Life of an ALT: Disease

While I'm not really an ALT or even in Japan anymore, since this post is related to the previous events I have it titled thus. I might have more Life in Japan posts later also, as I go back through my pictures and journals. Some of the stories are interesting and I like to share. And since I'm not sure anyone even reads this I don't think it matters one way or the other.

Anyway.

I came back from Japan sick. I had been sick for a week before the earthquake, and was starting to get a little better aside from a cough (which for me usually lasts a few weeks anyway, once I get one), and then I ended up spending that cold wet night on the school floor. Which made my cough even worse, and my cold came back en force.

The next couple of weeks I had limited access to warmth and food and medicine, so had no real chance to get better until I finally got home. Only I didn't really get better.

My throat was really sore, and I was often tired and in need of naps. I figured the throat was because of the coughing, obviously, and that I was just jet lagged, even though I don't usually experience jet lag. And then on Thursday last week, I looked in my mouth to see if my tonsils were swollen from all the coughing, like I usually do because it's a concern of mine when my throat is really sore.

They were super sexy. Swollen up so huge my uvula (that dangly thing in the back of the throat) was pushed sideways. Literally horizontal. And there were white spots all over the tonsils. It was nasty looking enough that I agreed to see a doctor when my father insisted.

On Friday, the doctor took one look at them, went "Jesus God! Uh. I'll be right back." And ran out of the room.

Never a good sign.

I tested negative for the strep swab they did, and I could hear the entire staff at my medical center clinic place convene at their nurses' station and discuss what it could be. The guy that looked at me was actually a nurse practitioner, and he had the doctor come in and look down my throat also. She agreed that it was pretty nasty.

This inspired much confidence in me.

I ended up with a choice between the emergency room and a couple of shots, and he'd look at me again on Monday. I got FOUR shots (FML), a prescription, and my doc called the damn CDC to get an infectious disease specialist because they were afraid I might have diphtheria, since I had actually been in that nasty tsunami water and wasn't sure when my last tetanus/diphtheria shot had been. The CDC guy said that if I wasn't better by Wednesday I'd get to be quarantined.

So. I had a follow up appointment with my doctor yesterday to see if the antibiotics were working and all the nasty in my throat was going away. It had actually gotten slightly worse. So he sent me to the emergency room, with specific instructions on what to tell them. My dad's girlfriend drove me because I was already exhausted at that point (and my dad is stuck in Wyoming on a job, poor guy, he was really upset when we told him what was up).

We get to the emergency room and immediately after parking a lady starts yelling at us for stealing her parking spot, threatening us, and I'm convinced that I'm going to have to give her a beat down when she starts to get out of her car. But Barb and I just walk away and luckily she doesn't follow. It had my adrenaline doing strange things though.

When I filled out my paperwork I put on there about my doctor's concerns for diphtheria and why, which got me seen rather quickly considering there were eighty thousand people in the emergency waiting room. The lady that took my vitals didn't even know what diphtheria was though, my dad's gf described it as severely as possible, and that it was an airborne toxin. To which I promptly got a mask shoved in my face, and put ahead of everybody else in the waiting room on being seen. Because my adrenaline had been weird my vitals showed up a little abnormal, which helped a bit as well. And I got a room almost right away.

A room with a little sign on the door that said no one could go in without proper protective covering. Until they could figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

After several tests, and only two needles (they put me on an IV and just took everything off that. the first needle hurt like hell and failed though, so I count it) they finally diagnosed me.

I have mono.

Yeah. No idea how the hell that happened. Well. The nurses and doctors, by then well familiar with my Japan story, told me my body probably got worn down during the the tsunami survival aftermath, on top of already being sick, and it just gave up.

But they didn't do anything for my tonsils except prescribe vicodin. Because that will help, surely.

Anyway, I got to go home with a prescription of lots and lots of bed rest and to not swap spit with anyone I actually like. Or cough on them or sneeze on them or share anything with them or touch them...

My family has me quarantined in my room.

My physician told me to keep taking the antibiotics anyway (they don't work on mono since it's a virus, and antibiotics only help with bacteria), just to be safe, because my tonsils are really really gross, and if they're still not better after a few days I'll have to go see an Ear Nose and Throat guy to fix them. More to look forward to, yay.

And that is that. So. No Ebola, and no diphtheria. My symptoms are so weird though it's no wonder they had such an issue figuring it out.

And hopefully once this has run its course--in a freaking month or so--that will be the end of Japan trying to kill me. ~crosses fingers~