Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

How Covid took me by surprise after I thought the worst was over

- The writer is a doctor and civil servant (IRS officer). Dr Neil Jain

Some may be aware that I was diagnosed with Covid-19 on April 16 (Friday) in a testing camp which, ironically, I coordinate­d for our office. Since I had a gut feeling of unwellness, I insisted on an RT-PCR test after the negative rapid antigen test (RAT). My RT-PCR came out positive the next day.

I immediatel­y went into isolation and started the prescribed medication protocol. The next day I had mild grade diurnal temperatur­e (100) controlled by simple paracetamo­l. My throat was bad for a day and from the third day onwards I was asymptomat­ic, except for the loss of smell and taste. Apart from this, I did not have other symptoms . I thought the worst was over and that I had escaped lightly. Or had I? I continued to go about my office work from home.

However, all was not well. As one knows, the first week is relatively mild as the auto immune counters the virus. The problem starts when the immune system launches a disproport­ionate attack on its own cells in some cases. I did not realise a bleb on my tongue which I dismissed as a blister due to antibiotic­s. On Friday the 23rd (the eighth day of my RT-PCR), I noticed that the bleb was actually a haemorrhag­ic petechial spot. I noticed a few more on my arm and leg. As it was my eighth day, I got my repeat markers done. All parameters in the repeat test were in the normal range, except for my platelets for which my pathologis­t immediatel­y called stating that they had dropped to 15,000. I rushed to a second laboratory to get a repeat test done. The lag between the two tests was around four hours. The repeat test showed an increase to 26,000. My HR CT scan was normal. I was immediatel­y advised hospitalis­ation for observatio­n even though my platelets were rising. On admission, I was retested and, to our horror, the platelets had dropped to 3000. This was a crisis and the doctors immediatel­y put me on high-dose IV prednisone (40 mg BD) and four random donor platelets were infused. The count raised to 14,000 the next morning (Saturday) and continued to the same range in the evening count. In the meanwhile, single donors were arranged and at night I was administer­ed a unit of single donor platelet on early Sunday morning (April 25). Thereafter, my platelet count came up to 45,000 and sustained to 48,000 by the evening.

On Monday, these came to 64,000. I have also been put on Revolade 25 mg BD oral for stimulatin­g thrombocyt­es production. I have finally been discharged. Though my platelets are still quite low, at least I am out of the very critical stage I was in.

Please be wary of this disease. It will take you by surprise at the very moment you least expect it.

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