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Confusing sickness, any guesses? Pretty desperate...


Shadow

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EDIT: My apologies mods, just realized there was a "Medical science" section, could you please move this post at your convenience?

 

The following post in incredibly long, I know, but please, bear with me.

 

I started being sick the Sunday before last; it started out as a barely perceptible sore throat which, over the next 24 hours, developed into a more serious one, accompanied by swollen lymph nodes. I went to have throat, blood and urine samples taken the next day, as I was suspicious of mono (my girlfriend contracted mono about a month ago and to be frank we didn't give much attention to the fact that it's transmitted by saliva. I was willing to take the risk, partly because I had been in contact with mono once before (drank from the same bottle) and was fine). I don't think I had any fever, no cough, just the cold I had been fighting for over a month. The only thing that happened was that multiple (maybe as many as ten) exceptionally sensitive cancer sores appeared in my mouth practically overnight.

 

All the tests turned out negative; no mono, no tonsillitis, no strep and the cold turned out to be due to the fact that I'm allergic to something. So it was assumed it was a virus thing and I was instructed to rest and wait it out, which I only partly did; had a three hour course I didn't want to miss on Tuesday, work to be done for the course on Wednesday involving spending around two hours in a smoky room talking and then one quick trip through town on Friday to drop off some papers and talk about them with my supervisors (hour max). I was exhausted beyond belief every time, but spent the rest of my time in bed or sitting at the computer, reading etc. and actually seemed to be getting better.

 

Then, on Sunday, I checked my throat just out of curiosity and found out my tonsils were covered in those white specks you get with tonsillitis (I don't know the official term for those and couldn't find a translation). So, I "called it in" (my doctor is also my uncle) and he prescribed penicillin tablets to take once every eight hours (specifically Penbene 1 500 000, phenoxymethylpenicillinum kalicum, although I don't know it that's a Czech version of the actual chemical, I couldn't find out much from a Google search). So, thankful that at least something had been found and I had a definitive way of taking care of it, I started to take the tablets.

 

I followed up with the stupidest blunder I could have done; confident that my illness was taken care of and after researching marijuana and penicillin interaction, I smoked a joint (same day I started to take the penicillin - Sunday). I'm not sure how big an effect that had on the way the disease developed, what I do know is that it destroyed my throat (just pain wise), partly because of the munchies, for the remainder of the day and throughout the night. In the morning I woke up with my throat feeling like it was made from gravel, but a couple of cups of tee and oral pain killer tablets took care of that. I felt pretty much fine, and then around 3PM I got a huge fever, around 39.4°C, for like three-four hours. I took a multiple dose of fever-lowering pills and quite frankly I don't think they did much, but I was back to around normal by nine o'clock.

 

After this episode, I was severely weakened until yesterday, partly because excluding yesterday and today, I haven't had a non-soup meal in close to two weeks, and only around two or three of the soup ones because it hurts when I swallow. I am now at the point where I can (sometimes) eat mashed potatoes, under the condition that I immediately gulp down water after every single mini-spoon-full I swallow.

 

As I was told, antibiotics should start taking effect three days after the first dose. Except with me, penicillin didn't do a darn thing. If anything, I felt worse, although I can't say if that was due to penicillin directly or just it not having any effect and the disease progressing. Come Wednesday, I was pretty much desperate; I wasn't sleeping, when I did fall asleep for an hour or two I woke up drenched with sweat and my throat feeling like it was going to kick my backside for the ordeal it was going through; at times, it hurt so bad I had trouble ingesting liquids, although I always sort of got through that by forcing tee down, gargling salt solutions etc.

 

My doctor/uncle swabbed my throat again on Wednesday (ie. three days ago); on Thursday, the results came back negative. Again. This confuses the hell out of my; my tonsil's where like balloons (still are), covered in that white stuff, my cold had turned into something where when I blew my nose in a specific way (which was/is majorly uncomfortable) this long string of mucus comes out, with a color similar to the inside of a pear (maybe a little darker) and blood usually mixed into it when it comes out in larger quantities. As it dries out, it becomes sort of gummy like. I haven't checked to see what happens next, I suspect it dries out completely in time. To add insult to injury, I also had/have mucus drainage from my nose into my throat which aggravates my tonsils all the more (in fact, I'm pretty sore it's responsible for 90% of my throat discomforts, because when I manage to completely clean everything up I'm absolutely fine, for like five minutes). Also, my lymph glands where still swollen, I still had the occasional fevers, couldn't eat. But according to the swab, there was nothing wrong with me.

