Strep

I got hit with strep this week, and I got hit really, really hard.

My throat really hurt on Tuesday night, but only on the right side. I thought maybe I had an ear infection, and since we had travel plans, I made an appointment for the next afternoon.

There was no sign of an ear infection but she swabbed me for strep and sure enough, Thursday morning I got the results, which were positive.

That same morning I saw the tell-tale white spots on my throat.

I went to work Thursday because it’s our block day and I knew there wouldn’t be a sub for me and my colleagues would be asked to cover my long 90 minute classes. Also, I was going to be gone Friday and Tuesday already and no sub had picked up those jobs either, so my colleagues would be covering me then too. I made sure to use tons of hand sanitizer and stay away from my students.

But by lunch I had a fever and felt awful so I had someone cover the last hour of my last class and went home. I think what happened was I let my ibuprofen lapse and the pain and fever got so bad so fast. I was sobbing as I waited in line for my antibiotics at the pharmacy. Swallowing especially was excruciating.

I went to bed at 6pm on Thursday night, with the plan of seeing how felt in the morning and making a game-time decision about our trip. We were supposed to drive down Friday, stay in LA one night to see my college friends Saturday then drive to San Diego Saturday night before hitting up Legoland Sunday and Monday.

All the articles said I’d feel a lot better after 24 hours of antibiotics, and I was able to take two doses the first day, so when I woke up feeling not awful on Friday morning (I took a lot of ibuprofen during the night) I decided we should go for it. Mostly I didn’t want to lose the money we’d spent on the hotel in LA, but also I was worried about finding available chargers on the drive down on a Saturday.

We made it down to LA and I even drove the first half, but I still feel horrible and it’s only a steady stream of high doses of ibuprofen that is keeping me going. I really hope tomorrow, after four doses of antibiotics I feel better, because right now I can’t open my mouth to take a bite, my lymph node is so swollen. Thank god it’s only on the right side of my throat or I’d be totally out of commission.

I thought I had had strep before, but holy shit I’ve never had anything like this. It’s so, so painful. By the end of the day I just want to cry. (I do cry actually, quite a bit.)

I hope I can sleep and that tomorrow I feel better. Mostly I hope no one else in my family get this, because oh man, it is the worst.