going to be several days. I checked online and it appears this is a problem all over the world. Because it takes so long to get the results back, either you're wasting negative pressure isolation beds on people who probably aren't sick, or you're letting possibly sick people back out into society to spread the disease further. It must be very frustrating for the doctors, and i'm not sure if i should be happy i'm in a country with decent enough healthcare that i'm getting the cautious treatment (and all for free, mind you).
Still, the problem persists that i am in isolation in a hospital, and all my stuff is in isolation in a quarantine hotel just a few blocks over from here. And the hotel won't let anyone in to get my stuff, and it's even debatable if they will pack it on my behalf when it's passed the 8 day COVID quarantine it (and i) was supposed to be in. I don't think this is official quarantine hotel policy, it's just them being difficult, and probably more difficult now they know i'm being held for monkeypox testing. Gah!
This is all very frustrating because i don't have any symptoms of either COVID or monkeypox, aside from a rash that could be caused by a dozen far more likely things.
And, fortunately, that's exactly what a sympathetic x-ray tech thought when she was called in with a hazmat suit and portable machine to do a chest x-ray. She said she'd have a talk to people upstairs and see if they could wangle a dermatologist visit. And she was successful!
The dermatologist came through and looked at my rash - and also observed how much it had improved from the antihistamine and steroid cream the mystery intercom doctor prescribed - and said it almost certainly wasn't monkeypox. I suggested scabies due to the itch, but she said she wasn't sure because it wasn't going to any of the usual scabies places aside from thighs/groin/stomach fold. She said she'd prescribe me an even more hardcore steroid to try.
Meanwhile, in the afternoon i received a care package from my future employer. The package contained a full set of girly toiletries (which i might save till after my skin has recovered from whatever this is), several changes of underwear that i hope fit my ogre-like European body, and a phone charger. Hooray!
So i got back online, and with a charger to keep the phone alive, i also was able to watch some TV to make me happy. During the period where i was dangling in limbo - waiting for my work permit and visa to be approved - my friend R introduced me to Great British Bake Off. I am not a sweet tooth, and i spent the first few episodes feeling literally sick to the stomach not just at the disgusting overload of sugar and dairy in every creation, but also all the food wastage. It's gross! But then, i don't know, some kind of Stockholm syndrome kicked in, and i realized it's an incredibly relaxing show. Nothing really bad ever happens. Everyone is nice to each other. It's filmed in bucolic surroundings. The jokes are dumb but comforting. The food is absurd and to my eyes largely inedible (unlike Top Chef where i spend every episode getting hungrier). It's a great show to watch when you are stressed.
I ran out of British Bake Offs during the work permit and visa wait, but because i am watching on CBC Gem (Canada's free government streaming service), there is Canadian Bake Offs too. Let's go!
So i write this now on Tuesday morning, after two nights in the hospital. My stuff is still all in my hotel, and i'm still not sure what's going to happen to it tomorrow (my original checkout date). I am hoping the PCR test results will come back negative today, or worst case tomorrow. I get the sense some of the medical staff here are keen to check me out too, not because they're burdened by me - i think i'm a fairly low maintenance patient - but just to free up this bed for someone who might really need it.
The good thing is the new steroids i got yesterday have almost entirely cleared up the rash. Although i still have a bit of itching, it wasn't nearly bad enough to keep me awake all night, so last night was my first really good night's sleep in a week or two. There's definitely still something wrong with my skin, and it infuriatingly doesn't seem to be a result of an obvious infection or allergen, but if somehow this outbreak can be controlled and i won't get it again for a while, i won't be mad.
I still need to find an apartment and do all the other settling in stuff. Assuming i'm not monkeypox positive, i am starting work next Monday. And two weeks after that i am scheduled to fly to Geneva with the team for a business trip. My life is all laid out ready for me to live, and i'd kinda like to go back and live it, you know?
But, for now, there is Bake Off.
