Today is Monday October 10th, 2022. Kia ora!
This morning I went to my exercise class in Ngaio. JD dropped me off, thankfully. There weren’t too many people there today. It was lovely, and I enjoyed it, but found it quite tiring. I coughed a lot yesterday, but convinced myself that I would be better today. And so I was. It was much warmer, too – I wore a cotton shirt under a light jersey, and cotton socks instead of woollen ones. Many women were just wearing lovely blouses. One kind woman helped me – there is a male instructor who can be rather hard to understand, especially with the stretchy bands.
Afterwards my friend and I caught the train from Ngaio, and I had lunch at her house – delicious soup, toast, coffee and cake. Afterwards JD came to pick me up – I was rather more tired than I was prepared to admit.
After getting home I needed to medicate myself again. I would like to see my doctor, but the Manage My Health application has changed. I go to book an appointment, but there is a list of questions to answer. Do I have shortness of breath? I do, but I continue. Which doctor would I like to see? Only two figures are shown, and I don’t know either of them, so I try to get out of the application. Eventually I find that I’ve been signed out. I guess I’ll have to book a phone or video consultation, but I really want a doctor to listen to my chest, and ask me if I need Prednisone, or an antibiotic, perhaps. They have an advertisement for a Covid 19 medication on television – ask your doctor if ? is right for you! Fat chance, being able to even speak to a doctor! Honestly, I am so mad about this. It’s very frustrating to feel not great, to hope it doesn’t worsen, and not to be able to see someone that knows me!
Covid 19 is still with us; there are more subvariants of omicron circulating, and we’re warned that another wave is coming. Yeah, right, we are all so over it. I learnt yesterday that another close contact has diagnosed positive with Covid 19; a couple I know went overseas for a family occasion, and a family member has covid; another friend’s daughter is overseas, and diagnosed positive in London. Nobody cares anymore, but it’s still potentially a serious illness.
Weekly Covid 19 figures have been released today. In the past week, there have been 9,405 new community cases of Covid-19 in the country. Hospitals are caring for 134 people who are battling the virus, and four of them are receiving intensive care treatment.
In the last week, two deaths were linked to Covid-19. This must be a misprint, because the report goes on to talk about 25 deaths, not 2.
Of the 25 people whose deaths were reported today, six were from the Auckland region, five were from Waikato, two were from Bay of Plenty, one was from Tairawhiti, one was from Taranaki, two were from MidCentral, two were from Canterbury, two were from West Coast and four were from Southern. Three were in their 60s, five were in their 70s, 11 were in their 80s and six were aged over 90. Of these people, nine were women and 16 were men.
In Ukraine, Putin has called the Kerch bridge attack an “Act of Terror” . retaliation so far has consisted of attacks on the city of Zaporizhia, killing at least 21 people.
It’s now Wednesday October 12th.
I didn’t blog yesterday. I took another RAT test for Covid 19 yesterday morning, which was negative, again. My lovely sister-in-law visited from Perth. We had coffee, and then went out for lunch. It was great to see her, but sadly, I faded and found it really hard to keep up. We went for a walk along the beach, but I had to go back to the car. When we got home, I rang the medical centre, hoping to make an appointment to see a doctor on Wednesday. After waiting for someone to answer the phone, they wouldn’t let me book, but referred me to another team for a “treatment plan”. I then waited on the phone for ages, and eventually left a message. I was growing steadily crosser. I tried to ring back the medical centre, but ended up sending them a message by email. They replied that a nurse would ring me first thing in he morning.
Meanwhile, I emailed the organist to say that I would probably not be at hymn singing this morning. He emailed me back saying that he was going to cancel, seeing that he was really unwell.
I actually slept pretty well for me – a change from when I had covid 19. As expected, a nurse rang me early this morning. She asked me to come and see a doctor at 11:45 this morning; she asked how I would get there, and asked me to wait in Cabin 3 in the parking lot, and ring the medical centre when I’d arrived.
I duly caught an Uber to the medical centre parking lot. The driver was very kind and helpful. I duly waited outside – the cabins that were formerly Covid 19 testing areas were not numbered, but I waited in the middle one, in the RED zone. I rang the medical centre, they signed me in, and told me to wait for the doctor to come. The cabin was equipped with masks, tissues, hand sanitiser, several chairs, a rather fierce heater, and a kind of examining bed. I used my own sanitiser, and waited.
Eventually a doctor came and invited me into Cabin 1, where he was set up to see patients. I did tell him that I missed my previous GP, who retired several years ago. We both kept out masks on. He listened to my chest, took my temperature (which was normal, although I feel a bit hot and sweaty); he prescribed an antibiotic, and more use of my inhaler. He also took a swab for a PCR test for Covid 19, which he claimed would be more accurate than the RAT tests I’ve been using. I guess it may show which, if any, subvariant of the omicron variant of Covid 19 I may have, should I test positive. This does feel like Covid 19 did, although not so bad, and I haven’t had the sleeping difficulties it had exacerbated. He also said I’d be eligible for Paxlovid, should I test positive. I remarked to him how annoying the television advertisement is for coronavirus medicine – ask your doctor if x is right for you? You’d be lucky to find a doctor to ask!
I saw the prescription on his screen, and told him which pharmacy to send it through to. He advised me that they’d be making it up as we were speaking!
I duly walked to the pharmacy. They hadn’t even received the prescription. I went to Whitcoulls, and then checked again. No joy, but I dd buy another large bottle of Prospan. By then, JD offered me a lift home. We bought some lunch at Nada Bakery in Tawa, and then I rang the pharmacy. Still no joy – perhaps I should try the medical centre again. To cut a long story short, the script had been sent to the wrong pharmacy. Eventually all was sorted, and JD picked up the script. I am hoping that I’ll be up to going to at least one of my planned activities tomorrow – the main one is a Te Reo class at the community centre in Khandallah tomorrow. I’m looking forward to that! And I’m hoping to see some of my grandchildren beforehand.
In Ukraine, the Russians are shelling many cities, targeting infrastructure and killing and wounding numbers of citizens. I heard though that some of these attacks would have been planned well in advance. And so it goes on.
That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi.
Classic Barbarian 