So ever since my friend Jens left 5 weeks ago I’ve had a throat ache on and off and have just been feeling a little blah. I felt fine one week and then blah the next. Rather annoying but I thought it was the weather change and all the stress going on with work and all these visitors (who I truly enjoyed but it was a lot going on). I kept taking my good old German medicine and the throat aches left me again. Well, last week on Monday after a tremendous amount of fun at the Nascar race (touch football, moonshine, redneckin’, BBQing, sitting on a state trooper’s bike) and more weekend fun with Rich and Scott here, I woke up with pretty bad throatache again. OK nothing new. Annoying but whatever. Well Wednesday I was fed up with it as I could feel that it was my tonsil that was swollen and hurting me. Went to the urgent care center (I love those, doctors offices that are open before and after work and where you don’t need an appointment) expecting to get a prescription for antibiotics and good.
After some confusion from the nurses (uhm you already asked me all those questions) they took my temperature, which was up, and a strep test. You know, the one where they poke long cotton swabs in your throat. Gag! Well that was negative. So the super nice doctor lady comes in with this box full of vials and needles and she’s like: we’re gonna take your blood. Yikes!!! Didn’t expect that!!
Long story short, I got out there and grabbed my “wonder mouth wash” (lidocaine, anti allergy, and anti something else mix that completely numbs your mouth) and some antibiotics. Cool stuff, you only had to take 3 pills and that was that. My tonsil got better instantly. I had some stomach cramps after the first pill but was fine thereafter. Yay!
Then the doc called sometime later to tell me the back-up test for strep was negative. Cool. Today they called me with the back-up results for the blood test (quick response test had been negative, too) and as I had already suspected, it’s Epstein-Barr virus that has been bugging me and making me feel iffy all these weeks. Sounds scary but it’s really not, just very annoying. Does mono or Pfeiffersches Druesenfieber ring a bell? Makes you feel fatigued, have fever and sore throat. Some people get so sleepy they can’t get anything done but most people don’t even have any symptoms. And I’m not some outcast or whore for having it ;-), 50% of children have it and 95% of people under 40. Kinda like chickenpox, once you’ve had it you’re done with it. And no, kissing isn’t the only way you can get it, it’s airborne, too, or you know sharing a drink etc can do the trick. Yeah yeah. Oh and great fun, it can last weeks!!
Annoying. I wanna go back to the gym and I wanna feel super healthy again (though I feel really good today, hopefully it’s pretty much over by now) but I guess I’ll continue taking it easy, eat lots of fruits and go to bed early. Sigh. But yeah no worries, it just sounds scary. And hey, odds are you’ve already had it ;-).