I have been taking an antibiotic for the last 4 days. My doctor prescribed it for me, even though the strep test that they gave me turned out to be negative.
It is beginning to look like I might have been in that 20% margin of error that the basic strep test has accumulated.
I am feeling better plus those whitish dots on my Uvula and off to the side of it....they are all gone.
Just to be on the safe side, I have an appointment with an oral surgeon. I will go in this upcoming Monday and let him do some in depth checking in my mouth and throat.
I am starting to feel a little more at ease with this situation.
And what is equally as exciting as me having had strep is that in just 14 days, Veronica and I head to Alaska!!!!
I wanted to thank everyone for their well wishes. It is greatly appreciated.
Hoping For Strep Throat
I realize that the title to this blog entry might seem kind of silly.
Who in the world would wish or hope for strep throat.
That is me sitting in the back of the room, waving my arm to and fro, yelling....I do......I do.....I do.....gimme....gimme...gimme!!!!
That is because a couple of years ago I ended up with Leukoplakia on my tongue.
The reason for me having such a condition was because I had been a smoker for 30 plus years. Please note that "had" is a very key word to that sentence...I have now been smoke free for almost 2 years.
For those of you that followed my blog back then, I wrote about what I was going through with my initial discovery, the biopsy and subsequent surgery that I had on my tongue. I also wrote about how that one event had me living in fear and paranoia every time something shows up in my mouth or throat area.
About 6 nights ago, I woke up with a very dry mouth. Not only was my mouth dry but my Uvula...the flappy dangly thing at the back of your mouth, was sore, which I figured was from my mouth being so dry.
Before I continue....who comes up with words like Uvula to give that flappy dangly thing its name...geesh...is that the best they could do?
Moving on...I ended up waking up a total of 3 times that night to the same dry mouth and sore Uvula.
The next day it was sore but I did not really give it much thought.
As the days went on, the soreness continued, my right ear kind of hurt just a little and it hurt to swallow...not from my throat but from my Uvula. I also noticed that my throat had been feeling kind of dry but with a bad allergy season upon us, I figured that it was from all of the junk in the air.
I had Veronica use a flashlight and take a look.
There on my right side of my Uvula was a whitish round dot. This dot isn't right on the flappy dangling thing but on the skin that attaches the Uvula to the side of my throat/back of my mouth.
At first Veronica thought that it was a blister but upon further inspection by the both of us, it wasn't a blister...just some sort of white dot. I thought that I also saw some other kind of white dots off to the back my right cheek...near the jaw bone area.
I had also been experiencing on and off headaches for a day or so but no coughing or sneezing or anything else that would indicate a cold.
I decided that it was time visit a doctor.
Being new to the area, it was not so easy to find a doctor that would take new patients and become my "primary physician" while I am living here.
I did finally locate one and yesterday I went to my doctors visit.
The doctors assistant took a swabbing of the back of my mouth and tongue and ran a strep test on it while I was there.
After a bit the doctor came in and told me that the strep test came back negative but that:
1) strep was going around the area quite a bit
2) that because I had taken a couple of doses of amoxicillin the previous day, that it might have caused the negative reading. I also read that there is about a 20% chance of errors in the outcome of those strep tests...as far as a false negative goes.
I was so hoping that it would turn out positive and that I would have strep throat.
The doctor and I decided to go ahead and treat it as if it was strep throat and return to see what it looked like and how I felt after the antibiotics were completely taken.
We also decided that no matter how my mouth looked, I would be referred to an oral surgeon and let him have a good look at my mouth and throat, just to make sure that there is nothing else going on.
Of course if the antibiotics don't clear up whatever it is that I currently have, the oral surgeon could play a bigger part in all of this.
But for now, I am in a holding pattern to see if I can't get rid of this via the antibiotics.
Even though the strep test turned out negative, I am still the one sitting in the back of the room, arm waving to and fro...yelling....I want strep....I want strep!!!
Who in the world would wish or hope for strep throat.
That is me sitting in the back of the room, waving my arm to and fro, yelling....I do......I do.....I do.....gimme....gimme...gimme!!!!
That is because a couple of years ago I ended up with Leukoplakia on my tongue.
The reason for me having such a condition was because I had been a smoker for 30 plus years. Please note that "had" is a very key word to that sentence...I have now been smoke free for almost 2 years.
For those of you that followed my blog back then, I wrote about what I was going through with my initial discovery, the biopsy and subsequent surgery that I had on my tongue. I also wrote about how that one event had me living in fear and paranoia every time something shows up in my mouth or throat area.
About 6 nights ago, I woke up with a very dry mouth. Not only was my mouth dry but my Uvula...the flappy dangly thing at the back of your mouth, was sore, which I figured was from my mouth being so dry.
Before I continue....who comes up with words like Uvula to give that flappy dangly thing its name...geesh...is that the best they could do?
Moving on...I ended up waking up a total of 3 times that night to the same dry mouth and sore Uvula.
The next day it was sore but I did not really give it much thought.
As the days went on, the soreness continued, my right ear kind of hurt just a little and it hurt to swallow...not from my throat but from my Uvula. I also noticed that my throat had been feeling kind of dry but with a bad allergy season upon us, I figured that it was from all of the junk in the air.
I had Veronica use a flashlight and take a look.
There on my right side of my Uvula was a whitish round dot. This dot isn't right on the flappy dangling thing but on the skin that attaches the Uvula to the side of my throat/back of my mouth.
At first Veronica thought that it was a blister but upon further inspection by the both of us, it wasn't a blister...just some sort of white dot. I thought that I also saw some other kind of white dots off to the back my right cheek...near the jaw bone area.
I had also been experiencing on and off headaches for a day or so but no coughing or sneezing or anything else that would indicate a cold.
