GCA :: Colds / Cough And Sore Chest

I have been doing a gradual return to work following diagnosis of GCA just before Christmas.

Last Thursday, a couple of people in the office, including and especially my boss, came into work with colds/coughs. By the middle of the night, I knew that I was getting a sore chest. I got worse (I was at home in bed) and was admitted to hospital Sunday as my heart rate was far too high due to lack of oxygen. An xray showed a nasty infection in both lungs. The long and short of it was 3 days in hospital.

I already had an appointment with my rheumatologist today, so my husband dragged me to see him. The rheumy had been away and hadn't been aware that my GP had allowed me to go back to work, albeit on a gradual return. He was very unhappy about that, as he said he had told her that I should not return until I was on a stable dose of Pred. I am currently on 25mg, having tried to manage the tapering myself due to useless GP. I had a good discussion with rheumy about tapering by 2.5mg only over a period of time.

He has now signed me off for a minimum of a month. Of course, the lung infection needs time to clear up as well.

My husband then did what I should have done myself at the beginning of my GCA journey and called the doctors surgery and told them that I need to be under an experienced senior GP from now on as the GP I have been under has been incompetent and this is the last in a series of errors she has made which could have had serious repercussions on my health.

Tomorrow I will call the surgery to see one of the senior partners who is well regarded. I can then hopefully begin to feel I am in safe hands.

I'm feeling really rough, the infection and the double dose of antibiotics are taking their toll, but at least I feel optimistic that with the change in GP, I will be in better hands.