I awoke on Monday morning to a sore, scratchy throat. Oh no, not now. I can’t be sick. So I nursed it all day. Gargled, drank water, multiple sinus rinses, drank more water, all day until bed.
Tuesday, now this thing has moved; it’s throughout my sinuses and my nose runs…….all day. I don’t feel so bad, just uncomfortable, and worried if this is more than a cold.
By Tuesday night Liz and I both agreed it was time to get this checked out. Of course my big concern was testing positive for COVID; secondarily, I was not excited about trying to recover from a sinus infection while traveling abroad. So Liz scheduled me into the Immediate care center she uses.
The waiting is the hardest. The nurse had swabbed my nose and throat for any and all possible viruses and infections, and then I waited, in the sterile patient room- just me and my worried mind wondering where I would begin to make other arrangements for everything on my plate over the next two weeks.
The nurse practitioner gingerly entered the room. It seemed like forever until she got around to saying, “Oh yea, by the way, all your tests came back negative. No strep, no bacterial infection, no COVID detected!”
It felt like one of those heavy chest protectors the dental hygienists uses for x-raying my teeth got lifted off of me. The heaviness throughout my body was gone in a flash.
Amazing how our bodies give us our interpretations from one moment to the next.