 

Being completely baffled by that point, my uncle took me to a throat specialist, who was as confused as he was; she eventually prescribed new non-penicillin antibiotics (this was last Thursday, three days ago) called Zinnat 500mg (Cefuroximum axetili). I've been taking those once every twelve hours ever since.

 

My current condition: energy-wise I feel a lot better, although I think that owes mostly to the fact that I had my first real meal yesterday, but my tonsils are bad as ever (the white stuff has started to blend together; my grandfather (also a doctor) said that there's a difference, so I'm throwing it out here just to be sure). The white stuff is concentrated mostly on the left tonsil, while the right one is swollen more than the other (although both are swelled up pretty bad and both have the white stuff on them, see the pictures). I still have the cold, still occasionally come up with the gummy stuff although frankly my throat feels so destroyed that I rarely attempt to. A small cough has appeared as well, where I occasionally cough up mucus from my throat. My throat itself feels incredibly dry, even when I drink water, more than yesterday or any of the previous days. I'm still taking the antibiotics but they don't seem to be doing much, if anything at all. The cancer sores had mostly disappeared throughout the past week, some of them leaving red bumps in their wake which are painful at times. However, a couple of new cancer sores appeared a couple of days ago, although that might be a consequence of me not being able to brush my teeth real well due to the cancer sores themselves. I sometimes have pressure in my ears that I can't get rid of, although it's usually when my nose is completely stuffed up. Also the occasional headache.

 

If there's a good soul among you who has come this far in reading the post; do you have any idea what I could be suffering from? I know there's no way in hell you can give me an accurate diagnosis over the internet, but I'm just looking for ideas, because of the two doctors and one specialist I have talked to, none have any idea what's going on and they're letting it show. And to be quite honest, I'm starting to feel pretty nervous about this whole business. I'm going to get my blood re-sampled on Monday, so I'll post the results once I get them, but that won't be until around Thursday.

 

If you need any more information, go ahead and ask, I'll find out from my doctor.

 

Thanks in advance for any educated guesses you throw forward.

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Edited by Shadow
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Well, just got part of my blood test (a lot faster than I had expected) and it seems my liver is completely screwed up, which points to mono after all. So it's the hospital for me folks...wish me luck :)

Edited by Shadow
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The pustules are actually pretty normal and are something that can be caused by just about anything, as with the swollen tonsils and lymph nodes. Doctors will often do very little about these symptoms, I had a bulge in my neck for three months and it was left alone. My younger brother actually had the same thing with a lymph node in his neck, it got so big he had to have surgery to drain it; he hasn't had an issue since.

 

I think often these symptoms present themselves as a cause of allergies and there has also been a bug going around, the continent lol. I buy allergy medicine to take the swelling down(tonsils), it helps. But again obviously always see a doctor, and they will tell you the same, just pop on in. I think that holds a different meaning in Canadia as it is part of our medical insurance so there is no subconscious suspicions of a devious ploy to make more money?? :)

 

Get well soon!

Edited by Xittenn
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I cannot legitimately give medical advice but if it were me I would fast as much as possible between meals and not smoke anything or do anything else to damage the tissue. I would also do a lot of gargling with water, salt water, and possibly disinfectant mouthwash to minimize any kind of growth on the surfaces of the tissues. Of course, it sounds like you're a ways beyond anything I've dealt with like this and I rarely come down with this sort of thing anyway (knock on wood) so my experience is more with small colds/flus and other light sicknesses. Good luck with your hospital visit and when you are health again please get lots of exercise and maintain a nutritious diet. Get adequate sleep and avoid abusing drugs. Try using exercise and relaxation techniques to deal with regular stress. I think this trains the body to balance itself instead of reacting in ways that impel external interventions (this is totally subjective based on my own personal experiences though, of course).

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