Strep Throat

Ok, so I have strep throat. If you are one of the lucky people in this world that have avoided this horrible illness, I'm jealous. It's not your typical sore throat, let me tell you. This has been the worst sore throat I've ever had. It's not like when you wake up in a dry house and you have a scratchy throat, you swallow a few times, brush your teeth, take a drink and it's gone. This sent tears pouring out of my eyes each and every time I would swallow or even try to talk. My husband and kids were amazing at learning my sign language so quickly.

I got the start of it on Wednesday night. Adam came home from work and we started to visit and I noticed this strange kind of lump in my throat. I didn't think much of it, then woke up the next morning with that really scratchy feeling like the air was dry. Thinking it would just gradually go away, like most sore throats do, I got ready and went to work. Not only did it not go away, but it gradually got worse throughout the day. The smart thing of me to do would have been to take Friday off of work and get checked out at the clinic, BUT, couldn't do that because I had a pot-luck/baby shower to host for Taun and Tram at work.

We had been planning it for over a week and I just couldn't bail. The guys brought meat to grill and everyone else brought something as a side, salads, hot dish, fruit, chips, beans..ect. I even had a few baby shower games planned.

I suffered through the day with a smile on my face. I invited Tom's daughter Annie, also. She used to work at Teal before her husband was transferred to Germany for his job. Two years later, they are back and now expecting their first baby. It was so fun to have her at the party. We all had such a great time. The food was great (what I could swallow anyways) and they guys even participated in the games I brought. We all guessed how big Tram's belly was with toilet paper and then I put rice and paper clips (supposed to play with safety pins) in a bowl and had whoever could pick the most out of the rice in a minute won. I had free dilly bars at the Dairy Queen as prizes. Everyone seemed to enjoy the lunch and party, so I consider it a success.

Adam had gotten us tickets to the Twins game for Friday night, which we were all so excited for. Alexa has been to several games, but this would be Lillian's first. I was so excited to go, too, but wished I felt better. We quick ate dinner, got ourselves decked out in our Twins gear and made it to the dome with time to spare. Alexa was pretty much ready to go within the first 10 mins, but Lillian was so pumped. She was so excited to see all the people and the action down on the field. She was taking it all in and loving it. Her and Alexa had a blast watching T.C. the Bear drive the 4-wheeler around the field and shoot tee-shirts up into the stands. Lillian made friends with everyone sitting around us. She would wave and smile and play peek-a-boo, but she sure paid close attention to the game, too, clapping her hands every time someone would start to cheer.
The big highlight was directly 2 rows above us a guy proposed to his girlfriend. The camera's were swarming and everyone was screaming and cheering them on. Can you imagine? All I kept thinking was, "Oh my gosh, this guy just asked this girl to marry him in front of 26,000 people and a camera crew in front of her face, and now she has to sit there for the rest of the game while people stare and gawk". How romantic!

We left after the 4th inning and we were up by 2 (I think). Apparently we missed a really good game with someone hitting a grand slam or something to win it at the very end. You can see how much I pay attention..Ha!

By the time we reached our car, my throat hurt so bad, I had already made the decision that I was going to the clinic the first thing in the morning. I was going to bite the bullet and do something I hate more than pretty much anything, and that is to have a strep test. I've had a few of them in my day, but luckily they always came back negative. For those of you who have never had a strep test, let me explain. They basically make you stick your tongue out and say Ahhhh, and then use a tongue depressor to make sure your tongue stays out and then they shove this super long q-tip down the back of your throat and swab it around real fast. For some of you, that may not sound so terrible, but for me and my gag reflex, it's not fun.
I cried on the way home and tried to sleep, but just couldn't.

