Doctor, Doctor!

I almost took a trip to the emergency room last night: I had a sore throat all day that got worse last night. After work I went to my parent's house to clean (so Mike could get into the master bathroom to finish it after Michael stopped in the middle of remodeling it) and their house is very dusty. I felt a little worse after being there for nearly two hours, but not that bad so I went to my water aerobics class. As soon as I got in the water, I felt a searing pain in my throat and it was difficult to breathe. I did one lap around the pool, but decided to get out. I sat on the side and watched Melissa finish class and hoped the pain would go away, but it didn't. The pain was unusual in that it hurt to inhale but not exhale, and I didn't have shortness of breath. It was definitely in my throat and not in my chest.

One of my fellow classmates is a doctor and he suggested I call my doctor right away and not wait until morning. Melissa followed me home and I called NIH because I don't know who to contact anymore since I'm not officially a patient anymore. I was interviewed the nurse on-call and she was a little grumpy about whether or not I should go to the ER, but she took my number for the doctor on-call to call me. The doctor on-call interviewed me and said I could wait to go to my primary care physician for a throat culture because he said I didn't sound that terrible on the phone (my breathing was normal and I wasn't having trouble swallowing).

I felt better this morning, but called my doctor anyway and scheduled an appointment for today. Dr. O'Connor took a throat culture (boy, that was fun having a cotton swab shoved down my throat) and the preliminary in-office results were negative for strep throat, but she is sending the other swab out for testing. She didn't think it would be strep, but it could be allergies and a combination of the dust and the pool may have caused a reaction. Since my immune system is weak, any minor cold or allergy will be blown significantly out of proportion. I'm supposed to keep an eye on things and call if I get worse.

Mike also joined me at the doctor's office because his ankle has been swollen for several weeks and he saw an orthopedic doctor on Friday who recommended he get a Lyme disease test just to rule that out. His doctor took x-rays and didn't see anything that could be causing his ankle to swell, but a symptom of Lyme disease could be swollen ankles. Dr. O'Connor wrote orders for his lab work but didn't think it's Lyme disease. She thinks he may have re-aggravated an old injury from years ago and it's just reappearing now. I just hope it goes away soon because he hasn't been able to play volleyball as much. My ankle (from my sprain last week) is still sore, but it's getting better. Mike and I make a great couple right now - two swollen ankles!