Wednesday, February 23, 2005

What the good doctor said

After some pressure during lunch at work yesterday, I decided I was going to leave and try to see a doctor. Rather than infect people at work, it made sense and I could feel better hopefully within a week. Drove home, grabbed my insurance card and fired up the computer to see where I could go.

I am burning up in front of the pc, feeling like shit, and the website is basically unhelpful. At looking around for 10 minutes, I thought of what someone at work had said. Call whichever physician is closest to you, and if they cannot see you, ask them where you should go for immediate care. Thankfully, I was able to go to a doctor just down the street.

I went in, filled out their forms and waited. I felt like I could fall asleep. They took me to a room and weighed me. Though I was fully clothed, I was a bit shocked to see that I weigh 15 pounds more here that I do at home. I guess I have a really crappy scale at home. I go to an exam room and hop up on the table. The lady swabs my throat and tells me a doctor will be in soon.

The doctor comes in and reviews the chart. She looks into my ears and mentions that one is on the red side. Ok. She talks about the tests they are going to do for strep throat. If it isn't strep, they will know in 10 minutes. Then they will draw blood to test for mononucleosis.

I don't mind giving blood. Only problem is that they usually have a problem finding a vein. They end up digging around a bit and as it sounds, it can be painful. The first girl gives up and the second does some digging before she hits oil. A couple minutes later, then tell me I do in fact have mono.

Great. I didn't get to make out with some hot chick. I just so happen to get it from casual contact. I feel gypped. I feel like crap and didn't get any action. So my cure is to do nothing. Being a virus, I need for it to work its course and die off. In fact, the medicine that Dr. A suggested I buy is in fact worthless as it could do more harm than good. The doc tells me to call in to work and, if I can, take the rest of the week off. Relax and let the body rest. I can handle that.

So when I got home yesterday, I changed clothes and pretty much crashed on the couch. Didn't eat. Just sweated. I ended up moving to the bed where I pretty much did the same thing. But now I couldn't sleep. For whatever reason, my mouth was like a faucet. The saliva glands are working overtime. Any time I fall asleep, I either wake up drooling like a baby, or choking on it. I get sleep in roughly 1 hour fits. I wake up more tired than the day before.

I don't really have any food that won't hurt my throat when I eat and there is absolutely nothing on daytime TV to watch. I am now in hell. If I sleep like I did last night, I know I won't go into work. I will then take Friday off as well. But what to do about the weekend. I am suppose to go away with some friends. I don't want to infect anyone and may have to drop out. I don't know what to do yet.

3 comments:

J. Gambino said...

So you got mono hey? I wouldn't worry about infecting anyone this weekend. The jury is still out about how long a person is contagious, but it is mostly spread through the saliva. So some jerk spit all over you or what?

James Wigderson said...

Do you remember the episode of Happy Days when Richie caught mono from the Fonz's girlfriend? And the Fonz didn't want to punch Richie because Richie was his friend but then the bathroom door caught Richie in the face and everyone got mad at the Fonz because they thought he hit Richie? Yeah, that was pretty funny.

I mention this for no reason.

AletaR said...

Sorry about the medicine advice. I bet it's worse now to sit and wonder where the hell you got it from. Hope you feel better by Friday. Guess you and E won't be sharing a pillow saliva man...