Ok...so that might be a slight over-exaggeration, but that's what it felt like. This experience brought me back to my blog to share it with the oh so many people that follow my blog. So here it goes...
Sunday, November 15 was a not so ordinary Sunday. I spent the day up in Syracuse, UT seeing family I haven't seen in about 8 years. We gathered together for a baby shower for my cousin. Now, this isn't really the point. This particular Sunday I began feeling a little sickness in me. A very slight sore throat. Nothing unusual, this is how most of my "colds" begin.
Monday, November 16 I went to work as usual. Because of a late night picking up a roommate at the airport, I was a little tired. The day ended and I had a meeting after school. During this meeting I began to realize that this was more than just tiredness. My head hurt, a felt a bit warm, and my body was starting to ache. Great, I thought! I left school soon after this and stopped by the store on the way home to get a thermometer. If I had a fever I was for sure taking the next day off. I came home and took my temperature...no fever. As the night progressed and realized that this sickness was getting the better of me. My whole body was aching and I was just plain exhausted. I realized that I was going to have to take a sick day (which I had not taken one sick day in all of my 2 1/2 years of teaching). I put in for a sub and wrote up so sub plans (the worst part of taking a day off) and went to bed.
Tuesday, November 17. Spent the day in bed. My body ached from the top of my head to my feet and my throat was feeling progressively worse. Looking in my throat there was a great deal of "white stuff" on my tonsils. Continuously took my temperature and had a slight fever mostly around 100 degrees. By the end of the day I had a feeling that I had strep throat.
Wednesday, November 18. Woke up to a massive sore throat and decided to go take a trip to the Urgent Care. The closest one didn't open until 10 am (lame, I know!), so I found one a little further away that opened at 8. I got there at opening time and got myself in to be check. the took a swab from my throat and tested for step...it came back negative. The doctor said it was most likely just a virus and I just had to wait it out. He said that the flu wouldn't infect my tonsils like that and that there was a slight chance it could be mono, but they can't test for that until it has been about a week after the symptoms started. I went home, laid in bed all day with slight body aches and a mild fever.
Thursday, November 19. Took another day off work and laid in bed all day. Body aches were mostly gone, but my throat was killing me. I decided to take a trip to the local health food store and get some good throat spray and herbal tea in hopes of soothing my throat. Also picked up some Tylenol PM to help me sleep.
Friday, November 20. I had a training meeting I was supposed to be at and decided to try and make it. I went to my school early to get things ready for the sub and went to my training. I felt alright for the first half of the day, but by the time it reached lunch time my body wasn't too happy with me. I began getting a headache and was achey and extremely tired. I came home and crashed. I tried to sleep through the night. Tried it the key word. I took Tylenol PM as often as I safely could and it did nothing to soothe my throat. It turned from an achey throat to throbbing pain all through my throat, ear, mouth, neck, pretty much my whole left side of my face. I tried to stick it out through the night with hopes of going back to the urgent care in the morning. After many very restless and painful hours I decided I could not handle it anymore. I woke up my ever so kind roommate at 5 am and asked her to drive me to the ER.
Saturday, November 21 (continuation of Friday night). I arrived at the ER. I have not been there since I was 3 years old and fell from the top of my garage and landed head first on the cement (I was first in line at the ER, which is hard to do). They took my basic vitals and gave me a cool bracelet thing with my name and birthday on it. I headed to a back room (area divided by a curtain) and sat around forever until someone FINALLY came to see me. There were about a million workers there and NO other patients. I have no idea why it took so long. They tested me for both strep and mono, and you guessed it, both came back negative. They gave me some steroids to help with the swelling and some pain meds and sent me home with a prescription for pain meds. I came home and crashed and slept most of the day away.
Sunday, November 22. I decided to try and make it to part of church. I got up and ready and went to church at 9am. I was feeling alright, just really tired and weak. I only stayed the first hour and then came home to rest. I laid in bed and took it easy. By the afternoon my throat was really acting up. I was taking pain meds as often as I was allowed and it was doing nothing to ease the pain. I was in tears it hurt so bad. Around 5 pm I finally decided I needed to go back in. My other two loving roommates took me into the instacare attached to the hospital to see a doctor yet another time. I told him I had been tested for strep twice and for mono and all were negative. He took a look at my throat and poked around a little and decided that he thinks I have an abscess. He sends me over the radiology in the hospital to get a CT scan. The put me on this bed, stick and IV in my arm and tell me the liquid stuff they put in me will make me feel like I am wetting myself (it totally does). The scan takes just a few short minutes and then I have to wait around for the results. Finally, I get the results and what do you know? I have an abscess. For those of you who don't know what this is (don't worry I didn't either), pretty much what happens is you get a tonsil infect and usually that stays contained to your tonsils, however, sometimes it breaks through to the other areas of your throat and essentially fills it full of puss. I head back to the instacare where they give me a shot on one side of my backside of pain killers and another on the other side of antibiotics. They prescribe me antibiotics and stronger pain meds. The antibiotics shot killed! My whole leg ached the rest of the night. The doctor gave me a name and number of and ear, nose, and throat specialist that I am suppose to call in the morning to get in and see him. We head to Walgreen's and pick up the new meds and head home. After the shots they gave me I am feeling a bit better and I am actually able to sleep.
