10 February 2005 (Thursday)
health watch
Update: I have strep throat. Yay penicillin!
Just to keep everyone posted...
Monday evening: headache and nausea, mild sore throat
Late Monday night: fever developed (didn't take temperature)
Tuesday morning: felt mostly better after 4:00 AM Tylenol dosage; went to work one hour late
Tuesday: progressively more miserable during the day, including muscle cramps and returning low-grade fever; popped Tylenol like candy
Tuesday evening: stupidly went out with some colleagues and judges; on the ride home (I left early) I pretty much resembled a junkie (shaking, muttering to myself, making weird faces because of the pain); crawled into bed around 6:45 PM; alternated sipping water and throwing up for much of the evening, when I wasn't asleep
Tuesday night: fever peaked around 102.5; Julian made me eat some white rice, which I consumed at the rate of about five grains per minute; felt considerably better after managing to get some down, along with more Tylenol; called supervisor's voicemail to say I was taking a sick day Wednesday
Wednesday: woke up feeling better again, but stayed home this time; all symptoms went away besides headache and sore throat, which got progressively worse; noticed swollen glands; subsisted on rice, orange juice, and a banana
Wednesday evening: mild squash-based "chili" for dinner; told my father I didn't need to go to the doctor's office; Liba, my doctor's appointment-person (who I happen to converse with socially as well), told me I needed to go get a throat culture, and she was going to tell on me if I didn't; made appointment, called my father back, listened to strict instructions regarding tea with lemon alternating with praise for my "smart friend"
Wednesday night: stayed up too late cooking (of course...isn't that what you do when you're sick?)
Thursday: raging sore throat and swollen glands are back with a vengeance...thank you, Liba
Lindsay, you are a smart woman and I should follow your lead more often. That is all.
Oy. How did you manage to catch a stomach virus and strep at the same time?? Well, at least I hope it's strep, then they can give you antibiotics to wipe it out. Feel better.
I actually think the nausea was a side effect of the fever...it seemed to come and go as my temperature rose and fell. Once I had a little food in my stomach and some medication to keep the fever down, the nausea and vomiting also went away. So no stomach virus to speak of.
While I agree with the positive aspect of antibiotics wiping out the infection, I really hate to think of all the people I may have passed this along to during the week if it is, in fact, strep. Bah.
Feel better!
Yes, Liba is a very smart woman, and you are a silly one. If there is ever any idea of your having strep you should be trying to get it diagnosed as soon as possible, because the antibiotics work faster the earlier you start them. In the years when I got strep annually to the point where I knew what it was by how it felt, my parents would actually start me on antibiotics before the culture came back to confirm what we already knew.
That having been said...take care of yourself, and get better right away!!! :-)
In these enlightened times, I got my culture results back in about five minutes. So...um...yeah. That's kind of irrelevant.
(Also, Lindsay and Liba are two different women, but they are both very smart.)
Oops -- read that wrong. I don't know specifically why Lindsay is smart (or who Lindsay is, for that matter) but I imagine all your friends are smart, no? ;-)
Oy. Have a refuah shalayma! ...or however you'd prefer to transliterate it. Hmm. I haven't tried this before, but "רפואה שלמה" might work. Anyway, point is, best wishes for a complete (and speedy) recovery.
