I never suffered allergies as a youngster but every year of my adult life I seem to develop more sensitivity to airborne allergens. At least that’s what I thought it was. What started out as a scratchy throat on Sunday turned into a full blown localized bacterial infection. I was convinced it had to be allergies because I never developed any other symptoms of a full-on head cold – sinus headaches, running nose, etc.
By Tuesday my throat was so sore I experienced a bit of laryngitis which, if you’re a teacher who needs to lecture, is a bad thing. The worst part is I agreed to speak at a high school career opportunities day on Wednesday only to awake that morning sounding like a goose being strangled. The most comfortable speech pattern my throat could tolerate was a hushed whisper. Thankfully my colleague agreed to fill in for me (Tom, you’re the man!).
I thought the best thing to do was visit the walk-in clinic to make sure it wasn’t strep throat, which by all accounts it certainly felt like. Turns out it wasn’t but I’m still popping the antibiotics for the remainder of this week. I still don’t have much of a voice (which my students don’t seem to mind) but hope to recover soon. I’ve never been much of a chatterbox and am usually a pretty quiet and introspective guy, but I have to admit it really stinks when you can’t talk when you want to.