Strep Mining

If you're looking for me today (or were looking yesterday), don't bother looking at work. In fact, don't really look for me anywhere. I'm most likely on the couch, and most likely catatonic (with an orange feline heating pad on my chest).

I'm sick.

And we all know that I whine fairly often about a stiff neck or a headache, but I drag myself to work and get the heck over it. That's what I did on Friday. I woke up and when Scott asked if I felt any better than the day before, I started to cry. But it was just a sore throat. No headache, no congestion, no fever. I muddled through the day, bolstered by the orange juice that Scott brought me along with a pack of throat lozenges (and not the kind that taste good...so you know they are working).

I left work 1/2 hour early, at 10 pm, and proceeded to get stuck in the worst 192 traffic ever. I got home at 11:25 and called Scott and had a complete melt down. It went something along the lines of "Iwenthomeearly... becauseIdidn'tfeelgood... andI'mhomelate... andIwanttogotosleep... andnotwakeupforaweek..." Also, my digital thermometer is on the fritz, but I managed to get a reading of 99.3.

Yesterday morning, I woke up and took my temperature again - 100.3. No work for me! Fevers apparently exhaust me more than I realized, given my mental state the day before. By the time we made it over to the walk-in clinic down the road, my BP was high, my pulse was high, my oxygen was low, and my temperature was now 101.7! The diagnosis? Strep throat. No surprise, given my (mostly) lack of other symptoms. It still hurt to swallow, but swallowing was easier when I was drinking something. The doctor told me to take a decongestant to get the crap out of my lungs and when I asked if I was contagious, he said yes, until 1 hour after I take my first Amoxicillin. Seriously??

So yesterday I watched movies and TV, ate soup and ice cream, took a nap, and drank a lot of orange juice and water. That's pretty much the plan for today as well.

Today, I didn't wake up until 11:30, and realized that I was seriously congested. Two tissues full of snot later, I decided to take a shot of alka seltzer and then get in the shower and try to knock the rest of it loose. "The rest of it" turned out to be a golf ball-sized wad of disgustingness that flew right out of my right nostril with the help of some shower steam. (aren't you glad I don't have a stomach flu?)

Anyway, my throat doesn't hurt as bad today. On a scale of 1-10, I'll give it a 4 or 5. However, both ears hurt, I'm all snotty, and I'm pretty sure the fever is still there. The thermometer finally died yesterday - there's another one around here, but I don't really care enough to tear the house apart looking for it.

So like I said, don't look for me. I'm quarantined until at least Tuesday.

Now go wash your hands!