Follow-Up: Yes, I did go the Doctor for that sore throat... (Strep it is!)

[Paul F.]

I had decided that if I wasn't getting any better by this afternoon, I was skipping work at my "second" job and going to the urgent-care clinic.

Sure enough, although the morning was promising (woke with a much less sore throat, and no fever)... by lunch, the pain was back (with a vengence) and the fever felt like it was back.
Fortunatley, I DID make a point NOT to interact with people at a close range today...

Left work early, and spend a lovely 2-1/2 hours waiting for an exam...
Fortunately, the doctor was a very direct, very reasonble, guy. Took a throat swab, but said gvien where I work, and that it was "going around", he wasn't going to make me wait for the Lab results, but perscribe me the antibiotic he'd most likely perscribe anyway... And if it wasn't Strep, he'd call me, and if I didn't improve by Saturday, call him.
Fair enough...

Then I got to wait another hour and a half at the pharmacy... (I should have picked a pharmacy further from the clinic, and closer to home, to have them fax it to... oh well).

On the doctors advice, I'm using another sick day tomorrow.. ( I could probably GO, and just stay clear of people... but as much as I hate to use a sick day in the first WEEK of the year, I don't want to be a plague carrier... ).


Now I just wish I could swallow food without it hurting so damn much! I'm getting hungry!

[AlphaDog]

We told you so; we told you so! I'm glad you went to the doctor, because that was the right thing to do, both for yourself and all the little kiddies and their teachers. You wouldn't want to get stuck in a classroom next week because so teachers were out with strep that there weren't enough subs to cover, would you?!

[Paul F.]

AlphaDog;

Fortunately, I can't be faced with that awful situation.... California law forbids me to supervise students, since I'm not "credentialed" :-)

Given the time, and the costs of the perscription, I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to be a transitory bug...
Once I was sure it wasn't... I went!

Oh, and
[humor]
I wouldn't mind infecting the little bastard that hocked one on one of the keyboards I cleaned last week!
[/humor]

(If I could infect him with just a plain old cold, I might remove those humor tags...)

[Black Landlord]

Looks like I got it too, and I didn't even click on any of your threads.

[threeprong]

I think everyone here knew you had strep except you.

=D


I hope you knock it out quickly...

3P

[volcs0]

The reason we treat strep in kids is to prevent the post-strep complication of acute rheumatic fever. This is very rare in kids and extremely unusual in adults. Treating strep pharyngitis in adults shortens the symptoms, on average, by 1-2 days. More importantly, in your case, is that it reduces the exposure of your students to the bacteria - after a single dose of antibiotics, you are no longer contagious. For most adults, though, not treating pharyngitis - strep or not - usually is no big deal, and infection almost always clears up on its own.

[Paul F.]

I'll take 1-2 days off my left tonsil feeling like it's the size of my big toe (with broken glass embedded in it).

Fortunately, I can't infect the Macs at work.... (I don't think Macs can get bacteria any more than they get Viruses.. ;-)

[rgG]

Glad you went to the doctor Paul, but sorry your throat still hurts. Hopefully you will start getting better right away. Maybe you got it from something you ate, JK.

[kap]

Just now we bought a tube of Permethrin cream (horse pesticide?) from a WalGreen drive-through. Doctor thinks S/O has a mild case of Streptococci. We suspected that I got it from the pre-K children at the daycare center I work then passed it onto her. I myself don't have the infection.

[Lux Interior]

Thanks for staying home.

I never understood the "going to work when you feel like death warmed over" thing. My wife does this and it annoys me to no end! Our lives aren't like the movies where you miss a day of work and the "Boss" decides you aren't dedicated enough and gives the other guy the "big promotion".

"But I have a meeting!"

Cancel it, I say. No one likes damn meetings anyway!