Ominous whiteness.

The news gets less and less happy, but at least there is an end in sight. It really might be true after all that things happen in clumps. I don't necessarily follow the 'happen in threes' rule, but at the very least, pairs. We've all been there; I don't see a point waiting for a third thing to happen just for it to make a nice little number.

Anyway, I'm sitting here staring at the first prescription bottle I've seen in... I don't even know. I don't think I've had a prescription since the 5th grade when I had some sort of bizarre cough that required chalk-like chewable tablets that tasted like, well... chalk. Today I'm looking at very adult amoxicillin capsules to be taken twice daily until gone. Amazing.

It started on Monday. It may have been a virus, but I woke up with a sore throat and became increasingly achy and tired all day. So achy that if I pushed my finger ever-so-lightly on my arm, it hurt. I just wanted to sit down, and then really all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep forever. But I had to work until midnight, which was probably the longest shift I've ever worked -- the night was never. going. to END. UGH.

The sore throat got worse, and although I was still tired on Tuesday, I wasn't achy anymore. Today rolled around, and I had about had enough. I went through an entire box of throat lozenges, half a bottle of DayQuil, too many ibuprofin tablets to admit to, and I woke up in the middle of the night of a sore throat. Who the hell wants to wake up because their throat hurts?

Finally, I stuck a new battery in my flashlight and checked in the mirror and lo! scary white spots! How ominous! I thought, ugh, BACTERIAAAA!!!! Although in my mind I think it went a little more like this:



So this is me on the phone to my mom this evening:

Me: Mom, I have a weird question. I'm fairly sure I have strep throat. What do I do?
Mom: The best thing would be to go to one of those urgent care places.
Me: Can I do that right now? Do I have to wait until tomorrow? [It was 5pm. Business hours anyone? Do walk-in clinics have business hours? I don't even know.]
Mom: No, you should do that right now. Do you want me to pick you up?
Me: Yes, can you take me there?

And thus I proceeded to a clinic called FastCare where I was a) thankful to be the only one there, and b) grateful to have health insurance. It turns out I most likely do not have strep (whew), but the unhappy fact of the matter is that I do have a very infected tonsil. Not so hot! And it's painful, damnit! I'm slurping up the last of a chocolate malt that was supposed to calm down the inflamed, dry, scratchy nuisance of a stupid tonsil that I've been dealing with for three days now.

I'll be the first to admit that it's pretty unusual for a 26 year old to not know how to go to an urgent care clinic. I didn't know where one even was. I'm sure I had no idea what the procedure was from start to finish. Easy questions, simple tests. No strep! Easy enough to figure out as it was, I was still greeted with surprise by the pharmacist when I told her I had never taken amoxicillin. I mean, obviously it's good that I never have to go to the doctor, however, it makes me almost painfully anxious about doctors and hospitals when I have to consider them at all.

So it may be weird, but I was pretty darn excited to get prescribed a drug today. I'm mostly excited to start feeling better, and being able to swallow yummy foods without wincing every time.

Things should start looking up now. The weekend has a lot of good stuff in store, and I want to feel better for it! Plenty more to come where that's concerned...