I got really sick the last week of January. It was the sickest I've been in a super long time (except for my appendicitis a year and a half ago). It all started on the afternoon of Monday the 26th. I took a college test that morning for my Educational Psychology class, a class that I'd struggled with and had been stressing over about taking the test. It was the last possible day to take the test, and I'd studied all weekend long in preparation for it. After I took the test, I had a huge wave of relief come over me. And not two hours later, my throat began to feel scratchy. I'm sure I got sick because I'd been so stressed, and when I finally felt relaxed, my body reacted to the pressure that I had been under.
The sore throat came on so quickly, I immediately thought it felt like Strep. I started sucking on lozenges that night, but it continued to get worse. By the following day, I was much worse. I took my temperature mid-morning in the school office, but it wasn't spiked, so I decided to keep working. But by lunch, I had the shivers and was shaking from weakness and I felt terrible. Thanks to the help from a coworker, I got a substitute for the afternoon, went straight home, and slept for a solid 9 hours that afternoon and evening--only waking up to have dinner with the family, and then I slept most of the night. I thought I was feeling better, but by the next morning, I had a fever of 104 degrees, so I called in sick and got a substitute again. I tried to get into the doctor's office, but there was no available appointments until the next day. I took it easy all day on Wednesday, and as the day progressed, swallowing became harder. It hurt to eat anything, so warm tea and soups were my only edible friends. After the doctor's office couldn't fit me in, I began to take ibuprofen every 5 hours all day and night, which helped manage the pain. That night, when I got up at 3:30am to use the bathroom and take my next round of ibuprofen, I passed out suddenly on the kitchen floor. I was out cold for several minutes, and I couldn't move after coming to for about 10 more minutes. I finally got up and went back to bed at 4:00am, and recounted what had happened to Josh, who hadn't heard me get up or pass out. The whole incident severely scared me!
On Thursday morning, I went to my doctor appointment, but she said the strep test came back negative and said I must have the influenza--because I had similar symptoms: sore throat, swollen glands, high fever, cough, and nasal mucus (the mucus and cough had already been present in my system for about two weeks prior to my sore throat, though), and low blood pressure (hence the dizzy spell a week before and passing out the night before). So, I went to work all day on Thursday. After school, I went to a 3-hour work meeting. Then I went straight from there to Ammon's home basketball game. Then I left there to go to the late show of "Into the Woods" (it was the last showing before the movie theater switched movies and I really wanted to see it). I kept trying to tell myself all day that I was fine, that I just had influenza and there was nothing I could do for it and it just needed to be endured, and that I was perfectly capable of resuming my normal activities. I was totally wrong.
On Friday morning, I woke up and felt terrible. I couldn't swallow water anymore as it was too painful, and my whole body felt exhausted from overdoing it the day before. I basically laid around all day, being lazy, and trying to cope. I was a hot, whiny mess. That night, I drove to town to get some soup for my dinner, and pizza for everyone else's dinner since I didn't feel like cooking anything while being so sick. When I came home, we ate dinner, and then Josh and I had a huge, stupid fight in front of the boys (although it didn't phase them at all). I was clearly ornery from being tired and sick, and two hours after the fight, I came crying to Josh to apologize and admit that I was just tired of being SOOO sick, and I soaked his shirt in my tears. Ibuprofen wasn't helping the pain anymore, so I took a hydrocodone (one of the few leftover from when I had appendicitis surgery) and went to bed. That wasn't even the worst day.
On Saturday, I literally felt like I was dying, so I started planning my funeral. I couldn't eat or drink anything except warm herbal tea flavored with honey; it was the only thing that my throat could handle, since everything else felt like it was scratching my entire esophagus. I was in SO much pain, and was so uncomfortable. I knew I was going to be a victim of death caused by influenza, and I totally understood at this point how it kills people. On Sunday morning, I woke up with a green tongue. That has NEVER happened to me in my entire life!! GROSS! (and so is the picture below!) I did not go to church that day, and got another substitute to play the piano for me in primary. I seriously didn't know how much more of this sickness I could take, although the one good thing to come of being sick for a week was that I lost 7 pounds due to not being able to eat anything!
My doctor called me that afternoon to say that the strep culture test came back with a positive result, but since the pharmacy in Salmon isn't open on Sunday, I had to wait until the following day to start treating it: A FULL week after coming down with it, a week after I KNEW I had it, and days after experiencing the WORST of it. I was so irritated!! However, I was grateful that she did at least call me, since most doctors don't work on Sunday, and she even apologized for not believing me when I told her I was SO sure I'd had it. She told me that I shouldn't go to work until I'd been on antibiotics for 24 hours (even though I'd already been to work the previously week when I was sick), so I got a substitute again for the next day. I went to the pharmacy on Monday morning, started on my antibiotics, and took a relaxing day off. By that afternoon, I was feeling 100% better.
So I didn't end up dying of the influenza after all, but I DID survive a wicked case of Strep (and lived to tell about it, too)!
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