So, I've been sick for almost a week now, and it sucks. It first started last Sunday evening. My throat started hurting a little bit, but I figured it was nothing big. That happens to me every once in a while and I can shake it off without getting sick. I also noticed that right in the middle of my upper lip was what appeared to be a small cut. I figured I must have accidentally bitten my lip and that it was no big deal.
~Monday~
By morning I had a rather large sore on my upper lip. It had somewhat the looks of a "cold sore", but I've never gotten a cold sore in my life, and the sore was completely on the inside of my lip, not the outside like most cold sores. I felt a little weak in the morning, but I took some ibuprofen, showered, and felt alright. I still went to work and made it through the day just fine.
~Tuesday~
I did the same thing in the morning. I made it through a half day of work just fine, then at around 1:30 I was about to go home for lunch and was sitting at my desk. I got the worst case of the chills. I couldn't stop shaking. I grabbed my keys and headed downstairs to my truck. Upon exiting the building, the summer heat felt great on my body. I got to my truck, climbed in, and started it. Now, I don't know how hot it was in my truck that day, but probably 110°-120° inside from sitting in the sun for half of the day. The heat felt so good on my chills that I didn't turn the AC on - for the entire 5 minute ride back to our apartment. When I pulled into our driveway, I noticed that my body had not sweated a single drop. My forehead and face was completely dry. My back was completely dry. I hate getting sick, and especially admitting once I am sick. This finally did it for me. I called my boss and told him what was going on, took a hot bath untill all of my chills and goose bumps were gone, then climbed into bed and went to sleep. Tuesday evening my throat started hurting worse.
~Wednesday~
Now, not only do I not like getting sick, I don't like going to the doctor. But I can tell when I need to go to the doctor. When I can't eat anything because it hurts too bad to swallow, I generally make the trek over to the doctor. The doctor wasn't in the office on Wednesday, so I met with his PA. She tested for Strep Throat, but the test came back negative. She was surprised, because by looking at my throat she would have guessed that it was Strep Throat by the looks of how inflamed it was and by the white puss pockets of bacteria present. The last time I got sick was about a year ago, and it had similar symptoms and ended up being a sinus infection. She went ahead and prescribed antibiotics which would treat either one.
~Thursday~
Not feeling any better. When I had my sinus infection a year ago, I remembered feeling the antibiotics kick in after around 24 hours. I did not feel it this time. My worst fears were that whatever I had was viral, in which case antibiotics wouldn't work. I noticed a small bump forming on the side of my tongue. Allison said she gets those sometimes along with cold sores. In addition to my throat hurting so bad I cringe when I swallow, the sore on my upper lip has grown and is larger and very painful. The bump on my tongue becomes painful as well.
~Friday~
Still not feeling any better. When I woke up my lips were extremely chapped. By mid -morning I looked at my bottom lip and it looked like the sores were spreading all over my entire bottom lip. My lip had become chapped, cracked open, and infected with the virus. My gums were starting to hurt as well. Another bump had formed directly on the top of my tongue and turned into an open wound that was fiercly painful. Try brushing your teeth under these circumstances, much less eating anything. My throat hurt worse than it had hurt all week long. I called the doctor back and made an appointment for that afternoon at 2:45. The doctor looked at everything and said that I definitely have something that is viral - that's why the antibiotics were not working. He wanted me to finish them out, though, since my immune system is weak it will help prevent me from coming down with an infection. He finally classifies it as HSV Oral Viral Stematosis. In a nutshell, that is sores all over the mouth and throat. He explained that there are two groups of viruses that it could be. The one group is what includes the common cold sores that people get. The doctor was hoping that they were part of this group. He prescribed some pills where you take 2, then 2 more 12 hours later and it knocks them out. If that didn't work, I was just going to have to wait it out until it passes, because there is no drug that will cure the other group of viruses. He also prescribed some stuff that I swish right before eating that basically numbs my entire mouth and makes it somewhat bearable to eat. I took the first 2 pills at 4 pm.
~Saturday~
My alarm went off at 4 am, and I sat up in bed, reached over to the desk next to me, grabbed the glass of water and two horse pills, downed them, and went back to sleep. I was really hoping that I would wake up and my sores would be on their way out. WRONG! It must have been the other group of HSV viruses. I had to cancel our trip to Austin and miss the season opener for UT Football :-( I basically laid on the couch most of the day and watched college football. By the afternoon, my throat was starting to feel a little bit better. It still hurt to swallow, but I could tell that it was starting to turn around. I continued to put Carmex over all of my lips as recommended by the doctor.
~Sunday~
Throat still hurts, but it is making tremendous progress. My lips still have the sores all over them, but they don't hurt quite as bad either. My tongue still hurts pretty bad. I feel like things are beginning to see everything turning around. It may still take several more days to entirely shake everything. I'm finally starting to get my appetite back and eat more. I have lost about 8 pounds this last week while being sick. Allison was jealous that I lost weight so fast, but let me tell you - I'd much rather have those 8 pounds back than have had to deal with this sickness the last week. Now, I've been sick with a few bad things in my life before, but I'm not sure if anything tops this. I got food poisoning once from Mr. Gatti's macaroni salad (don't ever eat it) and threw up on the dot every 45 minutes for about 8 hours straight. The last 6 hours were pure dry heaving. That was pretty bad, but at least it was over with in 24 hours. My sinus infection was pretty bad too, but once the antibiotics kicked in, it went away pretty quickly. Not being able to eat because your entire mouth is in pain has got to be one of the worst ways to get sick. Or when you finally try to eat something, and a piece of food gets stuck between your back molars and your lip - normal part of eating - what do you do? You use your tongue to dig it out. Stuff like this you take for granted until you can't do it. I just tried to do that, but my tongue hurt so bad that I couldn't. I had to drink some water and swish around (which also hurt) until the food became dislodged. Yuck. Here are a few pictures of my mouth, which I'm sure you're all drooling at the mouth to see. Now keep in mind that they are starting to get better now - they looked a lot worse a few days ago:
