City (Throat) on Fire
The Tryping My Best Moment of the Week #5
Welcome, special party guests, to the Tryping My Best Moment of the Week, your weekly look into some of the moments where I tried my best but didn’t quite make it.
At the end of the month of May, I will be making a donation to the National Network of Abortion Funds in conjunction with the newsletter. For every new free subscription I get, I’ll donate $1 and for every new paid subscription, I’ll donate $5. I’m already planning on donating $100 so this is on top of that. I do also have a couple of matching donors already so if that interests you, let me know.
That is why all my subscribers are receiving the TMBMotW this week. It’s a bit of a preview/inside look into paid subscriber content. If any free subscribers feel like upping the ante, you’ll receive this additional newsletter every week. If you know someone who may fancy this newsletter in general, I’d love it if you would share it. And, as always, thank you for reading. I deeply appreciate it.
This week’s Tryping My Best Moment of the Week is going to be short and sweet as my sinuses have exploded in my face and I’m guessing I have about ten minutes before I’m going to need to be horizontal again. The sickness has inspired this week’s moment, however, so something good has come out of it. Without further ahhhhchooooooos:
City (Throat) on Fire
From around age 14 until about age 23/24, I was prone to strep throat. Once a year, without fail, strep throat would arrive and knock me out for about a week. Throat on fire, trouble swallowing, lots of accidental napping, I had it all. I never did have my tonsils removed but, for some reason, the yearly strep throat stopped happening around my mid-20s. Knock on all things wood. (Now it’s sinus infections. You win some, you lose some.)
The worst case of strep throat I ever had was in my last couple of years of college, when I was living with my friends Cassi and Christina in a townhouse. I was a double Theatre and English major, had a job that I worked at for 10-20 hours a week, plus any additional projects, homework, papers, etc. I absolutely fell for the scam that we are all fed that I had no time to be sick. So, as the first signs of strep throat set in, I ignored them as hard as I could.
Ignoring the symptoms probably worked for a day or two. But within a few days, it was bad enough that I was eating and drinking almost nothing and, as the bedrooms were upstairs and walking was impossible, I was barely moving from the couch. How I Met Your Mother was the constant playlist and Christina was there also watching (me, making sure I didn’t die). She eventually convinced me that I needed to go to urgent care. I went with her, begrudgingly but also thankfully. She had a car and it meant I didn’t have to try and get myself there on the bus.
Most of the rest of the details are blurry. I’m not sure how long we waited but it certainly felt like a long time. I’m not sure if I sat any sort of upright while we waited. I’m not even sure if I said any words to Christina. But finally, I was called back to a room.
The nurse came in and I told her what was going on as she took my vitals. Eventually, she asked me to open my mouth and without even coming within three feet of my face she said, “Oh. Yes. You have strep throat.”
My strep throat was so bad she can see it FROM ACROSS THE ROOM.
If I had waited any longer to get myself checked out, I probably would have ended up in the hospital. But I did not die. At least, not that I’m aware of. Although, it might be my ghost writing this newsletter. Weirder things have happened.
I wish I could say that I learned my lesson about being “too busy to be sick,” but I absolutely didn’t. So, mostly, this week’s newsletter isn’t so much a Tryping My Best moment, as much as a thank you to Christina for getting my dumb ass off the couch and taking me to the doctor.
And, until next week, take care of yourself and keep on tryping your best.
*hits send. sinks back into bed.*