I decided that it was time visit a doctor.
Being new to the area, it was not so easy to find a doctor that would take new patients and become my "primary physician" while I am living here.
I did finally locate one and yesterday I went to my doctors visit.
The doctors assistant took a swabbing of the back of my mouth and tongue and ran a strep test on it while I was there.
After a bit the doctor came in and told me that the strep test came back negative but that:
1) strep was going around the area quite a bit
2) that because I had taken a couple of doses of amoxicillin the previous day, that it might have caused the negative reading. I also read that there is about a 20% chance of errors in the outcome of those strep tests...as far as a false negative goes.
I was so hoping that it would turn out positive and that I would have strep throat.
The doctor and I decided to go ahead and treat it as if it was strep throat and return to see what it looked like and how I felt after the antibiotics were completely taken.
We also decided that no matter how my mouth looked, I would be referred to an oral surgeon and let him have a good look at my mouth and throat, just to make sure that there is nothing else going on.
Of course if the antibiotics don't clear up whatever it is that I currently have, the oral surgeon could play a bigger part in all of this.
But for now, I am in a holding pattern to see if I can't get rid of this via the antibiotics.
Even though the strep test turned out negative, I am still the one sitting in the back of the room, arm waving to and fro...yelling....I want strep....I want strep!!!
Bring On The Beef
We found ourselves in the market for a new gas grill.
Of course before I buy anything major, I consult my most trusted of sources...Consumer Reports. After spending my allotted amount of time doing my research, I decided on which grill I wanted and now the search was on for a retailer that sold it.
As it turns out, Walmart sells the brand I wanted but instead of attempting to shove this enormous grill into my not bad sized Rav4....kind of like shoving 2 pounds of cow droppings into a 1 pound bag...I decided that I would just have this grill shipped to our home. I also did not want to have to deal with the impending hernia caused by lifting such a heavy load.
A couple of days after placing the order, it turned up in our "garage" without any fanfare nor even a doorbell ring. Probably for the best...I would have hated to see the size of the FedEx brute that carried this huge box from truck to garage. I probably would have wet myself just a bit at the sight of him.
So here I was by myself, having to push this monstrosity into the back corner of our garage.
As I pushed, more and more of the bottom portion of the box was left behind me on the concrete floor. I am surprised that my pushing didn't wear through the box entirely.
So as I was looking at this box, I formulated a plan.......get up early tomorrow, which is now today and put this thing together.
And that is exactly what I did.
As I unpacked each piece, I placed the pieces neatly on the floor and leaning against the garage wall. I thought that the unpacked pieces would never end. Once again the aforementioned bag of cow droppings crossed my mind. How in the world did they manage to get all of this stuff in there.
So now I have all of these assorted pieces laying everywhere, I proceeded to put this beauty together.
Approximately 3 hours later...of course the instructions said that building this thing would take about an hour.
I can't really hold that outlandishly false statement against them because they have never met me.
After that 3 hour time, there stood before me was a humongous testosterone fueled blast furnace....a man beast of a contraption that any male would truly be proud of...almost enough to call it "son".
This thing throws out over 60,000 btu's of scorching heat with a side burner to boot.
Now when the head cook (me) asks someone how they want their steak done and they reply "well done please", I will look at them with a shit eatin' grin...the same kind of grin the Cheshire Cat would have after he just located where his owner had hid all of the yummy chicken nuggets.
And after cooking this steak, I would proudly present my guest with this blackened smoking ember of coal...all the while, thrusting my chest out and holding my head up high...doing my best manly man impersonation and say......"dinner is served and you may call me CHEF".
Of course before I buy anything major, I consult my most trusted of sources...Consumer Reports. After spending my allotted amount of time doing my research, I decided on which grill I wanted and now the search was on for a retailer that sold it.
As it turns out, Walmart sells the brand I wanted but instead of attempting to shove this enormous grill into my not bad sized Rav4....kind of like shoving 2 pounds of cow droppings into a 1 pound bag...I decided that I would just have this grill shipped to our home. I also did not want to have to deal with the impending hernia caused by lifting such a heavy load.
A couple of days after placing the order, it turned up in our "garage" without any fanfare nor even a doorbell ring. Probably for the best...I would have hated to see the size of the FedEx brute that carried this huge box from truck to garage. I probably would have wet myself just a bit at the sight of him.
So here I was by myself, having to push this monstrosity into the back corner of our garage.
As I pushed, more and more of the bottom portion of the box was left behind me on the concrete floor. I am surprised that my pushing didn't wear through the box entirely.
So as I was looking at this box, I formulated a plan.......get up early tomorrow, which is now today and put this thing together.
And that is exactly what I did.
As I unpacked each piece, I placed the pieces neatly on the floor and leaning against the garage wall. I thought that the unpacked pieces would never end. Once again the aforementioned bag of cow droppings crossed my mind. How in the world did they manage to get all of this stuff in there.
So now I have all of these assorted pieces laying everywhere, I proceeded to put this beauty together.
Approximately 3 hours later...of course the instructions said that building this thing would take about an hour.
I can't really hold that outlandishly false statement against them because they have never met me.
After that 3 hour time, there stood before me was a humongous testosterone fueled blast furnace....a man beast of a contraption that any male would truly be proud of...almost enough to call it "son".
This thing throws out over 60,000 btu's of scorching heat with a side burner to boot.
Now when the head cook (me) asks someone how they want their steak done and they reply "well done please", I will look at them with a shit eatin' grin...the same kind of grin the Cheshire Cat would have after he just located where his owner had hid all of the yummy chicken nuggets.
And after cooking this steak, I would proudly present my guest with this blackened smoking ember of coal...all the while, thrusting my chest out and holding my head up high...doing my best manly man impersonation and say......"dinner is served and you may call me CHEF".
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