more unwell person ponderings

[baratron]

How long do you "need" to be ill for before you go to the doctor? That's the question I'm currently pondering.

I've been ill since last Thursday. Struggled on working on Friday & Saturday, and have been basically in bed or sitting on the sofa in a sleeping bag ever since. I don't seem to be getting any better. Have snot & a sore throat & a cough & a slightly raised temperature - I don't think it's anything other than a virus, but I'm just not getting better. If anything, today I am worse than I have been because the cough is so bad. I feel crappy & chilled & wheezy and - the thing that never happens - my peak flow is down. Not by much, but enough.

The thing about living in a country with free state-sponsored healthcare is that I can in theory just walk into a doctor's tomorrow for nothing. But because I live in a country with free state-sponsored healthcare, I'm aware that it's a limited resource. If I had to pay for each doctor's visit I'd be broke by now, but at least I'd feel entitled to have them look at me and go "Yup - it's a virus. Nope, we can't do anything." Whereas, as it is, I feel guilty if I go to see the GP with anything less than full-blown bacterial blergh. Free healthcare is great for regular maintenance of a chronic health condition & preventing it from getting any worse. It's not so great for feeling that you have the right to have your sore throat examined and declared to be just a virus.

Or maybe I'm just too public-spirited for my own good.

Comments

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

More than five days without significant improvement sounds like time for the GP, especially if your breathing is infected. Even if it's 'just' a virus, something to alleviate the cough might help you sleep and thus get better faster.
My GP usually says leave cold-type lurgies at least 3 days before considering the doc - you've more than done that.

[karen2205]

I struggle with this one too eg. I've been coughing up phelgm weekly for about three months. It's clear and I don't feel ill so I've decided that unless it goes green or I feel ill I'm not going to see my GP.

I'd say heavy colds/viruses/'flus don't need a GP unless you're already immuno-compromised, elderly, tiny or have some sort of chronic health condition, as there's nothing the GP will be able to do that you can't already do for yourself.

Given that your peak flow is down I'd say go and see either your GP or the nurse (assuming s/he knows stuff about asthma) unless you've got an asthma plan type thing that 'allows' you to change your own dosage of long acting relievers/add in steriods when your peak flow falls. If adding in other drugs doesn't help, then I'd say go to see someone. I'd also say that as tomorrow is Friday, if in any doubt you ought to see someone as seeing anyone over the weekend will be hassle [why can't we have Saturday morning surgeries any more?]

[That said, I'm not an asthma expert - I know bits and pieces from taking Guides to camp and being worried about girls not having their reliever inhalers with them [yes, their asthma might be mild, that doesn't help when you're in the middle of a field and they suddenly have an attack - this didn't happen, but was always my concern]]

I suppose one way of looking at it, is that it's a lot cheaper for you to have a ten minute GP appt and a prescription or two than it is for you to be hospitalised with an asthma attack so by visiting your GP you're saving the NHS money.

Hope you're feeling better soon.

[ailbhe]

I can - and have - call my GP on the phone and they call me back when they have time. Usually they say "you are doing everything right" but occasionally they come up with something new.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

my gp says that if it lasts more than a week, come in.

[pir.livejournal.com]

I periodicly get ill enough that I can't leave the house for a week at a time with sinus infections (which I've been to countless doctors about and tried countless other things to try and fix over the last 5 years, nothing has helped so I just live with them) so a week is my personal guideline.

I'll also go see a doctor if my temperature gets dangerously high (that level varies somewhat by person) or stays quite high for more than a couple of days.

[ludy]

i think that your peak flow being down is sufficantly unusal to warrant a trip to the gps (or at least a phone call).

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Coughing up phlegm (with no other symptoms) sounds to me like either asthma or allergies. My asthma mostly manifests as mucus in the lungs (so I feel like I'm "drowning in snot" - lovely!) rather than reduction in peak flow. Are you diagnosed with anything like that?

I wonder how regular the "weekly" pattern is? I, for example, start coughing up phlegm when the sheets have been on the bed two weeks and they're all full of dust mites. (It's how I know it's time to change the sheets, usually. Things like days of the week aren't always clear in my mind, whereas inability to breathe is.) Wonder if you have anything like that going on?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I haven't had much luck with that. In fact, I was horrified in booking an appointment with my GP a few months ago to find that my records were red-flagged that I'd failed to show up for an appointment that I'd booked - when I know I was told it was a telephone appointment and the GP would phone me! I specifically remember waiting in all morning and being annoyed by the lack of phone call, then not being able to get through to the surgery when I tried to phone them :/

I think the reduction in peak flow is enough that I should probably go in & have them listen to my lungs. They can't really do that over the phone.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Can you phone and ask?

[barakta]

I'd say you were justified in visiting your GP to get checked out. Even if what you have isn't bacterial, as an asthmatic you are at risk from secondary infections.

When they talk about timewasters they usually mean people who visit on the first day of a cold expecting a fix, or regular visitors who visit weekly with hypochondriac ailments. Now in my view education and sensible advice would alleviate both of those, but we British like to moan instead and not fix :)

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

On the other limb, if you wait and whatever you're ill with turns out to be the sort of thing which, by the time you go, requires a hospital visit/stay, then you're costing the system significantly more money than you would have if you'd gone earlier and at that point been given some kind of medication or something.

I tend to err on the side of a doctor visit UNLESS I know someone else who has had the same symptoms and had it clear up in X days, in which case I will normally give it those X days unless I feel really awful (like, in need of hydration or other medical intervention.)

I have spent the better part of the last several years either counting as immunocompromised or in a position where I just couldn't afford to be non-functional, though, so I'm probably more triggery happy regarding seeing a doctor than your average person would be. :)

[nitoda]

Please go and see your GP - you don't want a pneumonia to have to get over before travelling at the end of the month!

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

If the snot isn't clear and watery, I'd say 'go to the doctor'.

You've health issues!

/bossy