Thank you for the kind messages. I did indeed have a very high temperature on Saturday - husband called 111 and during the day we went through a variety of phone calls from a range of nurses and doctors and eventually a real live doctor arrived in full gear.
A few weeks ago I had a course of antibiotics for a minor UTI. I knew this wasn’t entirely cured but as it wasn’t problematic I really didn’t want to undergo another course of antibiotics, so left it until the end of last week to contact my doctor and provide a urine sample. I hadn’t had the result of this test, but was happy to wait until the start of next week to see if any treatment was needed. However, the on-call doctor said it was quite possible that the UTI had flared up suddenly and caused the fever. He gave me a packet of stronger antibiotics and told me to contact my own doc if they didn’t clear it up. We also agree that I should apply for a Covid test, to see if that was involved - he said that Covid presents in many ways, especially in older people, not always with the classic symptoms which I didn’t have.
Applying online for a postal test isn’t straightforward. They want a lot of personal info, including your NI number, then they send you a text code to confirm you have a mobile phone number, and then they ask if they can run your application through a credit score check ‘to confirm your identity.’ (Why would they be worried about hundreds of illegal immigrants trying to get a free Covid test?) Anyway my application was rejected because I didn’t have a credit score, having not borrowed any money since paying off the mortgage in 1997. So then I had to ring the misnamed ‘Helpline’ and got a man with an impenetrable accent, who laboriously took down all my details again, - I had to spell our road name 3 times as his website doesn’t have a drop-down menu accessed from the postcode (!) - and eventually booked a test which should arrive today, be collected tomorrow, and I may get the result by email at some time in the future ....
My temperature is now normal but I still feel a bit weird and tired. If covid wasn’t in the equation as a possibility I would put this down to the effects of the antibiotics, but it will be good to have the test and know one way or the other. The chance to poke a stick down your throat and up your nose may add a bit of interest to lockdown, anyway - both activities being transgressional when I was a child. (Our 6-y-old daughter once removed the next-door child’s tonsils in a sword fight with a piece of stick, but that’s another story. Luckily he was able to go private when admitted to hospital - it was a bit like living next door to Jerry and Margo in The Good Life, with us as Tom and Barbara, but they were very nice about it, all things considered.)
A few weeks ago I had a course of antibiotics for a minor UTI. I knew this wasn’t entirely cured but as it wasn’t problematic I really didn’t want to undergo another course of antibiotics, so left it until the end of last week to contact my doctor and provide a urine sample. I hadn’t had the result of this test, but was happy to wait until the start of next week to see if any treatment was needed. However, the on-call doctor said it was quite possible that the UTI had flared up suddenly and caused the fever. He gave me a packet of stronger antibiotics and told me to contact my own doc if they didn’t clear it up. We also agree that I should apply for a Covid test, to see if that was involved - he said that Covid presents in many ways, especially in older people, not always with the classic symptoms which I didn’t have.
Applying online for a postal test isn’t straightforward. They want a lot of personal info, including your NI number, then they send you a text code to confirm you have a mobile phone number, and then they ask if they can run your application through a credit score check ‘to confirm your identity.’ (Why would they be worried about hundreds of illegal immigrants trying to get a free Covid test?) Anyway my application was rejected because I didn’t have a credit score, having not borrowed any money since paying off the mortgage in 1997. So then I had to ring the misnamed ‘Helpline’ and got a man with an impenetrable accent, who laboriously took down all my details again, - I had to spell our road name 3 times as his website doesn’t have a drop-down menu accessed from the postcode (!) - and eventually booked a test which should arrive today, be collected tomorrow, and I may get the result by email at some time in the future ....
My temperature is now normal but I still feel a bit weird and tired. If covid wasn’t in the equation as a possibility I would put this down to the effects of the antibiotics, but it will be good to have the test and know one way or the other. The chance to poke a stick down your throat and up your nose may add a bit of interest to lockdown, anyway - both activities being transgressional when I was a child. (Our 6-y-old daughter once removed the next-door child’s tonsils in a sword fight with a piece of stick, but that’s another story. Luckily he was able to go private when admitted to hospital - it was a bit like living next door to Jerry and Margo in The Good Life, with us as Tom and Barbara, but they were very nice about it, all things considered.)
Royal Mail return label: ziplock plastic bag; swab inside sealed wrapper; plastic vial containing liquid; sheet of absorbent material; biohazard bag with fiddly silver seal; and return box. Then there are 3 pages on taking the sample and what to do with it after, using the bits and pieces of barcodes, biohazard bag, plastic vial etc. All quite straightforward, until you get to the really really tricky bit. 
