Most of the other symptoms have resolved, but my throat has been very, very sore, especially at night, to the point of keeping me awake. My ears hurt, too, to the point where I can't play music except softly or they hurt. So last night, when I was up and in pain, I sent a message to my nurse practitioner giving her the symptoms, and asking if it could be strep, regardless of the negative test the other day. She wanted to go ahead and see me, so I went over lunch. The good news is that I don't have strep--the test again was negative. I do, however, have thrush (oral Candidiasis, basically a yeast infection in my throat), probably as an opportunistic infection after being sick, coupled with my use of Breo, an inhaled medicine that can contribute to them--although I do rinse my mouth and brush my teeth after every use--and my diabetes. My ears, meanwhile, are fluid-filled (it's called otitis media serous), and bulging a bit inside where they're not draining. Rather than put me on a steroid pack, which can wreak havoc with blood sugars, she gave me one steroid shot, and I'm to continue the Stahist AD. She didn't want to put me on anything with a stronger dose of pseudoephedrine because of my ADD medicine, which, while not really a stimulant, might have reacted. She also had me go on Diflucan and I have to swish and swallow this thick-looking liquid three times a day for 17 days that looks particularly nasty. But a Candidiasis infection can go down your throat to your organs, so best to do it. One reason I went ahead and got tested for strep was that I planned to go visit my mom in Danville's hospital, and it's best not to bring strep with you to visit someone in the ICU. My throat infection isn't contagious per se--it's an overgrowth of a yeast most people already have. So I was given the okay to visit. Ironically, it turns out that there were contact precautions in place there for Clostridium difficile, a particularly nasty bug that cause terrible gastrointestinal distress. I had to use a gown and gloves. So I'm probably more at risk for infection than she is. But I did wash my hands thoroughly.
But she knew me and could talk some. That was good. I stayed an hour-and-a-half and then headed back to Lexington. The only problem I encountered was some cardboard in the road that had to be straddled and sort of obstacle-course-driven. It could run someone off the road, it was substantial enough, but I got home okay. I drove exactly 100 miles today--I put my trip odometer to zero this morning when I started out and was on my gas light, and then kept it going after I got gas. I took YKWIA to a couple of appointments and we stopped at the pharmacy to get our respective medicine between trips. I took him by the store and Jin Jin, then dropped him off and headed to Danville about 7:30 pm.
Now I've eaten and I should think about taking the scary looking stuff (I can't eat or drink for 30 minutes afterwards) and heading to bed.
Good night.
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