Oh Les -
I'm so sorry to hear that you have pneumonia. Please, please look after yourself and get your immune system really strong again. I had pneumonia back in April, thought I was OK but my immune system was compromised. So much so that I picked up some sort of a cold/lurgy thing on the plane coming over here to Spain from Australia late last month which turned into acute bronchitis. Stupidly and selfishly I ignored the advice of the doctor at the hospital and the hospitaleros at the albergue where I had been volunteering - the upshot of this is that one of the hospitaleros and a dear friend have both now come down with the same symptoms. Who knows HOW MANY people I may have infected? The full weight of my actions, in wanting to be with and serve the pilgrims and stupidly and selfishly thinking that everything would be OK, rests like a ton of bricks on my shoulders. There's absolutely nothing I can do to remedy the situation. I had to cut the volunteership short and I'm currently in Madrid and will fly home to Australia tomorrow.
If there's any advice to be given here, it's that each person contemplating a Camino needs to look after their immune system as much as they possibly can in the time leading up to departure by avoiding exposure to anyone who might be ill as much as you knowingly can. Travel on the plane wearing a preventative mask - wearing one would have saved me, and those who I've made ill, a lot of discomfort and worse with the symptoms, and much heartache and guilt on my part.
Rest up and best wishes for a speedy recovery Les -
Jenny
The thing is, we pick up viruses (whether our immune system is strong or not) and we get ill, then we die or get better. It is never our fault that we are invaded by a virus .. though ... Jenny mentions picking up "some sort of cold/lurgy thing", perhaps to not worry pilgrims, when in fact it she was quite aware that it is a vicious and highly infectious debilitating virus that probably came from Sydney, not an aircraft.
To quote Dr. Gordian Fulde, who is the head of the Emergency Department at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney;
"SYDNEYSIDERS are being hit by a virus that is not only taking down people but also hospital staff.
It is an unseasonal virus, not the swine flu, that is really nasty and the emergency department has been flooded by people coming in sick with it.
It has caused some people, even young ones, to get pneumonia.
This is not the right time of the year but it is amazing how it is spreading. It seems to be attacking the head so people feel like they are getting the flu.
They will have a nasty cough and we are seeing a lot of sore throats and infections that are so severe we have to admit people.
Some patients have had throats so swollen they can't swallow or breath properly and even their neck is swollen."
Worth knowing that this virus does not produce a high temperature.
With a virus, especially a virulent one, one has to be careful not to allow it the chance to infect others.
Do not sleep in the same room as another.
Do not enter enclosed spaces with others.
Do not breathe or cough over others.
Do not touch food, crockery, or cutlery that others will use.
Wash hands regularly and be Very careful about what one handles - door knobs and toilet flush buttons come to mind, as a virus can live in air on a surface for four hours or more - washing hands regularly and wet wiping as one goes can help.
So, really, one needs to isolate oneself ... listen to what the doctor says, listen to what the pharmacist says, listen to what hospitelaros say, listen to what friends say.
It is hard to let go when one is on Camino but if one does get a virus one needs to put others ahead of oneself and isolate oneself straight away - which, of course, means the Camino is over for that person (it is alright to infect non-pilgrims on the way home
).
I stopped doing first aid in the Rabanal area when I realised that I had contracted the virus - imagine me opening a blister, breathing on it, and then covering it with a plaster!!! - and then decided that I had to go home straight away .... as I was driving I had to gamble on getting home before it fully kicked in or be stuck, homeless, in Spain. A Canadian hospitelaro who had also contracted it decided to come with me rather than infecting all who passed through Gaucelmo, and we are now, after four ghastly days of driving whilst with fuzzy brains and and sneezing and coughing and heaving and aching (and spreading the plague over the 2000kms too!), in my home in Weston-Super-Mare, getting better.
A hospital refugio in a sense - so anyone who gets the virus or has the virus and thinks they may also have pneumonia please do come to the plague house - plenty of room !! (it is the house with the painted red cross on the door
)
