On May 8th, 2012, I was diagnosed with strep throat. Now in reality that is no big deal, but it does bring up a little history that I have with strep throat. This is the first time in 17+ years that I've had strep throat. It's something that I probably should even have to worry about, but for whatever reason I still do.
When I was in third grade I had a string of getting sick. Whether it was stomach aches, normal colds, or injuries, I managed to miss a lot of school. I ended up missing more than 50 days of school and a lot of the time that I was at school I was in the nurses' office. I was doing homework from the third quarter near the end of the school year, a lot of it was even thrown out and the points were placed on the bigger projects that the kids did. This was a rather rough thing to deal with as most of the stuff that I ended up having to do, I never learned so I had to wing it as much as I could. Thankfully, I got through everything and I didn't get held back, although my grades were rather poor.
Most of this could have been prevented had I had my tonsils taken out. That is because during third grade I had at least 6 cases of strep throat in a matter of 5 months and one case of scarlet fever (the second phase of a streptococcus bacteria infection) do to a silent strep throat that wasn't detected earlier. Doctors tend to recommend having someone's tonsils removed after a few cases, so the reason for why were never removed confused my parents and still confuses me till this day.
It's kinda funny thinking about what strep throat was like back then. I remember times when I couldn't even swallow anything that was solid cause it hurt so bad. I became so paranoid anytime that my throat would be a little sore that me and mom became a constant at the walk-in. Sometimes even when my mom didn't believe me, I would end up testing positive, which was kind of a victory to me back then since I was just a little kid and my mom was a nurse.
The scarlet fever case was a little more shocking though after a learned more about everything. I ended up noticing a rash and my stomach had started hurting so I had my mom take me to the doctor and they diagnosed me with scarlet fever. I was also informed more about the three stages of a streptococcus bacteria infection. Stage One is strep throat, stage two is scarlet fever, and stage three is rheumatic fever. I wasn't sure what that meant, but then it was explained to me that if it had progressed to rheumatic fever that it could have killed me. Not something you want to tell a kid in third grade who has a history of getting strep throat.
However, after that bad string of cases I ended up not having a single case till two days ago. I have always been cautious whenever I get a sore throat. Most of the times I know it's from sinus drainage from a cold that I get, but I still always check my throat, which is awkward trying to hold a flashlight towards my mouth while trying to look down my throat in a mirror. This time I just happened to notice something that didn't seem normal, and I had the hunch that it had to be strep. And at least this time it was a strain that wasn't caught by the fast test, which is supposed to catch 99% of all cases. So, at least 17 years later I'm still throwing curve balls when it comes to my "old friend" strep throat.
When I was in third grade I had a string of getting sick. Whether it was stomach aches, normal colds, or injuries, I managed to miss a lot of school. I ended up missing more than 50 days of school and a lot of the time that I was at school I was in the nurses' office. I was doing homework from the third quarter near the end of the school year, a lot of it was even thrown out and the points were placed on the bigger projects that the kids did. This was a rather rough thing to deal with as most of the stuff that I ended up having to do, I never learned so I had to wing it as much as I could. Thankfully, I got through everything and I didn't get held back, although my grades were rather poor.
Most of this could have been prevented had I had my tonsils taken out. That is because during third grade I had at least 6 cases of strep throat in a matter of 5 months and one case of scarlet fever (the second phase of a streptococcus bacteria infection) do to a silent strep throat that wasn't detected earlier. Doctors tend to recommend having someone's tonsils removed after a few cases, so the reason for why were never removed confused my parents and still confuses me till this day.
It's kinda funny thinking about what strep throat was like back then. I remember times when I couldn't even swallow anything that was solid cause it hurt so bad. I became so paranoid anytime that my throat would be a little sore that me and mom became a constant at the walk-in. Sometimes even when my mom didn't believe me, I would end up testing positive, which was kind of a victory to me back then since I was just a little kid and my mom was a nurse.
The scarlet fever case was a little more shocking though after a learned more about everything. I ended up noticing a rash and my stomach had started hurting so I had my mom take me to the doctor and they diagnosed me with scarlet fever. I was also informed more about the three stages of a streptococcus bacteria infection. Stage One is strep throat, stage two is scarlet fever, and stage three is rheumatic fever. I wasn't sure what that meant, but then it was explained to me that if it had progressed to rheumatic fever that it could have killed me. Not something you want to tell a kid in third grade who has a history of getting strep throat.
However, after that bad string of cases I ended up not having a single case till two days ago. I have always been cautious whenever I get a sore throat. Most of the times I know it's from sinus drainage from a cold that I get, but I still always check my throat, which is awkward trying to hold a flashlight towards my mouth while trying to look down my throat in a mirror. This time I just happened to notice something that didn't seem normal, and I had the hunch that it had to be strep. And at least this time it was a strain that wasn't caught by the fast test, which is supposed to catch 99% of all cases. So, at least 17 years later I'm still throwing curve balls when it comes to my "old friend" strep throat.
Comments
Post a Comment