Hey, I have a couple of Life Questions and I’m hoping to get others’ thoughts, if you have any relevant experience or info.
I’m safe/okay overall, but I’ve had a low-grade fever (99 degrees F) and fatigue for three weeks now, along with a few other symptoms; I went to the doctor a couple times but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I then had to go to the emergency room yesterday morning for right-side abdominal pain that started this past week. The ER did blood work, an x-ray, a CAT scan, etc, which fortunately ruled out all the really scary stuff! But they couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so they told me I probably have some random virus and I just need to wait it out.
Question: When I was getting discharged, I asked the ER doctor what I should do to avoid getting other people sick, if this is all because of a virus. She said that as long as I’m having symptoms, I should avoid being around immunocompromised people, e.g. pregnant people, older people, etc. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow (Monday 9/23) and I assume there are some immunocompromised people at the dentist’s office. Do you think I should cancel the appointment? Already thought about it, and pestered a few IRL people for advice, and my current plan is to, first thing in the morning, call 1) the dentist’s office and ask them, and 2) my regular doctor’s office and ask a nurse about it. Anyone else’s thoughts on this are appreciated. I do have some disposable face masks, which I would wear except when I’m actually getting my teeth worked on.
More general question: How do I figure out how to navigate this illness/potential contagiousness going forward? I don’t want to overreact and ban myself from going anywhere until I’m not sick (which could be weeks longer, for all I know), but I really don’t want to get anyone else sick, either.
In addition to not having any kind of medical background or personal experience with this kind of illness, I have a lot of anxiety around accidentally hurting people, so this is the kind of decision where I really struggle to figure out what is reasonable and what isn’t.
If anyone with experience with this kind of long-lasting illness, anyone who is actually dealing with being immunocomlormised, etc, has time to weigh in, I really appreciate it ❤️