Late July, my boyfriend called me suddenly because he had a fever and chills. He asked what to take, and he sounded horrible. He felt sick for the next few days, and by the weekend he felt better. However, he completely lost his voice. He spent all of Saturday without a voice, and woke up Sunday with a severe sore throat and double ear infections. That next weekend, out of nowhere, I lost my voice. I had no other symptoms, and I felt fine otherwise. After my voice came back, my throat was definitely irritated and I developed a cough. My boyfriend finally went to the clinic and got antibiotics, and he was feeling great by the following weekend. So he's feeling better, and I have really mild symptoms that really only bother me in the morning and at night. I figured whatever I caught from him was working it's way out of my system.
Well I was wrong! The weekend before week 3 of this nightmare my throat started to get really bad in the morning and especially at night. My lymph nodes swelled up so bad that I could barely move my neck. Now here's where things took a turn for me. I had realized that sometime in July, I had noticed I had this tiny bump on the left side of my neck. It was painless and solid. I shrugged it off, but looking back, that's right about the time I noticed my wisdom teeth were finally showing signs of decay (it's because they're impacted, not because I don't brush my teeth!). The one on the left side also bothered me slightly for a few days, which has happened before, and I think it's either a mild infection or something got stuck in there that I can't see. So it's on the side of that lymph node, and that's probably what that's about. However, with this illness on my mind, I completely forgot about that as a possibility, and jumped straight into the mindset that I was probably dying of cancer (I'm dramatic, I know). My boyfriend offered to take me to the clinic he went to this past weekend, but it was a low-cost one in a strip mall, and I knew I wouldn't feel "satisfied" with whatever they told me. I know in order to get any piece of mind about what was going on, I'd have to see one of the doctors at the Northshore clinics here. So, Wednesday night, at the peak of my paranoia, I went.
At the time of my visit, I only had a mild sore throat. The doctor did a pretty thorough exam on me, and felt the lymph nodes in my neck several times. She concluded that considering I had similar symptoms as my boyfriend, whatever I have is viral, and she wasn't concerned. She told me to wait it out, and not to worry about my lymph nodes, because they could take a month to return to normal. I felt a million times better after the appointment, but little did I know it wouldn't last. So, that takes us up to speed of two weeks of this. So this past weekend, I felt "okay". One of my eyes got super red, but didn't hurt or feel irritated at all, and a few days later the other eye was the same. That went away finally. Monday night I felt feverish, and had the chills. I barely slept all night going from chills to overheating. I ended up leaving work early, because I felt horrible, and that night was my first day of class. When I got home from class, my throat was especially bad, and I looked at it in the mirror. Bam, huge tonsils covered in white spots. Great! That night I feel like I had a fever again, and I just felt awful. I went to the Target clinic the minute they opened for a strep throat test. It came back negative, which is what I was expecting, because I'm certain this is all viral and not bacterial. The nurse gave me antibiotics just in case, and I've been taking them. So, it's Friday today, and I'm staying home this weekend to relax. I should mention my other fun symptoms, because there have been so many! Constant headaches, aches, general malaise. My immune system is so shot right now that I'm literally getting everything. I have a canker sore on my cheek, the very tops of each of my canine teeth got slightly red and irritated yesterday, and no matter how much I brush I'm getting so much tartar all of a sudden. I read that it could all be viral too. How would you not feel like you were dying after all of this?!
Today, I feel okay! I feel like I haven't had coffee in 4 days, because that's true. The strep throat is almost gone, but my throat feels okay anyhow. I don't have a constant headache, and I'm able to regulate my body temperature. My canker sore is going away, my teeth look good, my lymph nodes are going down (except that one!!!!).
Helping my immune system plan of action:
Continue taking antibiotics regardless of effectiveness.
LOTS OF WATER.
Multivitamin as usual.
Eat well.
Cranberry pills with Vitamin C and probiotics.
Salt water rinses.
Lots of rest.
No drinking, no caffeine, no more stressing out.
I'm skeptical that this is over with, but I'm determined to stay on the course of getting better. Because of all of this, I lost the money I've saved so far for my wisdom teeth, and my surgery is next month. I've decided that I'm going to pay off this medical stuff right away, and cover as much as I can of the wisdom teeth with my student loan remainder. I'll get to the wisdom teeth in a minute.
So while all of this has been happening, I noticed a small pimple/wart like bump on the top of Nietzsche's left ear. It's flesh colored, doesn't look irrirated, and doesn't seem to bother her. At any other time, I would've taken her to the vet immediately, but with money being so tight night now, I've just been closely monitoring it and her habits. Everything seems okay, however, it's been a few weeks now. I decided to try to pop it if it was just a pimple. It did, and a little bit of clear liquid came out and then some blood. Uhgggg, why. Why now? It could still be a pimple, and it doesn't look like anything bad after my countless hours of googling what it could possibly be. If this continues, I'm going to take her to the vet asap when I have even a little money available (unless it turns into an emergency, because my cat is worth any cost). So not only am I feeling bad, but I can't help the one creature that relies on me for care and I feel like such a failure. My cat is the most important thing to me in the world, and the only thing that makes me really happy. I broke down crying last night, because I started thinking about the fragility of life again there with my purring cat in my arms. What if I did have cancer (I don't think I do), and what if she has cancer? Why do I keep getting into this rut lately? I'm happy that I could identify as soon as it happens, and I stop myself, at least. "Jessica, you're thinking negatively, stop and think about happy things".
A coworker actually reminded me that general anesthesia is dangerous when it comes it my wisdom teeth (and everything, really). I've been so fixated on the cost, my current illness, and being scared about the procedure in general, that I totally forgot about the risks with that. There's a good chance I could experience that anesthesia awareness, because I have 2 of the little known risk factors working against me. Also, I could die. Also, it's expensive! So, guess what, forget that! That'll help bring the cost down, and I'll just ask them to dope me up as much as possible.
I'm excited about September being over with, because all of these things will be behind me, and I'll have a clear path of what to do financially. I know that soon I'll get back to a place where I have money for clothes, and a little extra to put into savings every month. It's just the waiting, the feeling terrible, and the uncertainty that is terribly unenjoyable right now. It think it's really take me until next year to officially get back on track, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
