Ha! Bet you never thought I would actually post two days in a row! Fooled you! (Sorry, Kelly.)
So far, I would have to say the score is Doctor-1, Google-1. Yes folks, it’s a tie.
I went in to Urgent Care. This is the way my new doctor’s office deals with people who actually need to see a doctor, as opposed to those who think it might be nice to make an appointment with a doctor for the end of summer, just in case. I assume this is for the hypochondriacs among us, who presume that Labour Day Weekend will find them feeling just a little under the weather and needing to spend 30 minutes in stiff, matching plaid chairs, paging through two-month-old magazines, to lull them into a sense of importance and well-being. I mean, who else wants to schedule out that far? It’s not like a dentist, where you schedule your 6-month check up (well you might…I usually go 2 years between visits myself), or when the kids were babies and had to be checked every few months so that the doctor could tell me they still weren’t on the charts and was I sure I was making enough milk for two? (Which I was. I was a milk-producing machine! They’re just little.)
Where was I? Oh yes, trying to see a doctor. I could either go in July 21, which you might realize is over 3 weeks from now, or go into the Urgent Care side of the office. The good news is that if you go in before 5, you only have to pay your normal $20 co-pay, and for no extra money I could forget my book in the car and read either Parenting (How to Deal with the Stress of Christmas) or Men‘s Vogue (“Auto-Erotic: Men Love Their Cars). How I love American health care. How I regretted leaving my book in the car.
This morning, when I woke up, I thought I might be feeling better. My body, in this respect, is like your car. You know how your car always makes that horrible noise except when there is a mechanic near enough to hear? You take your car to the garage, and it won’t make that noise, will only purr nicely, until you’ve given up and are a block or two away, when the engine falls out with a big clunk! Or, conversely, it starts making that noise again, so you turn around and drive back to the mechanic, upon which it stops making that noise. This is usually my body, which will be horribly sick until I finally break down and decide that yes, today I will go to the stinking doctor already so shut up with the horrible stomach cramps. Then it will cheer up, like a spoiled teenager given her own way at last.
I was conflicted, however. I had basically told you all that I would go to the doctor today, and you had all encouraged me to go. Should I go? Or not? I waited till after lunch but didn’t take ibuprofen. By that time, my headache was assuming mythic proportions and my temperature was over 100. I went.
My doctor was very nice. He agreed that running a fever for 2 weeks was a good reason to come into the office. He asked me lots of questions, took lots of scribbly little notes. He and I spent over 2 hours together. The result? The doctor is stumped. He did a very thorough exam–one of the most thorough I’ve had in years. Nothing. So he did tests–urine, pelvic, chest x-ray, blood work. Nothing. I’m totally healthy, except for this fever and headache. “It’s good news and bad news,” was how he put it.
So tonight, I still have a headache. I’m still running a low-grade fever. Other than that though, I’m totally healthy–fantastic, even. In other words, it’s neither an exotic cancer or the flu. So maybe the doctor should have a point higher than Google. He was really nice, and called me with the results of my tests late on a Friday night.
My vote? Here’s a fun thought–wouldn’t it be ironic if I lived in Africa for 6 years and never got malaria, and then I got it in California? (Note: the dr. doesn’t think it’s malaria, since the symptoms aren’t quite right, but it is a possibility. He brought it up. And it’s got my vote.)
So, what do you think it is?
24 comments
June 27, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Steph
It could very well be malaria!! Even if the symptoms don’t match the “usual”. Months after I left PNG and went to college, that fall I came down with fever that wouldn’t go away. I eventually took malaria meds and was instantly cured! I was told those little buggers will hide out in your liver and can reappear anytime, even if you haven’t recently been exposed to malaria. Is that true, don’t ask me. But, it can’t hurt you to take chloroquine treatment anyways. There is my dr advice for you. Miss you guys! Can Ilsa send me some of her choc choc muffins??
June 28, 2008 at 2:14 am
Louise
Hi Steph,
i wish I had a blog, so you would comment on it! heard your boxes came, hurray! team times just are not the same, and once tony and risa leave and michelle, waah!!!
yeah, it could be malaria. But after a whole YEAR at home that seems unlikely. that’s madame docteur giving you her advice! hope its not mono or hepatitis or something equally nasty. hopefully just a long dragged out flue. or strep without the sore throat.
a wedding tonight, Aminetou Mint Sidi Baba’s sister. I’ll go with Barbara.
June 28, 2008 at 3:35 am
Kit
Whatever it is, I hope you start feeling better soon – there’s nothing worse than feeling rotten and not knowing what is causing it … OK I suppose it is much worse to know it’s cancer, but you know what I mean.
We all succumbed to mysterious lurgies after our flight to England and my husband has taken to bed. think for us it is just that stopping for a second allows all those repressed viruses a chance to get hold of you.
Anyway – wishing you a miraculous recovery!
June 28, 2008 at 5:58 am
Slouching Mom
lyme disease?
whatever it is, it’s got me worried, so please monitor it vigilantly, ‘kay?
June 28, 2008 at 6:08 am
meredith
Slouching Mom may be on to something.
June 28, 2008 at 7:20 am
Inkling
Nasty, whatever it is. I hope you recover soon and easily.
June 28, 2008 at 9:07 am
Wacky Mommy
Please let it NOT be malaria or Lyme disease or anything serious. I don’t know if it’s just our family and friends, but here in the Pacific Northwest a bunch of us (including the four of us in my family. my mom, my sis and others) get these incredibly high fevers, randomly. Sometimes with a cough or flu, sometimes with just the fatigue. Then they come and go for a couple of weeks or longer.
