Actually, week one was not so difficult as I wasn’t particularly well but I don’t know if I have had the dreaded virus or a version of end of termitis.
I developed a cracking headache over the weekend, we’d had the information that we were to partially close, everyone appeared to be on tenterhooks, I thought my headache was stress related. Like Donald Rumsfeld with his quote I didn’t really know what I knew and what I didn’t
“there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.:
I like to be a creature of certainty, routine – the news about the partial closure and ramifications was enough to give anyone a stress headache.
I packed my office after our final briefing on Monday, took home files, books, reading… it was unknown how long we were going to be working remotely. We had a phase one four week plan, but the news was talking about twelve weeks or even not going back until September. There was lots to think about – not least the GCSEs and A Levels.
My headache progressed into a sore throat and a feeling of utter weariness on Monday night and into Tuesday. Tuesday dragged, Wednesday and Thursday saw me laid out in bed, slight fever, lemsip at regular intervals but not the Coronavirus symptoms of a high temperature and dry cough. I certainly felt rough. On Friday I dragged my sorry carcass out of bed and attended an online meeting, it was fine, I took notes to do the minutes. I joined the virtual coffee break – I was over the worst. On Saturday I pottered about… got up did some tidying up, sprayed all handles and light switches with Zoflora and made a rhubarb crumble cake.. I was obviously much better. And then I wasn’t… Saturday night was sleepless and hot (fever or hot flushes – who knew?), Sunday it was as if I was back to square one but with a very tight chest, no cough, no more fever but so fatigued, so I stayed in bed. Fortunately, my local Matron (Nick) had lost none of his skills and brought breakfast in bed, coffee, lemsip and I slept most of the day. Week one done.
The Impatient Geography Patient 