The days that followed were a serious wake-up call: Though I’m trained as an emergency physician, I wasn’t prepared to be on the other end of the stethoscope. It’s a reminder that no one — even healthy people — should let their guard down.
A nurse quickly connected me to a monitor and drew blood. An EKG showed there was no blockage in my coronary arteries, and a chest X-ray ruled out a collapsed lung. My white blood cell count was 23,000, more than double the normal value, suggesting an infection. Tests for the coronavirus and other viral pathogens came back negative. A CT scan showed no blood clot, though it did reveal abnormalities consistent with pneumonia, so I got started on antibiotics.
Throughout my hospital stay, I thought about what I would do if I were treating someone in my shoes. I would have advised that recovery takes time, and I would have reminded myself to accept the most likely explanation. As doctors like to say, when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. Pneumonia is common, I would have reassured myself, and we know how to treat it.