Monday, November 23. I wake up quite early and call the office the second it opens. They can't get me in until almost 4 that afternoon. Not wanting to suffer the day in pain I decide to take two of my pain meds. Now, it says on the instructions that you can take 1-2 every 4 hours as needed for pain. I had only been taking one. After that I decided to just stick to one. Two was too much for my body. I felt...I guess you could say, "high". Now, by this time in this whole adventure my throat hurts so bad and is swollen so much that I can barely talk, swallow, let alone eat anything. The doctor gave me these horse-pill antibiotics I need to take, which should be taken with food. I force an all fruit Popsicle down and take the pill, hoping that was enough. I was wrong. A while later my stomach was not too happy with me and that pill didn't stay in my system. By the time I was to go to the doctors I was still feeling uneasy in my stomach and could barely talk. My ever so loving bishop's wife came and picked me up and took me to the doctors. I suffered as I had to fill out numerous pages of paper work. They finally get me back and I swear I am going to loose the nothingness in my stomach any minute. The doctor sees me and lets me know what he plans to do. He needs to stick this needle in my throat and "drain" the abscess. In other words, jab me with a needle and suck out the puss. I tell him to give me a minute, because, as I said, I feel as though I am going to loose it. After about ten minutes of waiting nothing comes up and he says he is just going to go for it. Now, I am sure you have all been pricked with needles, but have you ever had a needle jabbed in your throat with no numbing what-so-ever? I didn't think so. It is not a fun feeling. He does this, as I am just breathing heavily and barring it. He shows me the lovely liquid he pulls from my throat and says there is about 3 1/2 cc (cubic centimeters) of "puss". He tells me he wants to see me tomorrow just after 3 to check and see if he needs to do it again. I am still feeling rather sick and can barely even stand up. I end up lying in their lunch room on a couch for quite a while until I felt like I could take the car trip back to my apartment. I finally decide I can survive and head back to my place. I rest the rest of the night and am feeling only slightly better. I do force down some soup (pretty much just the broth), in order to take my antibiotics.
Tuesday, November 24. I am still feeling pretty swollen in my throat and still have some pain. It is a little easier to swallow and talk, but only slightly. I eat half a yogurt. Just enough to take my pill. I think later on I ate more of the soup. I head back to the doctor (with a ride from a wonderful girl in my ward) and he takes another look. He says he thinks he should drain it some more. Another needle in my throat and this time he comes out with twice as much as he did the first time (7 cc). I immediately can feel the difference in my throat. I tell him that I am down to the last few of my pain meds and he prescribes me some more (not as strong as the ones I had) and tells me that it should get significantly better over the next 36 hours and if it doesn't, or it gets worse, to page him. I take the rest of the day easy and sleep.
Wednesday, November 25. I wake up feeling so much better. I finally get out of bed and clean my room and do some laundry. I was feeling pretty tired and weak but a whole lot better than I had been feeling. By this time I have lost about 10 lbs. from not being able to eat. I was able to eat more soup and mashed potatoes, but my stomach was still a little uneasy. I took the day pretty easy but got by with only one pain pill the whole day. I was able to drive up to Salt Lake that night to stay with my sister.
Thursday, November 26 (Thanksgiving). Spent the day at my sister's in Salt Lake and I was able to eat EVERYTHING that there was for dinner. You will not believe how wonderful it felt to eat real food. I was feeling almost 100% better.
Now: I am feeling just great! I returned to school after not being there for two weeks. I was glad to hear that my students did miss me...well, most of them. It was good to be back, but it sure made for a long day. I am not use to working all day long. I left school a bit tired, but man am I glad to be back! I am still taking my antibiotics and still have a slight sore throat and white stuff on my tonsils, but it is all nothing to what I was experiencing before. I now just wait for all the medical bills that will be coming my way. Ugh!
Through this all I am grateful for many things. For a mommy that loves and and made sure to check up on me at least three times a day, even though she works full time. For my great health that I usually have. For a job that gives me good health insurance (this was my first time using it). For doctors that finally figured out what was wrong with me and helped me get better. For pain meds! No, I am not addicted, don't worry. Modern medicine. In the olden days, I probably would have died. For many people in my ward that love me. I had numerous guys come give me blessings, people willing to take me to the doctors, and a bishop who continually checked up on me. Great roommates who bought me food, took me to the doctors, and always asked how I was feeling. Co-workers who helped me get by with very poor, if any, sub plans. Subs who were able and willing to work with my poor sub plans. My students, who I missed dearly and my job that I missed dearly.
So even though I felt as though I was near death, I am alive and well and am very blessed!
BC Catherine
"Health Counselor Katelyn"
My company "Fellow Beings"
My darling Jessica
