Wednesday 5 March 2008

Poorly

I'm so very poorly and its driving me fucking insane! This year so far, I've had more illnesses than I've had in my entire life.

WARNING GROSS DETAILS BELOW FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A FRAGILE DISPOSITION

For the past 3 months I've had sort of a chronic sore throat, except its not actually my throat its more my nasopharynx (the bit above my throat) It was more of an irritation than anything most of the time with a feeling of sticky mucus I needed to clear. Sounds a bit like PND (post-nasal-drip) right? well yeah, that's what the doctor thought that I saw about a month ago. Unfortunately that night I awoke with a raging fever and was ill for a good few days, my throat became acutely worse, was painful to swallow, I felt generally like shit, had a headache, was clearing some greeny mucus from my nasopharynx and had a few days off. I couldn't get a doctors appointment and I improved but was left with the same chronic PND like symptoms, I checked myself out for malaria and glandular fever, both were -ve but I did have some raised white cells.

Last week I awoke with the same fever- even with the same accompanying dream. By this time it was starting to drive me slightly crazy. The symptoms got worse and worse over the weekend and I finally got to see a doctor (I basically had to crawl there feeling atrocious) He didn't have much of a clue but agreed that it might be time for some antibiotics so gave me some penicillin.

So what were my symptoms? Fever, vomiting, Very painful swallowing (but I don't think in your typical tonsillitis type way) Lots and lots of mucus I had to clear which was green and brown (clearing this did offer mild relief), foul taste in my mouth, being barely able to talk due to throat, sinus headache and feeling generally like shit.

Things do seem to have improved in the last day or so with the antibiotics in that my fever and generally shitty feeling have gone now but my throat/nasopharynx is still ridiculously painful and is producing lots of mucus which since the antibiotics has become black and reddish. Drinking cold water relieves my throat temporarily, I must have drunk litres and litres of it this last week.

I've been taking loads of paracetamol and decongestants as well as my penicillin which is helping too, at least to make the mucus a bit less sticky. missbliss has been looking after me but all I've managed to eat is a bit of scrambled egg.

I've missed the start of my A&E placement which I'm really pissed about as it only 4 weeks and i'm probably going to miss about a week of it. I was really looking forward to it too. I'm thoroughly, thoroughly pissed off with life at the moment.

What the fuck is it and how do I get rid of it for good?

Tonsillitis?
Sinusitis?
Something else?

sorry for not blogging recently
This illness is DRIVING ME BLOODY BONKERS!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to life in the health service. I spent the first year of my first HCA job being ill. I'm guessing your GP patients infected you. Are you not lucky? In the ED the Juniors have the "peads sore throat" if they spend more than a shift in there. All thease sick people are contagous. On the plus side you'll have an immune system like a tank in a years time!

Beach Bum said...

You could try something that singers use all the time to get rid of URTIs, the neti pot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8sDIbRAXlg

It's a very good way of flushing out your nasal passages. It's also possible to snort the salt water into your mouth and spit it out, that cleans the back of your nasal cavity a bit better.

You can get them online, or a yoga store should have it. Just remember to use non-iodized salt. I use kosher or pickling salt.

I hope you're feeling better.

ditzydoctor said...

sounds like sinusitis! and rather awful at that. best to get some saline and flush your nose (the neti pot thing is good too). better do something about it - complications of sinusitis aren't pleasant! :(

get well soon tlm!

medstudentitis said...

I'm surprised they didn't put you on something a little more broad spectrum than penicillin. I hope you feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

Sounds nasty. Hope you're feeling better soon.

Anna said...

Oh yuk, poor you... That sounds utterly rubbish.

Me and my housemates have had a lot of sickness this year - my theory blames the stress of impending finals knackering us out plus the festering hospital environments we spend most of our time in.

I really hope you feel muchly better very very soon.

Lucy said...

Strep? Not sure if it could be that, my knowledge of human ailments is rather limited I'm afraid.

Sounds nasty though, I hope you feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

Try saline spray, and keep drinking lots of water just to loosen the mucous. Don't over-do the paracetamol, and watch labels on cold medicines that might have even more of it their product. - I know of someone, a nursing student even - who accidentally took too much and she's now a vegetable.

Maria

XE said...

I have nothing medically useful to add, just wanted to say I hope you're feeling better soon! Being sick is lousy.

Elaine said...

So sorry you are proper poorly. Much betterness soon.

Ms-Ellisa said...

My money would be on the sinusitis...

Take care LM and hope you get well soon :)