Sick Bay

This is where I've lived for the last 4 days.

Ok. I've just experienced strep throat for the first time in my life. And let me just say, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. This was seriously the sickest I can ever remember being. And, mind you, I've had mono, pneumonia, and valley fever (this is a special virus reserved for Arizonans). It started out as a sore throat on Wednesday night, but as long as I kept ibuprofen in me, I wasn't too bad.

Until Saturday. My fever wouldn't break. Aches, chills, headache. I could barely swallow. I've never had a sore throat that bad. Even my own saliva felt like golf balls going down and I had to perform a mental pep rally at every swallow. "Come on, you can do it! Ready, ok!" I eventually just started spitting into a cup, cuz I simply couldn't swallow anymore. Mmm. Yum. But I kept trying to convince myself that it was the dreaded influenza, which isn't "treatable", it just needed to run it's course and that at any moment I would start feeling better. And since we let our health insurance go, we avoid the doctor like the plague. (Oh, man. I could blog for a month about health insurance companies. I've decided they are evil. Necessary evil, maybe, but evil, nonetheless.) But by Sunday night, I truly wanted to die. Beam me up, Scotty, I be done. I laid awake all night, just waiting for the clock to strike 8 am so Matt could get me to Urgent Care. I was like a 90 year old lady. I could barely walk. I truly considered letting him carry me in, but decided that would hurt even worse. So I shuffled in and luckily we were the first ones there. We got in within 15 minutes, the doctor checked me out, swabbed my throat, did a rapid strep test, and voila'! Strep it is. I was both disappointed and so relieved. Disappointed because we've always kind of prided ourselves on not being a "strep" family. Like that's really something one can pride themselves on. Sometimes you've just got to grab the glory where you can. But I was also so relieved because I had an answer and one that I knew was treatable.

Modern medicine good.

I am not a big antibiotic person, but as we waited for the results, I pictured the doctor telling me it's not strep, just viral and there was really nothing he could do for me. I also pictured myself grabbing the doctor by the lapels and screaming in his face, "Have mercy, man! You've got to give me something!!!!" Lucky for him, the results were positive. He wrote out the prescriptions, we paid our $994, and were on our way. Just kidding. It wasn't that much. And actually, it ended up being about half of one month's insurance premiums. So take that, stupid insurance company! A good neighbor brought dinner in tonight, and I am feeling improvement. Unfortunately, Matt is feeling a sore throat coming on. Sorry, babe. I promise to be better by tomorrow and I'll carry you in to urgent care. Well, I'll drive you there, anyway.

And do you want to know what really bites? I didn't lose ONE stinkin' pound! Gimme a break. Now that truly is evil.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go find the Lysol.