The terrific news i received from the doctor first thing in the morning - over the intercom, because he didn't even deign to come into my room and visit - was that waiting for the monkeypox PCR test results was going to be several days. I checked online and it appears this is a problem all over the world. Because it takes so long to get the results back, either you're wasting negative pressure isolation beds on people who probably aren't sick, or you're letting possibly sick people back out into society to spread the disease further. It must be very frustrating for the doctors, and i'm not sure if i should be happy i'm in a country with decent enough healthcare that i'm getting the cautious treatment (and all for free, mind you).
Still, the problem persists that i am in isolation in a hospital, and all my stuff is in isolation in a quarantine hotel just a few blocks over from here. And the hotel won't let anyone in to get my stuff, and it's even debatable if they will pack it on my behalf when it's passed the 8 day COVID quarantine it (and i) was supposed to be in. I don't think this is official quarantine hotel policy, it's just them being difficult, and probably more difficult now they know i'm being held for monkeypox testing. Gah!
This is all very frustrating because i don't have any symptoms of either COVID or monkeypox, aside from a rash that could be caused by a dozen far more likely things.
And, fortunately, that's exactly what a sympathetic x-ray tech thought when she was called in with a hazmat suit and portable machine to do a chest x-ray. She said she'd have a talk to people upstairs and see if they could wangle a dermatologist visit. And she was successful!
The dermatologist came through and looked at my rash - and also observed how much it had improved from the antihistamine and steroid cream the mystery intercom doctor prescribed - and said it almost certainly wasn't monkeypox. I suggested scabies due to the itch, but she said she wasn't sure because it wasn't going to any of the usual scabies places aside from thighs/groin/stomach fold. She said she'd prescribe me an even more hardcore steroid to try.
Meanwhile, in the afternoon i received a care package from my future employer. The package contained a full set of girly toiletries (which i might save till after my skin has recovered from whatever this is), several changes of underwear that i hope fit my ogre-like European body, and a phone charger. Hooray!
So i got back online, and with a charger to keep the phone alive, i also was able to watch some TV to make me happy. During the period where i was dangling in limbo - waiting for my work permit and visa to be approved - my friend R introduced me to Great British Bake Off. I am not a sweet tooth, and i spent the first few episodes feeling literally sick to the stomach not just at the disgusting overload of sugar and dairy in every creation, but also all the food wastage. It's gross! But then, i don't know, some kind of Stockholm syndrome kicked in, and i realized it's an incredibly relaxing show. Nothing really bad ever happens. Everyone is nice to each other. It's filmed in bucolic surroundings. The jokes are dumb but comforting. The food is absurd and to my eyes largely inedible (unlike Top Chef where i spend every episode getting hungrier). It's a great show to watch when you are stressed.
I ran out of British Bake Offs during the work permit and visa wait, but because i am watching on CBC Gem (Canada's free government streaming service), there is Canadian Bake Offs too. Let's go!
So i write this now on Tuesday morning, after two nights in the hospital. My stuff is still all in my hotel, and i'm still not sure what's going to happen to it tomorrow (my original checkout date). I am hoping the PCR test results will come back negative today, or worst case tomorrow. I get the sense some of the medical staff here are keen to check me out too, not because they're burdened by me - i think i'm a fairly low maintenance patient - but just to free up this bed for someone who might really need it.
The good thing is the new steroids i got yesterday have almost entirely cleared up the rash. Although i still have a bit of itching, it wasn't nearly bad enough to keep me awake all night, so last night was my first really good night's sleep in a week or two. There's definitely still something wrong with my skin, and it infuriatingly doesn't seem to be a result of an obvious infection or allergen, but if somehow this outbreak can be controlled and i won't get it again for a while, i won't be mad.
I still need to find an apartment and do all the other settling in stuff. Assuming i'm not monkeypox positive, i am starting work next Monday. And two weeks after that i am scheduled to fly to Geneva with the team for a business trip. My life is all laid out ready for me to live, and i'd kinda like to go back and live it, you know?
But, for now, there is Bake Off.