dun dun dun….

In my last post, i mentioned a small sore throat that had appeared before and after my bike accident. That sore throat decided to grow up into a raving monster pretty much overnight, meaning that i spent all of yesterday huddling miserably in my room and got no sleep last night. Kat and Chris drove me over to the student health center, where after a large amount of consultation my issue ended up going up the chain of command by about 3 people ( i seem to create these situations where additional higher-ups need to be called). The first lady i talked to peered inside my mouth, blinked, and said ‘well, your tonsils are really swollen.’ Indeed, they were swollen to the point that they almost touched the dangly thing (epiglottis), probably the reason i had trouble swallowing even a motrin yesterday afternoon. (Yesterday night, chris had to cut up a painkiller for me and niamh fed it to me in bits of yogurt so i could get it down at all).

She took two throat swabs (great pain) to eliminate strep, and sent me down for a blood test (which i kinda freaked out about, since i was already a bit upset and worried, not to mention in pain). As soon as it was over, i went back up and waited for a bit until the lady came back. She gave me something to numb out my throat, but it had to be gargled. I can’t gargle. Since there wasn’t exactly another option, i told her i’d give it a try (wrote it out, rather, on a notepad i’d brought with). I’m fairly certain most of it ended up on my lips, tongue, and maybe a few drops in the area of my throat, after a great deal of choking, gagging, and semi-spasming. There’s a reason i don’t do mouthwash for the dentist. It may have helped a tiny bit, but i think it would have been better if i could have gotten it in the right place. XD

The lady then walked me down to urgent care, where i saw an actual doctor (usually, going to student health services means talking to/working with a nurse-practitioner, which actually works out fine). Looking at my symptoms (sore throat, swollen tonsils, lack of other cold symptoms, mild fever) and the results from the blood test, he diagnosed mono.

Yes, mono. Commonly known as ‘the kissing disease’. This, for someone who has barely been in contact with more than 5 other human beings all summer. Who has not seen, let alone kissed, her boyfriend for weeks. Joy oh joy.

He walked me through the options, which were somewhat limited by the fact that i couldn’t swallow anything (to swallow water or even my own saliva, i had to force myself through the process manually). We ended up deciding on an anti-inflammatory med (which i get to grind up and stick in applesauce until i can swallow the damn thing) and a liquid-form painkiller. He and the lady assisting him gave me the dose of each while i was there, and was that a pathetic sight!  Jesse, hunched up, taking a tiny spoonful at a time of powderedpill/applesauce and wincing each time, and then trying to sip down two little cupfuls (3 teaspoons) of something that burned a bit if swallowed wrong, accompanied by involuntary little noises of pain. I did somehow manage to get all of it down, and the situation was declared the worst sore throat they had seen. The doctor wrote me two prescriptions, one for each, and i picked them up (one from the pharmacy at the student health center, the other from rite-aid, since student health center didn’t have it).

It still hurts to swallow anything, but i’m slowly eating a thing of yogurt (i started it with the painkillers last night, managed about two spoonfuls total this morning before giving up) and it’s going down ok. Tomorrow i’ll probably try to bike or walk over to Jamba Juice (about 15 minutes away by bike), to try and get some liquids/food into myself (i didn’t have anything to eat yesterday besides a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and half a tortilla; it hurt too much to swallow anything). I’m pretty dedicated to getting the liquids in (ie. water). They asked that if i couldn’t manage to swallow enough to get my liquids up a bit, that i come in tomorrow to get them by IV. I should be able to do it, especially since i now have painkillers that seem to actually work.

The other downside to this (besides what felt like 10 on a 1-to-10 scale of pain) is that i’m supposed to take it easy for awhile, and not do contact sports for 4-6 weeks. Ie, no taekwondo. I discussed it with the doctor, and he suggested that i should be able to do the non-contact portions after a week or so, but to leave off anything contact lest my spleen explode. He also said it would probably be safe after about 4 weeks rather than 6, since i’d had my bike accident and suffered no ill effects from that. In that regard, i guess i’m pretty lucky that i’ll be able to go back to doing those things sooner rather than later, and that i’ve still got basic mobility (biking is fine, my spleen DIDN’T burst).

All in all, not the best of first weeks. I guess this means the quarter can only get better, right? right? And it’s good to know what’s going on, at least, even if there’s not much i can do about it. Hope everyone elses’ lives are going significantly better than mine, and best wishes to all until next time!

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