I got hit by the viral bus

I generally consider myself a reasonably fit and healthy person although a bit overweight. I have never been in hospital in my life and don’t take any regular medication and rarely take a sick day or visit a doctor. I have also never had any heart trouble or family history of heart trouble. So it came as an utter shock and surprise when I ended up in hospital for 10 days with viral induced Myopericarditis.

To take a step back, I went sailing  as I usually do on a Sunday. When you include getting the boat from home onto the trailer, off load at the club, rig the boat, then out on the water sailing for an hour and a half, then un-rig back on the trailer back home and into the shead, it is quite a physical afternoon. That Sunday was no different and Monday brought the usual aches and pains. However, I was feeling fine on Tuesday.

Wednesday is another sailing day with a twilight sail from 6pm. However I was feeling a bit unwell with different aches and pains, more like the flu although I had no other symptoms. As I had decided not to go sailing that afternoon, I decided to go to a family dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. As a precaution I had a RAT test with a negative result.

I wasn’t feeling hungry but did eat some food. I ended up developing breathing difficulty which resulted in an asthma attack. This is not the first time I have had an Asthma attack as a result of eating in asian restaurants cooking with fried oil. As a result I left the restaurant, sat in the car and had the ventolin inhaler. Louise took me home after that as I started going downhill very quickly, I assumed it was the asthma.

The following day, Thursday, I was still feeling very unwell and couldn’t even get out of bed. The asthma had subsided but I was still having troubles breathing and I was starting to have chest pain, although mild. I had to send an email and it was all I could manage for the whole day.

On Friday I awoke with much the same symptoms but increasing chest pain. Again, as a precaution I had a RAT test with a negative result. Loise took me to the walk in clinic, which is staffed by nurses. Once you describe symptoms that include chest pain, you are fast tracked through to a nurse immediately. The nurse took the usual diagnostics which revealed a high temperature and decided to call an ambulance to the emergency department at Calvary Hospital as a precaution. The ambulance team were onsite quickly and concurred with the nurses assessment and I was at the ED within half an hour.

Ric with Jugular dreads - Cannula    

The ED doctors established I had a fever with a temperature of 39 plus. I also started losing consciousness which worried the doctors considerably. Within half an hour I had a number of cannula and other IV tubes inserted in my arms. The cannula into my jugular in my neck had 5 lines feeding fluids and electrolytes. Doctors also requested an echo heart ultrasound and confirmed I had fluid on the heart causing the chest pain.

Myopericarditis is described as an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle, whilst pericarditis is an inflammatory disease of the lining of the heart muscle. My diagnosis was described to me by the doctor in the following way; The heart sits in a protective sack with a minimal amount of fluid around it. In my case a virus is suspected to have infected the fluid in the sac and increased in volume which constricts the heart.

As mentioned the heart event was triggered by an unknown virus and virus in this day and age means quarantine and isolation. After my diagnosis I was moved into an isolation ward with a double airlocked door. All nurses, doctors and Louise had to don full PPE before entering. I did find this a bit disconcerting, however I was too busy with sleeping and the fever to think too much about it at the time.

The fever lasted about 5 days and I had a lot of fluid going in through the cannula and blood going out for samples. I had daily covid tests all with negative results. I also had doctors from the infectious diseases unit come and question me. As well, blood samples were taken for tuberculosis tests, a bit extreme but I assume they were crossing their T’s and dotting I’s. After the fever wore off I was declared not infectious.

I had further echo heart ultrasounds with results showing further fluid build up. I was kept in the iso ward for a further 3 days while efforts were made to reduce the fluid around the heart. On the Friday night I was transferred into a general ward with 4 people per room, a bit of a shock after the single person iso ward. Hard to sleep with a chainsaw snoorer, Another talking in their sleep and a heavy breather, not to mention the people screaming and yelling down the hall.

I spent the weekend in the general ward and had a further echo heart ultrasound on Monday morning with results showing reduced fluid which was great news as the alternative was draining the fluid in a rather invasive procedure. I was cleared to be released on Monday afternoon.

At the time of writing, I am still at home reciprocating for the rest of the week. However I am thankful and impressed by the medical system from the Walk in clinic staff, ambulance service and the doctors and nurses at Calvary Hospital. Hopefully this issue is now resolved. I am still due for further consultations with the doctors in coming weeks for follow up treatment.