my fucking strep throat

anyway, I do blame her.

http://orbita.starmedia.com/~pjl314/Arab_Strap_-_Philophobia-front.jpg

It was the biggest ever cock you'd ever seen, but you've no idea where that cock has been.
You said you were careful - you never were with me.
I heard you did it four times and jonnies come in packs of three.

WTF

i feel like shiiiiiiiiiit

I HAD THIS ONE MONTH AGO! I CANNOT BE SICK WITH IT AGAIN. I HAVE THINGS I NEED TO DO!

FUCK YOU THROAT. FUCK YOU RIGHT IN THE... the... THE THROAT!

bizarre-o 1,000 year old doctor at the walk in says it's not strep.
still, throat; you're on notice.

cold mung bean noodles in sesame oil are helping me a lot right now.

My sore throat awoke me yesterday morning. No scratchy throat or drip the day before that are the harbingers of impending cold. The pain is mild to moderate, diminishing after Advil and spoonfuls of honey. No cold or fever symptoms after almost 48 hours. Is it strep throat?

Maybe. Big strep red flags - I had it two weeks ago - are fever and sudden onset of pain (but no sneezing, coughing, etc.). Not everyone has a fever, but it does hurt a lot, best described as "like swallowing broken glass." Your best bet is just to pop into a drug store clinic where they can swab and test in about 5 minutes. It's easy to spread strep, and if you do nothing and it seems to go away on its own, you can still spread it for a couple of weeks, I think.

On the plus side, if you get it, it reacts really well to penicillin. Like, shockingly well. You'll feel better in 24 hours or so. (though obviously keep taking the medicine as prescribed).

so CVS or Walgreens will do the swab? I plan to stop by the faculty clinic tomorrow but I got one of each a couple minutes away.

Yeah, I went to Walgreens. They just swab the back of your throat and stick it in a test tube. Very accurate and I believe takes 6 minutes. Then they can prescribe the penicillin right there and then, if you need it.

i seem to get a bout of pharyngitis once a winter, and this year's happened last week -- few things are more annoying. some fluids, tylenol, and being tended to did the trick.

in adults pharyngitis is almost always viral, and antibiotics are overprescribed to a pretty alarming degree. if you seem to be holding up well with your symptomatic treatments, i'd probably say keep riding it out for a few more days until it's run its course. but you could always pop into a minute clinic and see an NP or a PA, who will probably inappropriately prescribe you antibiotics to ease your mind

So I went to Walgreens. When I told the pharmacist that I had neither fever nor cold, she said not to worry: take Advil, use lozenges, etc; that it was likely a mild throat infection, which I don't usually get. "If you had strep throat," she said, "you'd know."

Yeah. "Like swallowing broken glass."

clinicians are notoriously inept at distinguishing strep pharyngitis from viral (which is much more common) on clinical grounds, and at least as well-known for their confidence in their diagnoses. recent research has shown clinical (ie, no diagnostic testing) diagnosis to be no better than a coin flip. the likelihood of (an adult) having strep pharyngitis does increase with a higher score in what's called the centor criteria, which is a checklist of the following things: (1) history of fever, (2) tender cervical lymph nodes, (3) pus on your tonsils, and (4) absence of cough. you're only supposed to even order an antigen test if the score is 3 or 4, or if the person has some sort of immunocompromised state or is at particularly high risk for rheumatic fever for whatever reason

so yeah you won't "know". but again if painkillers, honey, and fluids are providing reasonable relief, you can stick with that

The clinic I went to actually did a rapid strep test, which was pretty rapid and pretty accurate. Is that the antigen test you mean?

Well, suspense over: it's a cold.

Yawn.

what do i win?

For guessing that it probably wasn't the thing he thought it was because it usually/often isn't and because he didn't exhibit its most common symptoms of fever and sharp pain? I dunno, that's probably worth a medical degree, at least.

Cold and sore throat gone.

Zicam helps.

Also, time. And rest.

I got strep! I don't think I've had this since I was a kid. It kind of sucks, I'd rather not have it anymore.