Currently things are dull, after a flustered morning. I discovered around 9 am that I was supposed to work at 10 am, and after one false start (I had to turn around and drive home to get my penicillin, since strep is a bad thing and we don't want to encourage it to set up shop on my heart valves) I finally made it in around 10:30. But it turns out we only have one surgery in the OR today anyway. *frustration, tears, whimpering*. If anything turns up, the day will return to frantic haste status.

The thing with strep throat...so, I found out about two weeks after the appointment that I had trace amounts of strep virus. The doctor told me, over the phone, that I should go ahead with the antibiotics, even though I seem to finally be recovered. I hate taking antibiotics, and if I was fully recovered why did I need them? Just take them, he said.

Second-opinion time! I asked my dad (a vet). He said strep likes to catch a ride down to heart valves and after a period of lying low, causes endocarditis. In other words, I'm now dutifully taking penicillin. The moral: explaining the medicine leads to greater patient compliance!

(Further internet research turns up factoids about streptococcus pyogenes, or 'group A': it's pretty contagious, it can lead to sinus and tonsil infections, and more ominously rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is the complication that can cause the damage to the heart, since it involves nodules being deposited in all sorts of places, and they can cause scarring wherever they end up. Thanks, mayo clinic website!)