I was a little disappointed by my doctor's visit yesterday. Saturday evening, I went to bed early just thinking I was tired. But around midnight I began getting cold and having rather severe chills. In fact, I believe it was just my high fever alone (which I estimate to have been 103°F) that caused me to have some dry heaves.
I was eventually able to get to sleep around 3:30 under my 5 quilts, but for 4 days my fever lingered. My appetite was reduced, I was achey, and couldn't shake my 100.4°F fever.
So facing the prospect of missing a third day of work, I scheduled a doctor's appointment. I have a PPO, which means I don't have a primary care physician and I see whoever I like. Since I wanted a quick appointment, I saw someone I had never seen before.
Leading up to the appointment, I was developing a theory about my illness. Some curious things I noticed were:
- No one else in my family, including my petri-dish-like 3-year-olds, were showing any indication of getting what I had
- Most of my recent illnesses always appeared to have some GI-component. In this case, eating was unpleasant because my GI tract was very active and noisy, making it a little uncomfortable.
- Something about my bowel movements which I won't mention here because it seems too uncouth, notwithstanding my drive for scientific rigor.
What I had decided in my very medically unprofessional way was that my violent illness after my India trip was the start of all this. When I finally went to the doctors back then, my symptoms were subsiding, so I never took the antibiotics. Upon reflection, it seems since then I have had some chronic GI problems that would flare up any time I had another illness.
I thought these would be good things to point out during my new doctor's visit, since it might indicate the root cause of some of my problems through the eye of a trained medical professional. I was eager to discuss all this and have a good, analytical discussion with the doctor.
Alas, that's not how it works. I had an 11:00 appointment and was seen right on time. The doctor (Dr. Ceuvo) was very friendly and professional, but he was unwilling to talk in depth about much more than my fever, which I listed as the primary reason for my visit. Anytime I brought up my theories or other symptoms, he shrugged it off and suggested I setup a separate appointment for a physcial, where I can be given a whole checkup. In the mean time, he did not see any evidence of anything more than a viral, or perhaps bacterial, infection and that I should just treat the symptoms.
He gave me some options for further steps. If I was concerned about my GI tract, I'd have to arrange for a GI workup. Did I want antibiotics? That was my choice, but he wasn't going to recommend it.
Now don't people die from untreated bacterial infections? Wouldn't it be prudent to prescribe some antibiotics in case that was the cause of my fever and other symptoms? The doctor left it up to me. I chose to get some antibiotics because I had my pet unprofessional theory.
That evening, I took my first shock dose of antibiotics that evening. Two hours later, my fever shot up to 102.2°F and I felt horrible. An hour later, I started feeling a little better, and another hour later I was sweating as my fever broke. Ah-ha! The spike must have been those little bacteria's last gasp as they were eliminated by the powerful, targeted drugs. I was cured! I went to work the next day, albeit still feeling pretty weak and not eating much.
Of course, it wasn't that straightfoward. My mom, who has a good medical background herself, says antibiotics take about 24 hours to start working. And I had a smaller spike in my temperature of 101°F the following day at about the same time, so maybe that's just how the illness behaves with my circadian rhythm. Hm.
Regardless, I am feeling better, even if I haven't fully kicked the fever yet. I'm looking forward to continuing to feel better and eventually being truly rid if this nagging illness.