Tonsillitis?!?

It started Monday evening when I noticed that my throat was a little dry and I had a lot of sinus drainage. I took some Loratadine, Claritin if you will, and went to bed. I was surprised when I woke during the night and found I was sore and hurting all over!

On Tuesday, I got up and took my shower to get ready for work. I made it to work, but I was moving slow. My skin hurt! Have you every felt bad where your skin hurt? My did and it didn't matter whether I touched it or not, it was so sensitive that even clothes touching was painful! I knew I didn't feel well, but thought it was the cold front pushing through another something that I might be allergic to and just stirred up my sinuses. We had an appointment with the insurance agent concerning our adjuster's estimate about 2:00 pm. I told them at work that I thought I would just go home after that and rest. I really was not feeling great and thought a nap would make things better.

I found that I just sat all afternoon and was cold most of the day! Now that is really unusual for me. I mean we are talking about someone who has a window unit A/C above her head all the time running. I mean all the time, even in the dead of winter. I sleep very warmly and can't stand to wake during the night sweating under the covers because I got to hot! Well, when I went to bed Tuesday night, I didn't even turn on the unit. That was something real different for me. And then during the night, I would get up to pee and come back to bed shivering! So......much to Tollie's delight I cuddled with him. He is a cuddler and because I sleep so hot, I don't like to cuddle. But cuddle I did that night and found when I got warm, the aching stopped in my bones.

I woke Wednesday morning, after Tollie had left for work, to a ringing doorbell. I jumped up to see who was there. It was my son-in-law. He needed some socks before he went to work. Remember, my kids have been staying with us until their apartment is ready. Maybe this week!?! Anyway, I let him in and told him I didn't feel well and went to take a hot shower. I realized right away, my neck was swollen in all the glands and I could hardly turn my head. It hurt every time I swollowed. After my shower, I got the flashlight and took a look. EWUUU! My tonsils were swollen and had white spots all over them. This was de javu! I use to have that happen when I was kid. But never in succession enough to have them out. I remember my mother taking and "painting" merthiolate on them. That was probably putting mercury poison in my system, but who knew then! Anyway a quick call to the doctor.

Well, my regular doctor was in today. He is semi-retired and I never can remember the days he is in and those he is out! But he had not appointments. Would I be interested in seeing another doctor or even a nurse practioner? Certainly. I will see the janitor if he has a key to the medicine closet! Would it be alright to go to another location? Sure! So four hours later I was seeing a nurse practioner.

SETMA ~ Southeast Texas Medical Associates. They are a monster of a machine! I mean they have four known locations to me and employee hundreds. They probably employ more than the local hospital! The amazing thing about them is that they are paperless. You see I can go to another location because all my history is on the computer. They don't need my chart! Although when I walked in the office to face a room full of people and a long desk with a choice of about eight clip boards to sign in on, I did wonder why they had shelves of charts in the back!

I finally found the correct sign in board and signed in, noticing that only four people were ahead of me and their names were highlighted. Hopefully, they were all on their way to the pharmacy or some testing to be done! However, I was willing to wait and wait, I just need some drugs! After a very few minutes my name was called. I paid my co-pay and sat back down. In another fewer minutes, my name was called. I found the young lady at the front door. Where was she taking me? Oh, across the hall to another suite of exam rooms! I told you they are a monster of a machine. She got my info on how I was feeling and said someone would be right with me. Sure enough, the nurse practioner came in after about four minutes. Wow! That is better than any doctor! She got the repeated info and then asked to exam me. She looked in my ears and then asked me to open my mouth. I obliged to a resounding Whoa! You do have a problem! Yes.....I thought that was why I was here!?!

She began to tell me I need a flu shot but not now while I was sick. She wanted me to gargle with salt water twice a day. Oh, I like her. She uses them ole home remedies. She proceeded to tell me to take Advil, not the generic, but Advil. It would help with the pain and swelling. She asked if I was allergic to anything and I could tell by my response the wheels stopped turning. Yes, I am allergic to penicillin and Ceclor. Oh my! Those are the two best things to treat this with. So.....she pulled a trusty little devise from her pocket and said, "let's see what Stanford has to say about this." She punched the screen several times and then asked if I had ever taken Biaxin. Yes! I had. I think it was for a urinary infection or tooth infection, can't really remember which. That is what she would prescribe. She wanted to give me a shot but the only injections she had was for the things I couldn't take. She said she was do a culture for documentation but that she would be treating me the same with or without it. I didn't think it was necessary. We both had seen my "kissing" tonsils and knew there was infection. Why have a culture to tell us the same?

I left in a few minutes with a prescription and assurance that I would call if I did not start to feel better in the next few days and that I would call tomorrow if I needed something for pain. So off to the pharmacy to get my drugs. It would be a while before they could fill it so I went home and asked Tollie to go after work to pick it up.

This morning, I do feel somewhat better. I still have swollen tonsils, especially the right side. But I am not cold anymore and even slept with the A/C unit on last night. Of course, when it is cold outside, it only blows air, not cold air. So I slept pretty good. Only waking once with a really bad sore throat and took some more Excedrin because it had worked so well earlier and went back to sleep. I am up, showered and dressed, wondering if Tollie made it Uvalde okay.

Tollie left last night about midnight to start his backpacking journey. He offered to call it off to stay home with me, but I assured him I would be alright with him gone. I do have my drugs and I can sleep without any one here.