A Throaty Story

It turns out to be more than just a strep throat, something called pharyngeal cellulitis. It's not very common, only 41,000 cases in the U.S. annually, usually only between the ages of 15-35. It is caused by means of a flesh-eating bacteria that destroys the epidermis (skin) of the throat.

Anyway, yesterday I noticed that after a golden 24 hours of antibiotics for strep, my voice and the pain was worse. I remembered in the office on Tuesday that Kim (my doc) said "I wonder if you have a throat abscess," and after having a second doc look, she decided no. An abscess is exactly the same as cellulitis only with pods of puss that need to be scapeled-out of the throat and drained before there can be recovery. I remembered how she nearly thought I had an abscess and I proactively read the list of symptoms online out loud to Ben. All them matched so I wondered if Dr. Kim had been right after all.

Went to bed, but, my throat kept swelling and the pain was getting worse. Then at one a.m. I started to feel the swell right into the back side of my nasal cavity, there was almost no more drainage; it was blocked. "What did those notes say online, again?" I wondered to myself, "Did it say anything about swelling out of control, so that you can't breathe?" I got online and it said "swelling can cause asphyxiation when gone untreated." Went back to bed, tossed and turned, then I felt something scary: right behind the uvula the swollen skin at the top of my throat had now reached down to touch the bottom. I woke up Ben but he was too dreamy to understand so I called my mom, a nurse of forty years. She said "come over and let me see." She looked and said "I think there's a good six hours before it could get close to swelling all the way shut." Then she looked again later in the light and said, "that hole where the air can pass through is not so big." At three-thirty in the morning, we were discussing whether I could last till eight-thirty a.m., when the doctor's office was open again, to avoid ER fees. She said I'd be fine. So I went back home. Laid there, and soon I could feel now, half, of my upper throat come into contact with the bottom. Went back up to talk with Ben; it was almost five a.m. But since I had just stopped anti-inflammatory meds (mom pointed out that I accidentally was overdosing), it was becoming re-inflamed and swelling out a lot faster than my mom predicted, faster than Ben hoped.

I went back downstairs and laid there. They wanted me to wait. But in another two hours at this rate my throat would be closed completely. While I waited for Ben to get up I had some reflection time. I was trying to think past the worry, and let God in. I spent a lot of time praying. I prayed for everyone I thought of who has a need right now, people at church, friends and family. People come and go, but I saw that God was there for me, just as He always has, and that He really is my best friend. I made myself ready. There was nothing here on earth that I felt any loss in attaining. And what I thought I'd miss most, wasn't any things. It was people, and the places I love so dearly that remind me of them and God. My request was that if I died, now, He'd somehow use it to advance His desires. And, that He would meet the needs of my children, and my dear husband.

I had to write everything down on a piece of paper before we left, showing in a drawing what was happening to my throat, above and below which I wrote in large hand "throat abscess" and "suffocation" so that the doctor wouldn't wait to see me. It was now 3/4 closed. They sent me right back and Dr. Kim was very nervous when she looked in my mouth. She acknowledged, "I'd say that's closed at least to the midline." She wasn't sure if I had an allergic reaction or what so she said she'd call ahead to the ER. Ben took the day off thankfully to take care of me and we arrived quickly. As soon as they gave me full anti-inflammatory drugs, the passageways became mostly open again. All the pain went away and an IV replenished my strength.

The ER doc called an ENT for protocol and numbed my throat three times before injecting four sore spots with a needle to see if they were holding infection, but they only bled.

Now as I write this I'm on a percocet and motrin. And I don't feel any pain. In fact I feel really good. They say that an abscess might still form between now and whenever the antibiotics start, and it could still swell closed, but, it's not even half-way shut, so I feel a lot less scared.