I thought it was just a cold. It started as a sore throat, and I figured to give the usual 5 to 7 days to do the throat, sinus, chest rotation as usual. I felt run down, and was struggling to focus all week last week. It never did progress, just stayed a sore throat, no fever, occasional sweats, swollen adnoids and pain. I stayed on tylenol and ibuprofren to keep the pain and inflammation under control, and started pouring on the garlic. On Sunday I went to the doctor and did a swab for Strep that came back negative. They gave me amoxicillin and told me to stay on the ibuprofren. I didn't have much hope for the amoxicillin, but did the dosing diligently.

Last night I looked in the mirror and my neck is swollen around my jowls and the pain is moving into my ear canals and my larynx. Back to the doctor, who concurs that something more is going on. So now I am on Azythromycin(Z-pack antibiotic) and dexamethasone (a steroid). Apparently something got to my lymph nodes in my neck and they aren't liking it. It is sorta like having the mumps, although I had the mumps as a kid and have been inoculated for them about half a dozen times as well. So the bottom line is I am missing three critical days from work and the wife is heading in for surgery this afternoon. Fortunately whatever I got doesn't seem contagious, or she would have caught it by now, but I gotta wonder where the heck did I pick this bug up from.

Oh well, not exactly how I want to take time off from work, but you do what you gotta do I guess. I am starting to feel a bit better and the swelling is going down, so maybe tomorrow I will be feeling good enough to go back to the grind.