The very hour that I submitted my last essay for last semester, I felt a tickly feeling at the back of my throat. My neck stiffened. A headache descended upon me, and my body more-or-less collapsed. I think it was the stress from the previous semester that finally got to me.
After New Year’s Eve, though, I thought I was getting better, but then immediately after class on Tuesday, I started to have a relapse. The headache and sore throat came back with a vengeance, complete with dizziness, neck pain, dry itchy eyes, and swelling at the back of my throat. They were the same symptoms I had back at my parents’ place that I thought had gone away, but much worse than they ever were there. So this morning, I went to the McGill walk-in clinic before it opened, so that I would get a spot, hopefully before class started at 10h.
I’m really quite happy about the timing of the way things turned out. I arrived at 7h45. The clinic opened at 9h. I was 10th in line, so I was processed and saw a nurse by 9h30. She ordered some blood work and a throat swab, which was done by 9h55, just before my class started. The Biomedical Ethics Unit building is literally across the street from Student Health Services, so I got there on time. (I really didn’t want to miss the first class.)
I was given an appointment with a doctor who would interpret the lab results at 11h, so I told my prof, and snuck out of class at five minutes to. I arrived at the clinic at the very moment that the doctor was calling my name in the reception room. She told me that I have Mono (good grief!) and that I have a lot of the Mono. I might also have strep throat, but the throat swab results won’t be ready until tomorrow. I also have a follow-up appointment for next Wednesday. Anyway, the appointment lasted 10 mins, and I was back in my seat by 11h15. The seminar had taken a break and so I didn’t miss very much at all.
But now I think my body is just screwing with me, because after all that, I got home and started to feel better immediately. I haven’t taken any pain-killers all day, and yet I have no headache. I stand up, but I don’t get dizzy. I can concentrate, and I can even swallow like a normal person now. I feel fine.
What this means for me practically is that I can’t go swimming, probably for a week or two, while I’m still infectious. It also means I can’t drink for about a month, and I have to take it easy, physically. The doctor says my liver is sitting about a centimetre below my ribcage, and it usually doesn’t like to live there, because it could get poked by something and start bleeding internally, and it’s having a hard enough time fighting off all the Monos as it is, so I can’t play football or rugby.
I blame the Métro for this. I think that’s where it came from. Too much touching of hand-rails, and I admit that my hand-washing is not always up to code. I’ll let you know whether or not I have strep throat. If I do, it means antibiotics for me!
