Scared Silly
This one's not a rant, just an interesting thing I went through last week.
Long story short, I've had a cold since the end of August. My doctor put me on Amoxicillin, which didn't work. Next, I was put on Z-Pak (Zithromax), which didn't work either. Next time I was in, the good doctor seemed both surprised and troubled that I still had this nagging sore throat. Shaking her head, she said to herself out loud, "Hmmm. We've had you on two different antibiotics and your body just isn't responding to them." Well, I can put 2 & 2 together, so I asked her if maybe I should be checked for HIV. She got a very serious look on her face, thought for a moment and said that we're not to that point yet, that there are other things this could be. She wrote a prescription for Cefrix and sent me on my way.
Paranoia got the best of me, so I took it upon myself to get tested anyway. I called around and found a clinic that offers the Rapid HIV test, which gives you results in 20 minutes. So after the 20 minute wait, the guy calls me back into the room and has me take a seat. Then he drops a bomb:
"Your test came back positive, you've been infectious since about five days after your first exposur--
"It DID? It came back positive!?
"No... NO! I said IF it came back positive... "IF." Your test is negative. Sorry, didn't mean to scare the crap out of you there!"
Well, he nearly did. Whew! The cold chill I felt momentarily is the same chill that 38 million others have felt upon hearing that same news, only they weren't blessed with the relief of it being a misunderstanding. I was optomistic --very optomistic-- going in, but I knew the slim possibility was still there. No matter how prepared you think you are, you never realize how unprepared you are until the consequenses come knocking on your door. It really puts life in perspective. And yes, I was thanking God the whole way home.
So yeah, I feel pretty fortunate. And the Cefrix seems to be working too. Apparently my sore throat was only a stubborn bug, and it's just taken a few tries to find the magic bullet to kill it. I'm almost back to my normal health, sore throat is almost gone... and I have a new appreciation for life.
Long story short, I've had a cold since the end of August. My doctor put me on Amoxicillin, which didn't work. Next, I was put on Z-Pak (Zithromax), which didn't work either. Next time I was in, the good doctor seemed both surprised and troubled that I still had this nagging sore throat. Shaking her head, she said to herself out loud, "Hmmm. We've had you on two different antibiotics and your body just isn't responding to them." Well, I can put 2 & 2 together, so I asked her if maybe I should be checked for HIV. She got a very serious look on her face, thought for a moment and said that we're not to that point yet, that there are other things this could be. She wrote a prescription for Cefrix and sent me on my way.
Paranoia got the best of me, so I took it upon myself to get tested anyway. I called around and found a clinic that offers the Rapid HIV test, which gives you results in 20 minutes. So after the 20 minute wait, the guy calls me back into the room and has me take a seat. Then he drops a bomb:
"Your test came back positive, you've been infectious since about five days after your first exposur--
"It DID? It came back positive!?
"No... NO! I said IF it came back positive... "IF." Your test is negative. Sorry, didn't mean to scare the crap out of you there!"
Well, he nearly did. Whew! The cold chill I felt momentarily is the same chill that 38 million others have felt upon hearing that same news, only they weren't blessed with the relief of it being a misunderstanding. I was optomistic --very optomistic-- going in, but I knew the slim possibility was still there. No matter how prepared you think you are, you never realize how unprepared you are until the consequenses come knocking on your door. It really puts life in perspective. And yes, I was thanking God the whole way home.
So yeah, I feel pretty fortunate. And the Cefrix seems to be working too. Apparently my sore throat was only a stubborn bug, and it's just taken a few tries to find the magic bullet to kill it. I'm almost back to my normal health, sore throat is almost gone... and I have a new appreciation for life.