COVID-19
Hello
Despite my best efforts to stay well, an LFT finally returned a positive result last Friday evening. 5+ years after a SCT for AML.
NHS England promised a system whereby those people identified as at high risk from Covid would receive anti-viral medication, within 5 days of the start of the infection, to try to avoid the need for a hospital admission. I have to admit I was a bit sceptical that this process would work efficiently and effectively, without me having to chase it up. Well I take it all back!
My PCR result was returned Sunday morning, and I was duly contacted by a triage nurse Sunday afternoon, who recorded some personal information, including my current medication. She told me I would be contacted by a hospital pharmacist this morning (Monday), and I was. He confirmed that the medication would be delivered to my home today, ready for the first dose this evening. And it has been!
I am delighted that this process has worked well. So just a comment to people not to be an old cynic like me, and to have more confidence in ‘the system!’
Bye for now
Meerkat
Comments
Hello meerkat
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, this will provide reassurance to alot of people, myself Included.
How are your feeling with the covid symptoms and would you be happy to share your on going experience with the medication?
I would be interested to hear how you find it.
I am 3 years post SCT and in good health. So far I have not had a positive test and I also wondered how effective this system would be. So I feel some what hopeful.
Thanks again
Best wishes
Michelle
(Online Community champion)
Hi Meerkat, that's really encouraging.
I received a PCR test in the post some time ago but there was no explanation in the package as to why, so I put two and two together and linked it to a letter that I'd had previously about the PCR test and anti-viral treatments.
I've been doing LFT's systematically on a weekly basis which has been a requirement of the site office I've been working in since New Year. Despite many people I work with testing positive over the past few months I've so far managed to avoid it, though I've no idea how!
I'm interested to know whether you took the LFT as a result of symptoms or whether you have been testing regularly anyway. If you had symptoms, how were you feeling, and how are you feeling now a few days since the test. I'm sure like most of us you have had your vaccinations and they seem to be effective in the people I know who have been infected, keeping the effects mild, so it would be interesting to know whether the effects on you have also been mild.
I hope you are feeling OK and that the anti-virals are effective in clearing up the infection and I think it would be helpful and comforting to many here on the forum if you can keep us updated on the treatment.
Best wishes and get well soon!
Steve
Hi again. I’m pleased my post has provided some reassurance. Like most people reading this, I have been quite anxious about getting the infection, and whether it would impact significantly on my health. I have had the recommended 4 vaccines. I don’t know whether or not this has been the Omnicron variant.
My back story is……. Last Friday morning I felt well. I was out all day though and got very wet and cold in the rain. When I got home I couldn’t get warm! In the evening I became more shivery and developed cold symptoms over about 2 hours. I had a temperature…… and a positive LFT! I had a Home test PCR, so completed that on Saturday am, and a daughter duly posted it in a ‘priority postbox’. I didn’t feel particularly unwell, in fact I wondered if the LFT could be wrong. But it wasn’t. I coughed a bit on Saturday night, but nothing like all the info we’ve seen in the media. By Sunday my temperature was normal and I felt remarkably well. Could this really be it??
Two days later and I do feel back to ‘normal’. No cough to speak of, and just a bunged up nose. I have spring cleaned 4 kitchen cupboards and cut the grass today! The main frustration is being confined to home, when I feel so well. I may have been very very fortunate and I’m really sorry for all the people who have not been so lucky. I can’t help feeling though I’ve wasted a lot of worry and anxiety over the past 2 years or so, for what has, for me, been an apparently very minor viral infection.
I have had 2 of the 10 doses of the anti viral medication. - 3 tablets twice a day. I was warned by the pharmacist that some people get an altered taste and I have certainly got an unwanted metallic taste in my mouth. That’s ok for 5 days though. But no other unwanted side effects. (I was also given the contact details for my local hospital’s drug info service that I could contact with concerns. This too was very reassuring).
Oh and this morning I received another PCR home testing kit in the post. All ready for the next time!
I can’t tell you not to worry about COVID, but I can tell you that this infection has been a very insignificant event in my life. And finally……. huge thanks to the amazing scientists who have got us to where we are today.
PS. Just seen your question Steve. I haven’t been routinely doing LFT’s, though one arm of the family had COVID a few weeks ago, so was doing them more often then. I’ve also done them if vulnerable people have asked me to. But on Friday I tested because I had symptoms.
Best wishes
Meerkat
Hi Meercat, thanks for your updates. It's good to hear that you've got off lightly by the sound of it and your experience of the efficiency of the anti-viral process will hopefully come as reassuring to many reading this.
From your post and from from speaking to people I know who've had Covid post vaccine, it does sound like the symptoms many people are experiencing are very light now, and it does sound like the vaccination programme has thankfully been a success. It will be interesting to see whether further boosters are required and whether Covid will rear it's ugly head again in the future. Hopefully not.
It's sad to think how many people have been lost to Covid, but it fuistrates me that the figures are probably skewed because it accounts for people who have died within 28 days of catching it. I wonder how many of those have died as a result of other causes and that even if you get run over by a bus within 28 days of covid it goes down as a covid death. Nevertheless I know many people have died from covid or are suffering with lasting effects so I for one am encouraged that it seems to be coming under control at last. The past two years have been miserable for so many.
All the best,
Steve
This is all very reassuring, and I am pleased that the system seems to work well. I have had all 4 vaccinations and am 2 years post allo SCT. I am well and haven't been on immunosuppressive meds for over a year, but have raised no antibody response to any of the vaccinations. Consequently I am still leading a pretty isolated life. I am pinning my hopes on Evusheld, the pre-exposure prophylaxis that has now been approved by the UK regulator. Worryingly the government seems to have no plans to buy doses and roll them out. I have written to my MP and I know Blood Cancer UK has been lobbying too.