Throat pain

Phil G.

This past Sunday I started to feel ill, with a scratchy feeling in my throat signaling I would have a shitty couple of days. I wake up Monday and my throat is on fire, I have a fever of 38.6 Degrees Celsius (101.5 Fahrenheit) and I have aches and pains all over my body. I tough it out through Monday because I had an unrelated Doctor's appointment Tuesday. I arrive Tuesday, hand over my health card, get handed a mask and asked to play MASH (Swine Flu worries, I guess). When I finally see the doctor, I get the original appointment issue sorted, and address my illness. After checking my throat, ears, and lungs, he says it looks like just some viral infection, nothing to worry about. It should clear up in the next couple of days.

Yesterday evening: Because my throat was so dry and scratchy, and because Cepacol lozenges only provided temporary relief, I was swallowing almost every minute to lube up my throat. In the evening, I'm beginning to notice that while my throat scratchiness is almost gone, my throat and ears started feeling sore. Especially when I swallowed or yawned. It was like every time I swallowed/ yawned, my throat would tighten painfully on either side, leaving the middle untouched pain wise, at about the level of my Adam's Apple (Also the pain rises with the movement of my... Adam's apple thing). Simultaneously, both my ears would feel pain typical of an ear ache.

This morning, after foolishly hoping my throat would feel better, I wake up in pretty bad pain. It feels like my throat dried out to the max, so I drink some water and almost cough it up, swallowing hurt so much. I force myself to drink about a litre of water, thinking I might be dehydrated, and that temporarily relieved the pain. About 20 seconds after that, the next time I swallowed, the pain was back. As the day went on, the pain lessened, though it did not completely go away.

I've had swallowing pain from a cold before, but nothing like this. I'm a pretty pain tolerant guy, but honestly, when I feel the urge to yawn I suppress it, because I'm afraid of the pain to come.

So Penny Arcade, could you help me figure out what this may be/if I need to go to the doctor about it?

Some additional info:

I was swallowing a fry during dinner and cough the fry back up. I don't remember any pain then, but perhaps I could have caused some trauma with that?

Medication I've been taking so far: Advil Cold and Sinus for Monday and Tuesday, 1 Baclofen (My dad said it sounded like tense muscles so he told me to take one) this morning, 1 Advil Extra Strength about 30 minutes ago. Cepacol Lozenges Monday all day. I stopped because they started to burn my throat rather than help it. Followed recommended dosage on all of these.

I haven't been eating too much because I haven't had much of an appetite.

Coughing up mucous every now and then, I try to cough up and spit out everything I can. Sometimes after doing this, my throat feels much better, and the relief is present for about a minute.

T:;DR: Flu like illness develops into incredibly pain throat thing. Wondering what it could be/ if it will go away/if I need to see a doctor.

Vaelor

I had those exact same symptoms last week. Turns out I actually did have swine flu.

Here's the thing: besides the roaring fucking throat pain, it wasn't all that bad. The throat thing, though... if you have what I had, I have some bad news. It will be the longest, most painful episode of sore throat you've ever had. During the worst of it, I was taking four advil, two tylenol, and two asprin all at once every four hours. There's probably something horribly, horribly wrong with dosing yourself that heavily that often, and I'm sure a medical type can explain why doing so is a terrible idea, but the thing is - that's what it took to control the pain.

What you'll probably find is that your fever, aches, pains and various flu-like symptoms disappear rather quickly, leaving you with this freakishly painful throat/lung/head cold malady that takes frigging forever to go away. I woke up feeling a tiny bit better day by day, but it took two full weeks to get back to "normal". Even now, I'm still coughing up crap from time to time and my voice sounds like I've been smoking six packs a day since birth.

Essentially: it might be swine flu. There's also a decent chance it's not, but your symptoms sound a lot like mine. If it is, it will go away on its own, but the sore throat and congestion will linger for a long bloody time. You should go to the doctor (again?), just in case they have any special instructions or recommendations, but unless you appear to be in immediate danger of falling over dead you will probably be told to quarantine yourself, drink a ton of fluids, and take some painkillers on a regular basis.

My sympathies to you, sir: I quite literally feel your pain.

~V

Phil G.

Well that is pretty shitty. Sorry to hear that you were sick. I'm going back through my days trying to see where I might have caught this illness of mine. Do you perchance know the incubation period of swine flu?

Wednesday the 10: Spent the day fishing and working on a friend's boat at his farm (No swine, only cattle, chickens, duck, and geese)
Thursday the 11: I spent all my day at home
Friday the 12: Went canoeing for the majority of the day.
Saturday the 13th: Went to a range shoot, during the weapons orientation this one idiot kept on coughing and sneezing without covering himself. He was pretty seriously ill. Spent from 08:30 til 13:30ish in the same area as him. Later ate dinner with the guy sitting near me. Slept in the same barracks as him, but he was on the far side.
Sunday the 14th: Before shooting I was in the butts next to the guy hoisting targets and he felt sick enough to have to sit in the shade. Threw up a few times too. He was next to me, but we didn't have any real close contact then.

Sick Sunday evening, around 23:00. Is that enough time for transmission from him to me?

Vaelor

Probably two to three days, like other flu strains. I'd put good money on the sick guy on the 13'th being the one who gave it to you. As far as I can tell, it's able to transmit via aerosol, so sneezing/coughing/spitting etc. can spread that shit far and wide. It can also live on surfaces for up to eight hours after it leaves the body, so yeah. Fairly easy to get if you're near someone who's ill.

My guess is that I started showing symptoms three days after I was exposed.

~V

Jasconius

Sounds like strep.

Strep can feel very much like the flu but it needs to be treated in all but the lightest cases to avoid some serious consequences.

Intolerable throat pain is symptom #1 of strep. Did you ask the doctor if he did that test? It's a 45 second test to do.

Phil G.

It is unlikely to be strep. My tonsils aren't inflamed, I don't have a fever at the moment. He also checked my throat on Tuesday and didn't notice anything abnormal.

He did ask about Swine flu, if I had travelled or something during the past days, Mexico and the like. When I said no he said it was unlikely to be Swine.

Jasconius

You don't need a fever to have strep.

If you're still in agony by the 21st, better verify.

I went 9 days with feverless strep before getting antibiotics, I was back to about 90% after 2 doses, after barely being able to stand.

Phil G.

Yep, going tomorrow if I can to get everything cleared up. thanks for the advice guys!

tech_hunter

I had a similar malady a few months ago actually lost my voice for a few days. If its a viral infection like the Doc said nothing you can do about it have to wait it out. I would suggest gargling a salt water solution. I did this and the pain was drastically reduced for a time. I think I was doing it every 30 minutes to an hour.