Strep!?!

I'm not sure how an otherwise healthy adult who doesn't know anybody with strep throat gets it in May, especially since I haven't been around a single person with strep that I know of, but somehow I have. So I've been kind of sick for the last week. I played with my friend's baby last Monday, and the baby had a bad cold and ear infection. So then when I developed a sore throat later that evening, I blamed it on playing with a sick baby. (Don't worry; the baby had already been to a doctor and didn't have strep and her mom was giving her medicine.) But my sore throat got really terrible, and I was taking a hefty combination of cold pills (the really good kind that they have to scan your driver's license before they let you have it so they can keep track of you and make sure you're not making meth) and pain pills (I like the acetaminophen/aspirin/caffeine combo). But I honestly was starting to be afraid that I might accidentally take too much acetaminophen. You can actually overdose on acetaminophen. That's why all the pill boxes say not to combine them with any other pills containing acetaminophen. It will destroy your liver. (Good thing I don't drink.) So I looked around online and figured that my dosages were still safe. I read an article about a girl who had a severe migraine and took fourteen Tylenols and died. But I figured I was still okay because I was taking between eight and twelve pills per day, and definitely not at the same time. Still, I knew it couldn't be good for my body to have all that stuff in there. But the pain in my throat, especially whenever I had to swallow, was tremendous. So I took more and more pills.

But the sore throat just kept getting worse. I didn't know what the deal was. My ears were hurting pretty badly, too, especially when I swallowed. But I didn't want to go to a doctor because I figured it was just a nasty cold virus, and there's nothing they can do about that. Antibiotics will do absolutely no good if you have a virus. They can actually make things worse in the long run because overuse or inappropriate use of antibiotics just innoculates the bacteria and makes them medically resistant. Plus, I can't really afford to pay for a doctor's visit. While I did just finally get enrolled for health insurance, they haven't given me any cards or anything, and even if it was covered it would still just go against my deductible so I'd still have to pay the full cost.

It didn't help that I worked every day this last week, Monday through Saturday. (I don't work Sundays for religious reasons.) I actually wasn't scheduled all of those days, but I took some extra shifts on my days off to get some more money. So I had no time to let my body rest and recuperate. So Saturday I was at work, just suffering. The pills weren't really working. I bought some Chloraseptic strips that you put in the back of your mouth and they're supposed to numb your throat. But no matter how far back in my throat I stuck the things, all I ever ended up with was a numb tongue and the same searing pain in my throat. And even the numbness of the tongue would only last about three minutes, not the two hours it said it was supposed to. I decided that if things weren't better by Monday I'd shell out the money and go to a doctor, but by the time work was over on Saturday I just couldn't stand it anymore. There was an urgent care clinic in Owatonna, and I decided to stop there on the way home from work. But then I couldn't find the place. I was in a lot of pain and had a pounding headache and was feeling somewhat nauseaus, so finally I just went home. But I felt like I really needed to see a doctor, so I asked my dad to drive me to the urgent care clinic. So he drove me back to Owatonna, and we still couldn't find the place. So I called my mom, who called the clinic, and it turns out they were at the place I had originally gone to myself except they they didn't have any signs or anything and the area was under construction so I had no way to know where it was.

So we go in there about fifteen minutes before the place closes for the evening. I explained to the doctor what was going on. I said I thought it was just a virus, but that it was really painful. I also said I wasn't sure it was strep because I'd looked in the back of my mouth as best I could and didn't see any white spots among the red, swollen stuff, which I'd read was the telltale sign. But my mouth cavern was kind of dark so it was hard to tell. The doctor said that it was probably a viral infection, but also that not all strep cases cause the white spots. So she swabbed the back of my throat and did a rapid strep test, which in a few minutes came back negative. So she said it was probably just a nasty virus that they couldn't do anything for, and that it would probably stick around for a few more days and then go away. She said that there was so much fluid buildup in my sinuses and behind my eardrums that it was making it difficult for it to drain out and get out of my system, so she just recommended trying some allergy pills.

So I figured that had all been a waste of time and money. (Still waiting for the bill.) All they'd done was tell me what I pretty much already knew and couldn't do anything for me. Well then when I woke up on Sunday my nose was horribly runny and stuffy, which it really hadn't been before, so I figured the doctor must have been right, and I hoped that this meant it was on its way out of my system. The pain in my throat just continued to get worse, though, and I was also developing a nasty cough, which also caused tremendous pain in my throat. But what could I do?

So night came and I was going to go to bed, so I grabbed my cell phone from out of my purse to take it down and plug it in by my bed, and there was a voicemail message on there. It was the doctor I had seen, saying I needed to call them concerning my throat culture. But it was too late to call them then, so I went to bed worried about what it meant. So this morning I woke up early and called them, and they said they'd ran the second longer strep test on my throat swabbing, and it did indicate that I had strep, so they were going to put me on a regimen of penicillin. So this morning instead of going to the Memorial Day parade I went to the pharmacy to pick up my penicillin. And this evening, instead of going to work and getting holiday pay, I will be sitting here at home, in pain, choking and hacking into my surgical mask.

Okay, I know that may be a bit extreme. A mask? Really? It's not as weird as it sounds. I had a bag of surgical masks left over from back when I used to work at the hospital. (Sick kids are considered a highly susceptible population, so we had to take extra precautions, which meant when you got a nasty cold the employee health nurse would give you a box of surgical masks to wear so you didn't spread the germs around.) So I found them and put one on. I'm not really worried about infecting anyone else; they've all been around me with it for the past seven days. And once I've been on the antibiotics for twenty-four hours I won't be contagious anymore. But the mask just makes it easier because I can cough if I want to and the germs are all contained. I don't have to make the effort to stop what I'm doing to cough into my shoulder or elbow, nor do I have to cough into my hand and then go wash immediately. It's just easier this way. So I'll be wearing a mask until tomorrow morning, when I should no longer be contagious.

And I have to admit, it's kind of nice to be able to skip work and not get in trouble. But I am a little bummed about missing out on that holiday pay.