Blargh

Being sick sucks.

Good news, they didn't give me a shot. For some reason I got penicillin pills instead. Not sure why I got pills and Roomie got a shot both times she's had strep here, but what the heck. Went to the clinic at 9, the health aide did a throat culture, said "Oh, wow, do you have strep throat," (and showed me the tester thingy), then I had to go home and wait for FIVE HOURS for the doctor to call from Bethel and officially diagnose me as having strep. At that point I was officially decreed as sick (as if the inability to swallow, creepy white spots on my tonsils, 101 degree fever and alternating chills and burnings-up hadn't told ME that 24 hours before...) and got my prescription. Other than that, however, a visit to the village clinic is totally laid-back...

I just walked in and said "Hey, I think I have strep," to which the woman behind the desk said "Did you look for the white spots?"

Being an old champ at the whole strep throat thing (I'm quite certain that my sister Mel and I, combined, hold some sort of record at Washington Elementary in Stevens Point, WI), I said "Of course. They started on the left side, but now they're on both sides." She said, "OK, let me just swab you to make sure and we'll get you a prescription. You're a new teacher, right? What's your name again?"

While I would rather our community have a more highly-trained clinic staff, it is refreshing to be in a place where a person's knowledge of his/her own body is respected. When I told the health aide that I've had a lot of strep, and this felt a whole lot like strep, she totally respected that as a valid symptom. I guess you have to when you're working like they are without the training that most health care providers have had access to.

Plus, I got to see how a strep test is done. Most places they take your swab into some mysterious place away from the exam room and do some magical alchemy to determine whether you're a specific brand of sick. Now I know a strep test is easier than most of my high school chemistry experiments. 1) Swab nasty sick throat, 2) Swish swab into small vial of something that (I assume) makes the strep bacteria grow or do something, and 3) insert the little indicator stick.

Woohoo! I should be feeling better by morning! My fever's already gone down, and I no longer want to cry when I swallow... life is good.