[ - Lemierre's Syndrome - ]
- Lemierre's Syndrome -
Here you will learn about my experience with the rare disease, Lemierre's Synrdome... along with some general information on the disease. Being from my point of view, I'll tell you pretty much my whole story. From when I began to feel sick up until the day I'm writing this.
If the average human searches information on this disease, I'll bet you are to find nothing that makes much sense to you. So here is the best I can do as a short explanation before my story.
In Lemierre's (also seen as spelled "Lemiere's") Syndrome, bacteria from the back of your throat/mouth (which I believe everyone has, so it's not like you have to be gross or anything) gets into your internal jugular vein. The bacteria forms blood clots, protecting itself from your white blood cells, and spreads throughout the body infecting internal organs (lungs, liver...).
I think anyways. Mind you, I could hardly move when the disease was first explained to me. And I went into surgery a few hours later (or days? something like that)
This page is written of my experiences with Lemeirre's. I cannot guarantee that I will not go into immense detail & gross you out. It's about a disease, and it's about what I actually went through.
So... To my story - -
It was around the day that I went to schedule for school the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year, that I began to feel sick. Sometime in August... I was 16.
The pain that a simple sore throat would evolve into is hard to describe. It wasn't really similar to anything else I'd felt. I don't know how long it was that I went on... My throat was sore, but, it wasn't really that... It was like the back right of my mouth. Something seemed enlarged and, eventually, it hurt immensely to swallow. Even to breath. And I had this uncanny urge to spit... ^_^ I don't know why I mention it but, hey, my saliva seemed acidic or something and it was weird & annoying. Another thing is my neck itself... It hurt to hold my head up, to turn my head, to lay my head down... it all hurt. It was uncomfortable. V-E-R-Y uncomfortable.
To check for strep, mono, meningitis etc, at some point, I went to see my doctor. They took some tests... found nothing wrong, but told me I was extremely dehydrated, and advised for me to get some fluid into my system. I remember sitting in that office... It was so cold... Or maybe it wasn't... But I was shaking, shivering... It felt awful.
So, I was sent home with nothing more than word that I didn't have anything but some virus that would go away eventually, and I was told to drink plenty to cure the dehydration. That alone was a major problem!! To this day I feel sick just thinking about drinking pure water, or any of the other things I drank... It was hard to drink, I wasn't thirsty, and it hurt.
A couple days later, I went up north with my family... I don't remember why. I have few visual memories of that time. Just strange, splitting headaches... laying in a hotel room and not sleeping... trying to drink, but I couldn't, and it all hurt. But I held up somehow.
Once we returned home... I don't remember how long it was. Maybe it was the day we returned, maybe it was the next, I don't know. But I told my mother that I wanted to go into the doctor's again. I couldn't stand it any longer. And for ME to want to see a doctor, then... well it must be something severe ^^ I sort of borrowed my parent's bed for a few nights... The bed in my room on which I sleep is a futon and it's not comfortable. Those nights stick well in my memory. Hot, cold, warm, cool... I had a fever of 104F at one point, the fever was usually around 102... I took some Tylenol... It did nothing. I would shiver... then I would be hot... I tried to drink... Threw up a couple times. When my mom made an appointment, and she made it for either the next day or 2 days away -I forget... I must have really felt terrible because I was angered and wanted to go THAT DAY.
Once I finally made it into the doctor's again... Uhh...what happened? Let's see... They gave me an IV... I laid there... They looked at blood test results for 5 hours. I had my mom turn off the lights in the room while I took in the IV, and leave the door open a crack... Lights hurt like they never did before. They burned into my head :P
When a doctor finally came back with results of my blood test, he explained some things that were wrong with them. Just what, I haven't the faintest. Things were uneven or something... Like white blood cell count was ok but maybe there weren't enough red ones? Platelets... or whatever... I didn't have enough of them, according to tests. I think they also said something about other things such as protein, but, don't know anymore.
Well... They sent me to the hospital at this point. I was asked if I wanted an ambulence or for my mom to drive me to the emergency room of U of M. I opted to have my mother drive me ^^
And so, we took the drive to the hospital that would stick in my head for a very long time. I didn't know what was going to happen... I thought, because of what the doctor's said, I'd just be going there and they'd give me some other IV solutions that had been unavailable to them, and I'd be okay... The main problem they seemed to see was my dehydration. Or at least, that's all I remember hearing much about.
So as to not make this page drag on too much, I've divided this page up... So now, progress to Page 2.