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May. 8th, 2009
( inventory of symptoms: )
That's not strep, right? I swear, except for the tired and run-down, I feel fine. (Note for the record: I'm not fussed one way or the other if it's strep or not, except if the solution is that I should pull out of the concert on Sunday. I do not want to do this. What I'm looking for is reassurance that I won't be hurting anyone if I go sing tonight. Hit it!)
That's not strep, right? I swear, except for the tired and run-down, I feel fine. (Note for the record: I'm not fussed one way or the other if it's strep or not, except if the solution is that I should pull out of the concert on Sunday. I do not want to do this. What I'm looking for is reassurance that I won't be hurting anyone if I go sing tonight. Hit it!)
So my auto-diagnosis was based on comparing my symptoms to those listed and described at webmd.com:
My parents arrive tomorrow; my dad was all beside himself when I told them I'd made a seder, and he wants me to make matzo ball soup, so there will be chicken soup over the weekend. If that doesn't heal me, I expect I'll be in touch with some MDs on Monday. Sigh.
The most common symptoms of strep throat are:So that's two out of five -- I tend to conclude that I'm nursing some kind of tonsillitis back here, though whether viral or bacterial is unclear. As my friends and co-workers haven't been coming down with big ol' swollen tonsils, I concluded that my section would be safe particularly if I didn't cough or sneeze or touch anyone, which I did not. So I went to rehearsal, and my high notes are where they've always been. My middle register's a little goofy, in the way that happens when you get a little tickle in your throat and suddenly a note in the middle of the treble clef goes haywire as if you were Peter Brady. But this will pass.
- A sudden, severe sore throat. -- check. Tuesday night I went to bed right as rain; Wednesday morning I woke up gagging.
- Pain when you swallow. -- no, not really.
- Fever over 101F. -- not even close. (I don't even get to 100F, except for very large values of 99.)
- Swollen tonsils and lymph nodes. -- hell, yes.
- White or yellow spots on the back of a bright red throat. -- no. White spots, yes, but red throat, no, and also that's not where the spots are.
My parents arrive tomorrow; my dad was all beside himself when I told them I'd made a seder, and he wants me to make matzo ball soup, so there will be chicken soup over the weekend. If that doesn't heal me, I expect I'll be in touch with some MDs on Monday. Sigh.
next update
May. 8th, 2009 10:32 pmThe advice nurse says I have to come in and have my throat swabbed because if what I've got is strep or another bacterial infection, Bad Things could happen to my heart if I leave it untreated and it doesn't clear up on its own.
Sigh.
At least I don't have to haul down to Falls Church tonight -- the lab closes at 11pm, and we were having this conversation at 10:28, and she agreed with me that I couldn't get there safely or legally in time. So it's the much nearer office first thing tomorrow morning, and I will be out in plenty of time to fetch my parents at the airport, and they will have pity on me.
(The nurse was also not impressed with my report that I didn't have a fever and that the highest my temperature had been today was like 99.4. She felt that these statements could not both be true. But I'll tell you what, I get my idea that 99-ish isn't a fever from all the times I've felt flu-y and counted an elevated temperature among my symptoms, and pointed to 99 and change, and had them say Welllll... and not concede the point even when I tell them my baseline is like 97, so your "normal" 98.6 is a little high for me, and 99 on me is higher than 99 on other people -- which I realize sort of defeats my argument that today's 99.4 is Not A High Fever, except that it's medical professionals who have shot me down all those times in the past, with their assurance that everyone is in a little different place in the normal range and even if your baseline is a little low it's not really a concern unless your temperature is really elevated i.e. 100+, so what the hell, I figured they were right, and now that I adopt their philosophy, they shoot me down from the other side. Harumph.)
I still feel fine.
Sigh.
At least I don't have to haul down to Falls Church tonight -- the lab closes at 11pm, and we were having this conversation at 10:28, and she agreed with me that I couldn't get there safely or legally in time. So it's the much nearer office first thing tomorrow morning, and I will be out in plenty of time to fetch my parents at the airport, and they will have pity on me.
(The nurse was also not impressed with my report that I didn't have a fever and that the highest my temperature had been today was like 99.4. She felt that these statements could not both be true. But I'll tell you what, I get my idea that 99-ish isn't a fever from all the times I've felt flu-y and counted an elevated temperature among my symptoms, and pointed to 99 and change, and had them say Welllll... and not concede the point even when I tell them my baseline is like 97, so your "normal" 98.6 is a little high for me, and 99 on me is higher than 99 on other people -- which I realize sort of defeats my argument that today's 99.4 is Not A High Fever, except that it's medical professionals who have shot me down all those times in the past, with their assurance that everyone is in a little different place in the normal range and even if your baseline is a little low it's not really a concern unless your temperature is really elevated i.e. 100+, so what the hell, I figured they were right, and now that I adopt their philosophy, they shoot me down from the other side. Harumph.)
I still feel fine.