Once in awhile it turns into bronchitis or pneumonia, but generally not.
It’s scary, but they do go away. There’s your little random anecdote from me.
Hmm. Maybe you caught it from us?
June 28, 2008 at 9:58 am
Jeanne A
Please have them check for malaria. There are lots of kinds. I know you know all this………but it’s not something to mess around with.
June 28, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Michelle at Scribbit
Oh my–hope it’s not the malaria, dengue fever, lyme, or all those crazy bad things!
June 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Rebecca
I had a bout of that thing you get from ticks – what is it? Is that lyme disease?
Okay, I checked. I had a bout of lyme disease and it caused me to have a low-grade fever for like two months. But it cleared up with some handy-dandy antibiotics, so I suggest you press your dr. for an appointment.
June 28, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Kelly @ Love Well
I’d say Google-1, Doctor-1, Planet Nomad Commenters-1.
I agree with the others. Get it checked out now before you get to a place where it’s difficult to get treatment.
Corey had malaria after his Indonesia trip in 2004, but I’m sure it was a different strain, as he was deathly ill. I’ve never seen him that sick.
(Oh! You are allowed — nay, even requested — to blog more often.)
June 29, 2008 at 12:05 am
Jess
That always happens to me too, I get to the docter and they say, “So it hurts right here?” And I shift uncomfortably and say.. “Well.. it did yesterday.” I think that’s half of my reluctance to goto the dr. in the first place. What if I’m fine and they laugh at me?
I hope it gets better soon. And thanks for your vote! You can be the ambassador of baked goods if you want, the post is still open.
June 29, 2008 at 5:06 am
Shalee
Oh, I’m sorry… you lost me at “left your book in the car.” I keep crying that you were forced to read a magazine and all it’s trashy glory. I’d have gone back out to get it because I am a reading snob. You obviously are a bit better than me.
Hope you feel much better, but for the love of all that is right in the world, keep a book in your hands at all times. It will definitely make you feel better.
June 29, 2008 at 1:23 pm
planetnomad
I don’t think it could be Lyme disease, as a. I haven’t been out in the woods 😦 and b. I don’t have a rash or noticeable insect bite.
And Shalee, this dr’s office is tricky. They don’t leave you in the waiting room longer than 2 minutes, so you think they’re quick. Then they leave you in the office itself, clad in your charming little backless robe, for hours on end. Believe me…I WANTED to go get my book! It’s rare for me to get stuck like that. (I actually had 3 books in the car to choose from)
June 29, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Pieces
DisaPPOINTED!! (Do you know the reference?)
Here is my official request: Get Better. Corollary to the request: Get a diagnosis.
I know you’ll get right on that. 🙂
June 29, 2008 at 11:45 pm
gretchen from lifenut
I really hope you find an answer soon. Could you have caught something that was lying dormant for a long time? Sometimes stress will unleash those types of illnesses. If I remember correctly, you were pretty stressed right before you left on vacation? The timing is right, right?
Fever + Headache + Mystery = Misery. I am so sorry.
June 30, 2008 at 6:56 am
Louise
convince them to give you antibiotics…. they never do… the doc i’ve been seeing only gives himself antibiotics, never Steph’s kids, never his wife, just himself…. but once in awhile, it’s what you need!
That or some good African sunshine. We just don’t get sick like that here. You didn,t did you?
June 30, 2008 at 2:57 pm
ShackelMom
My 39 cents: have them do a malaria smear while you have a fever, the higher the better, so don’t take Tylenol before the smear. Malaria is tricky and can crop up a long time after exposure, usually when something else weakens you, like a cold or sore throat or stress… Malaria does tend to have a fever that comes and goes and headaches are not unusual. Many people get chills when they have a the fever, but not all. I hope that’s not it, but I lived for a long time in an area where it was endemic and not matter what your symptoms, they did a smear because you never could tell with a persistent fever.
June 30, 2008 at 10:25 pm
All Rileyed Up
As sorry as I am for your unknown ailments, I laughed out loud several times while reading this. Auto-erotic in particular. What book did you leave in the car, for goodness sake!
July 1, 2008 at 8:58 am
Stephanie
I hope you get to feeling better very soon!
July 1, 2008 at 11:18 am
Nan
Yup, my first thought was “Dengue Fever”, and then you said “Malaria”, and honestly I do think it might be a bug-borne tropical something. Bear in mind that apart from the “Fashionable” ones like Malaria and Dengue, there are zillions of others which medicine doesnt know much about but are carried by bugs. I have had “Break-Bone” Dengue Fever, as well as another strain, and a few odd ones from sending my white ass into the rainforest. Malaria can lie dormant for a while, can’t it?
Bush Cure: Drink Gin & Tonics. Tonic water has quinine in it, so if it works you can tell your doc. Oh! Wait! you are in a civillized country! Get a blood test, Stat! check for parasites too. Chances are, it has run it’s two-week course, whatever it is, but it would be good to know anyway.
July 1, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Wacky Mommy
Hell to the yes to the G&T’s.
July 1, 2008 at 8:58 pm
jolyn
Sorry to be ignorant here, but would malaria show up in any of the tests the doctor did? And, yes, can’t something like that lie dormant and crop up, say, when you’re stressed BECAUSE YOU’RE GETTING READY TO MOVE TO ANOTHER CONTINENT?
July 2, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Heidi
Um, I have no clue what it could be, and all my guesses are VERY DRAMATIC so I’ll keep them to myself.
But I hope you feel better soon.