4/27/11 – “Poor, poor pitiful me…”
Guys, I’m in some serious pain here. You know how I mentioned that I had a sore throat yesterday? Well it has been kicked up a notch. The sore throat got worse before I went to sleep last night. I actually made the mistake of taking a deep breath and felt a stab of pain in my neck and chest. This is no usual sore throat. I’m talking the mac daddy of sore throats here.
I’m not gonna lie, the pain from breathing freaked me out. What if I have some sore in my throat and it closes up over night?! That really did run through my mind. My throat did not close up but the pain got worse overnight. Basically what I’m experiencing feels like I have a huge bruise on the outside and inside of my throat that someone is constantly poking – painful, right? I also get sharp stabs of pain when I accidentally take a deep breath, laugh, or bend. Yes, I said bend. Earlier today I reached down to pick something up off the floor and felt this sharp pain run through my throat. So weird. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
As soon as I woke up this morning I sent my oncologist a text (yep, we are on texting terms). I listed out my symptoms and asked if this could be related to the chemo. She said there were a lot of viruses and colds going around and that if I got worse I would need to come in. Luckily I was already going to my primary care for a prescription refill – I could kill 2 birds with one stone.
I suffered through the day until my appointment. I was swabbed for strep – negative, not strep. I then got swabbed again for a full mouth culture. Sounds gross, right? That’s what I was thinking. Someone needs to come up with another option to swabbing. That is a terrible feeling. What I really want to know is, are there people who can suffer through that and not gag? I think it’s impossible. I should hear back from my test results tomorrow. My doctor went ahead and wrote me a prescription for what she thinks it might be. I will take ANYTHING that gives me some relief.
After the appointment I hoofed it over to Kroger. All that poking and prodding made me feel even worse. Just walking hurt. I waited a little longer than the 5 – 10 minutes that they told me it would take, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get home and shove those pills in my mouth. (Something’s wrong with that sentence, don’t you think? It’s true though. I already have a counselor so don’t worry about me and popping pills.) By the time I made it home the pain was excruciating. I know that’s probably hard to believe for a sore throat but just think about the bruises reference and imagine someone is now punching the bruises.
Fortunately I am a walking pharmacy. I sent my oncologist a text to let them know what was going on and asked if I was allowed to self medicate – Percocet please. I was given the green light so I am now slightly (only slightly) more comfortable. I haven’t taken Percocet in a while so I’m definitely feeling the effects. Kind of like drinking 2 glasses of wine but without the headache.
I now have developed a low fever that I can only assume will increase as the night goes on. Why is it that when we are sick we usually feel worse after the sun goes down? There has to be some medical reason for this. It’s always been that way for me. Maybe the vitamin D contributes to the feeling of wellbeing more than we know?
I’m hoping that my medication starts to heal whatever I have going on inside. Don’t worry about me. I’m ok, just in pain. I am VERY glad that I didn’t get this during my chemo week. That would have been terrible. If I could have anything to eat I would like some broccoli cheese soup. My song of the day is “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” by Teri Clark. The meaning’s different but I’m pretending that it applies. Plus, country music fits my situation.
Night y’all!
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