Adam and Alexa took the car in to get an oil change Saturday morning and as soon as they got back I headed straight for the minute clinic in Target. I signed in and waited just a few minutes and the nurse took me back to a room. She took my blood pressure and asked a few questions before doing the strep test. I told her about my fear of those big long q-tips and the scary tongue depressor and promised her that I'd stick my tongue out really far and keep it there as long as she didn't use the depressor. She agreed, and said she promised to go really fast. After I cried a bit and took a few deep breaths I finally was able to stick out my tongue and have her get to the back of my throat with the q-tip. Unfortunately, she didn't think she got a good enough swab and asked if we could do it again. I was in so much pain that I was not going to risk a false negative with the strep test. I needed them to give me some meds immediately. So, I let her try again. A few more deep breaths and a couple more tears and she was able to get a better swab. I knew this because I really gagged that time. Ugh! She said the test would take 6 minutes to read and by the time the doctor was able to take a peak down my throat and say, "Oooh you have strep throat" the test already was reading positive. I don't know why they made me go thru all the pain and suffering of the strep test if he could just take one look down my throat and "know". All I cared about at that point was getting some medication and fast. He gave me a prescription for amoxacillion, 500mg 3 times a day for 10 days. They filled it right there at the pharmacy at Target and I was good to go. I went to the dollar store and stocked up on toothbrushes. The doc said I needed a new one every day for 10 days. I also worried about my kids getting it. He said I've been extremely contagious so watch for the signs, fever, not eating, headache, stomach ache, which are all signs of strep in kids. He told me to stay away from them as much as I could for the next 24 hours and use the same cup, plate and eating utensils for 10 days and don't wash them with the others. My pillow and blankets are all kept in plastic bags when they're not being used and I've kept my distance from the girls and Adam, too.

I cried a lot Saturday, rested as much as I could and took my 3 doses of antibiotic. Again, the family got real good at reading my sign language and were amazing little helpers. Alexa and Lillian could not have been better. Lillian was a little confused why mommy couldn't say anything or hold her close, but daddy sure stepped up and took care of everything. I have the best husband in the world that would literally do anything for me and I can't thank him enough for that. He willingly did all the daily household tasks and handled all the girls' needs with not one bit of frustration. God bless him!!!

Uncle Ben surprisingly came over Saturday, even knowing I was sick. He is a bigger germ-a-phoebe than I am and won't come around if one of us has the smallest sniffle. But, I think the kicker was that 1.) he was bored and 2.) he and Adam wanted to grill. They took the girls to the grocery store while I was napping and loaded up on some beef and pork. They grilled away outside with Alexa while Lil and I watched 10 mins of Shrek, 10 mins of Horton Hears a Who, 10 Mins of High School Musical 1 and 10 mins of Ratatouille. She obviously couldn't make up her mind. Ha!

The girls were so tired by the time we ate, they quickly satisfied their little bellies and begged to lay in their beds.

I laid on the couch and Ben and Adam went to get a movie at McDonalds. They brought me back a wonderful vanilla shake that I was only able to drink a fourth of. Even icecream hurt!!
The doctor told me that I would be feeling better when I woke up the next day, so I was holding on to that hope all thru the night. I was able to sleep a little better, but still woke up with quite a bit of pain. Luckily, the antibiotic kicked in and gradually made me better throughout the day. By noon I was even able to talk, and even eat a little something that was solid. Oh, the relief of the thousands of sharp knives cutting my throat felt so good.

We took Ben to Farmington to drive him past the house we are "still" waiting to hear back on and then stopped at Target to get a few much needed things like soap, laundry detergent, diapers and wipes and a few groceries. It had rained all day, so we couldn't do much else.
We watched the Miss USA pageant with the girls and each picked our favorites. Adam had Miss North Carolina - or West Virginia, whichever one WON! I had Miss Arizona, Alexa had Miss Kentucky and Lillian had Miss Utah in the yellow dress. We all made the top 5 and what do you know, Adam's girl won, go figure!

Lillian fell asleep right away and Alexa made a bed on the floor and watched Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters with Adam and I.

Overall, I feel like it was a wasted weekend being sick, but I guess it's a good thing I didn't have to take any sick time off work. I'm not contagious anymore, but still carry the strep for about 7-8 more days. Now all I can do is pray that Adam or the girls don't get it.

I will have pictures of Lillian's first Twins game to come...