Okay, so I'm alive still, and I am well. I returned to work last Friday after just over a week of illness. They aren't exactly sure what caused my tonsillitis, but whatever it was is gone. They tested me for both mono and strep and both were negative. They also did a CT scan of my neck, which seemed to show an abscess, but the ENT who was at the hospital said that there was nothing that he could see or feel, so I was treated with steroids for the swelling while in the hospital and antibiotics while in the hospital and for a week after I got out.
My condition when I went to the hospital was as follows:
Temperature taken by the nurse in the ER: 103
Days without being able to keep food down: 3
Days without being able to keep fluids down: 2
So I was weak, sick, tired (I wasn't sleeping, either) and dehydrated. Then when I was in the hospital I was on a no food or drink diet for the first night, and I learned that IV fluids may hydrate the body but they do not take away thirst! The treatment worked very quickly, however, and I was feeling much better Monday morning, but they wanted to keep me for another 24 hours for observation, at least to make sure that I was able to feed and hydrate myself.
My nurse on Monday evening was nice enough to get special permission from a doctor to let me take a shower. Small thing, but made me feel a lot better. One thing I could not get was antacid. After not having any food in it for four days, my stomach tended to react strongly to anything at all, which made eating hard, and I couldn't take anything for it because it wasn't on my approved list of medication. Antacid - it's over the counter, people, and I wasn't on any oral medication for it to mess with! So I dealt with heartburn and read Harry Potter in the middle of the night when sitting up was the best way to get relief. I got released Tuesday morning with a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to have a follow-up appointment with the doctor in a week.
Meanwhile...I had to take a leave of absence from work because I missed more than 3 consecutive days. This included getting a doctor's note to release me to go back to work, an official department of labor form for medical leave and calling in daily to update them on when I was coming back. I had lost my voice and also had no stamina, so it took me until Friday to get back to work. They hadn't seen my paperwork that I delivered on Thursday, so my account to log into the computers at work was disabled. On top of that, my computer was dead. It took them almost until my lunch time on Friday to get those things fixed, so I had an easy first half of my first day back. It was hard, though, because I just wanted to sleep. Saturday I also just wanted to sleep, but I had to work instead ;).
It is amazing how something as small as a slightly swollen tonsil can turn into two really swollen tonsils and a two day hospital stay (and medical bills that my insurance company may or may not cover...that's another story in itself). I have to say, however, that there are much worse things that could have landed me in the hospital and I am grateful that my first experience in the hospital was relatively "pleasant" and that I was there because I needed IVs and not because I was deathly ill!
That's it in a...nutshell? So my nutshell is big. ;)
In other news...my sister should be having that baby any day now!
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