Shoulda knocked on wood…

Well, Mike, you were right. That last post was tempting fate, apparently, ‘cuz about 6:30 on Monday night, the right side of my throat swelled up. A lot. We’re talking golf-ball size. I, of course, stayed completely calm. Riiiiiiiight. I think it was more like this:

I was in the living room, watching TV, and Kyle was in the office, on his computer. I don’t think my throat suddenly swelled up, but it suddenly became noticeable when it hurt to swallow the Cheez-Its I was munching on. “Kyle!” I yelled. “What?” “Something’s…wrong!” And with that, I raced into the bathroom to examine my neck in the mirror. Yep; very swollen on the outside, and it was becoming difficult to swallow. Commence major loss of composure. It should be noted that Kyle’s throat had been swollen for a day or two already, but I’d ordered him to keep it to himself, knowing full well that if I got a sore throat I’d freak. Apparently, the boy doesn’t follow orders well.

Well, remembering the standing orders from both my surgeons, we proceeded to try and get some medical care. Our new HMO (Kaiser Permanente) is a little weird, but we’ve really liked it so far. So we called the appointment/advice line, hoping to get some info on an Urgent Care facility. Apparently, Kaiser doesn’t do those, and this is lame. We were told that all the clinics were closed, so our only option was the ER. Also, the nurse was a jerk. I totally get that I sounded absolutely ridiculous, wanting to get in to see a doctor pronto for a swollen throat I’d had for 10 minutes with absolutely zero other symptoms. I really do. But I explained my situation to her and tried my very best to make her understand why this was serious; she just never got it, and she seemed very exasperated with me. Which, in the emotional state I was in, just hurt more. In any case, the ER seemed like overkill at that point, so we got an appointment for first thing Tuesday morning (my doctor wasn’t available all that day, so with another doctor), and we just figured that if we really needed to, we could always go to the ER whenever we wanted to.

After that, I wanted a priesthood blessing, so Kyle called one of our home teachers, Barry, who came right over. He and Kyle gave me a blessing that really helped calm me down a lot. Tuesday morning, Kyle went with me to the dr.’s office (my appt. was at 9), but had to leave before the dr. actually came in (he had a meeting at 10, and she didn’t come in until 10). I was glad he was able to sit with me, though, since it helped keep me from freaking out.

I had been concerned about explaining the severity of my situation to the dr., especially after my experience with the nurse on the phone, and since she was completely unfamiliar with my history. I needn’t have worried, though: she was very nice and understanding and didn’t act like I was some crazy person. (Perhaps it helped that she could see the huge, relatively fresh scars on my neck?) She said my right ear was a little swollen inside, so I probably just have a little bit of a cold, but she gave me some antibiotics just in case it’s bacterial. (She acknowledged that ordinarily she wouldn’t do that, but if it would help me feel better, she was fine with doing so.) And yes, I know there’s a large chance the antibiotics won’t have any effect at all. But as I know very well, it could be bacteria, and if it is, I’d just as soon get rid of it ASAP before it has a chance to develop any complications.

So I’m taking my antibiotics like a good girl. I don’t think there’s any change today, but at least it’s not any worse, eh? And I’m not too worried, really. If I think about it too hard, I start fretting, but then something else pops into my head and I get distracted and quit worrying. So that’s good. Hopefully, this will be better soon.