My COVID Story: A doctor at the nearby clinic misdiagnosed my condition and wanted me to start intravenous medicines

Ajay Prasad caught COVID when he resumed going to work. Soon his wife developed symptoms too and tested positive. While he was hospitalised, his wife recovered at home. Through his story he wants to warn everyone who opt to visit a nearby clinic instead of going to specialists.
When the COVID pandemic started, the dreaded news coming from Europe and US was scary and it was stressful to live with these happenings, considering you have elders and childrens at home.

The first close encounter with the virus came in early July timeline when my 20 years old nephew contacted the virus. The timelines were very scary with BBMP building up barricade and socially isolating the entire building. My nephew was taken to a CCC and was discharged after 10 days. He was given oral cough and vitamins medicines for 5 days and was under observation for another 5 days. My sister's family was taken to a quarantine centre and after testing negative for the COVID virus in 5 days, they came back home. I live in an independent building with my two brothers - 3 floors, with 3 bedrooms each and a common staircase to use.
You find all kinds of neighbours around. While we had some good souls who helped us procure daily household needs and medicines, we had a few partially educated neighours who showed their real colors in this tough time. Partial education is a risky proposition and one cannot really place them under any category. Empty vessels generally make more noise but I never expected more from a peon of a college to a mess owner or a self proclaimed social worker and their depression laden wives.

Then came the real test of time. This is end of October when I fell ill. It started with mild cold and a bad throat. I had resumed office for odd days and was riding to work on Monday, tuesday and fridays. With one course of medicine, my cold and throat issues went away in a day. The next day I got up with a bad neck ache. Since the neck ache is a common occurence for me in 3-6 months, I felt it will subside like my cold. But that is something that I failed to understand. For the next 4 to 5 days, I had severe body ache. Since my family doctor was away, I decided to see a doctor in the neighbourhood clinic. The Doctor examined me and gave medicines for a couple of days, said I should come back for blood and urine test if the problem persists. It was a weekend and I was resting and feeling better. The next day I venture to office but by afternoon my body ache was returning. I realized that i couldn't continue and decided to get back home. I met the doctor and did the blood and urine test and he told me to come once the reports were ready. I met him in the morning and there was something strange about the doctor's behavior and his body language that didn't go well with me. He prescribed me a set of medicines and told me that I may need intravenous medicines if I do not recover well. This one line of the doctor again did not sound right. Once I returned home, I wanted to consult a specialist and pinged the two doctors who came to my mind - I shared all the reports and described my conditions. One was my wife's doctor whom we had lost touch for sometime. I pinged her to check if I can do a video consultation with her. The other person is a close doctor friend of mine. He runs a orthopedic hospital and is a general specialist in a hospital.

To my good luck, both the doctors responded. My Orthopedic doctor friend suggested me to get a COVID test and said we could do the same at his hospital. In the meanwhile my wife's doctor also responded saying we can set up a video call through Malathi Manipal Jayanagar team.

I had isolated myself for the last 7 days as I have two daughters aged 11 and 6. My wife and all three helps at home continued to live normally.

This was the start of a tough 21 days period. I had the consultation with Dr Kamal and he advised CRP, D-Dimer and Xray apart from the CBC that I had done. I did all the tests and the reports were clear. So the doctor started me on Fluvir, Ezee, Ceeplus, Dolo (SoS) and told me to monitor my oxygen. She advised for a follow up consultation after 3 days. These 3 days were tough for me. While my saturation was always between 97 to 99, I had started to get fever. I kept the doctor informed on my temperature and saturation reading on a daily basis. In the meanwhile, my wife started to cough and she was complaining of loss of taste and smell. We sensed that we both were hit by COVID. On the 3rd day, I informed the doctor about my wife's condition and that's when she told that both of us should do the COVID test immediately. I wanted the kids and others and home to be away from this illness and and I thought I should get everybody tested at home, including our domestic shelps.

Tough time calls for matured decisions. Though my wife wanted to wait for a couple of days to see if we improved, I went ahead with the doctor's advice. Me and my wife, we went to the nearly BBMP Medical office and both our Rapid Antigent Test came positive. I wasn't surprised. I told the BBMP team to come along with me and test everybody in the house. By the grace of God, everybody else was Negative. That itself gave me a lot of confidence and I knew this phase of time will pass soon.

We moved the kids to the second floor and waited for the next day to go and see the doctor. Dr Kamal repeated the same test (D-Dimer, CRP and CBC) for both me and Veena (my Wife) but this time around she added the HRCT scan for me. I was diagnosed with moderate COVID and Veena was a mild case. Doctor advised me 7 days hospitalization and Veena was told to take the medicines at home.

The next 7 days I was given Remdisivir, Steroids, Blood thinner and other Antibiotics. Veena was doing alright at home. She did her HRCT after 4 days of medication and the doc advised her to continue home isolation and medication. I was discharged on the 8th day. The next 2 weeks was home isolation. My body had gone weak. Back at home, I started to eat very well. We sanitized the house and got back the kids after 15 days of isolation post my discharge. Life has started to get normal with my regular Yoga and daily office work. The prayers of the family and friends helped a lot. Dr Kamal is a genius.

My advice to all would be to get tested immediately and start on medicines if one sees any sign of COVID. If we delay, the disease also delays to leave the body. Consult only a specialist and not waste time talking to nearby clinics. These clinics do not consider COVID as a disease. Maintain your calm, keep practicing pranayams as much as you can. Avoid multiple calls and maintain health hygiene.

Avoid negativity and specially negative people around you.

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The views expressed in this article should not be considered as a substitute for physician's advice. Please consult your treating physician for more details.