A week of disorders

[TSmith17]

Funny that the topic only lets you choose 1 option, because there would be about 3 or 4 that I could choose. I am a 17 year old male and have no health conditions except for a few allergies that bother my nose. During Monday (the day after the superbowl) I noticed that my left eye was producing a slimy green mucus during the day, and excessively. On Tuesday I basically just said I got pink-eye so I drove to the doctor and he prescribed me some eye drops (Toradex). So took those all day, and took them the follow day Wednesday (both days I did not go to school) but on Wednesday night I started getting bold headaches. While I was getting these headaches I felt this sort of electric like shocks go through my body (this has been happening for years, and usually does when I'm lightheaded like I was then) and in spite of this my headaches hurt tremendously by itself. I took ibuprofen to help relieve the pain while I had these headaches. These kept going on Thursday (by this time my eyes were getting better) and that was the only problem I had for Thursday. On Friday my headaches were mostly gone so I attended some of my important academic classes at school but I was starting to pick up a cough. So now on friday night, here I am at home sick as a dog coughing hard, little bit of sneezing, and there was a lot of flem (the gross yellow stuff). For the cough I was taking Benylin to help my sore throat. So on Saturday I wake up and I feel like crap. I got a sore throat, I'm coughing all the time, and I got all this flem inside me. I fight through it during the day and then at night my ear starts to hurt. So I wake up in the middle of the night and my ear is just pounding as the pain had escalated tremendously. I took some more ibuprofen to try and relieve the pain of my ear and I got a hot water bag (IDK what it's supposed to be called) and heated it up and used it like a pillow on my ear. I removed it as it was uncomfortable and I fell asleep fine. Wake up on sunday and my ear is not hurting, but high pitched voices (like my mom and grandma) sound funny and has sort of like an elastic drum ring to it. So I wasn't worrying about it too much but then my mom decided to give me these drops that are for ear and eye (polysporin) and it ended that funny sound to high pitched noises but now my ear really started to ache. It felt like it needed to pop (like when you are going up a mountain) but couldn't and it had enormous pressure (quick note, I still have my sore throat & cough). So for the rest of the day it was just pounding and pounding and now here I am at 2 in the morning, I got school in 6 and a half hours (I'm obviously not going though) and my ear is just pounding and I can't go to sleep. I took some more polysporin because it eased the pain a little bit last time I used it but this time my ear is still throbbing in pain. I have just had the worst week so far from eye infection to drastic headaches to sore throat & cough to ear infection. This sort of thing never happens to me and I am rarely ill even from just the common cold. I'm going to go see a doctor about my ear tomorrow but I just do not know what to do. So I guess I need to put a question in here, that was more of a rant because I've had a ****** week so here it is: I'm starting to question whether my immune system is starting to weaken or whether an infection is spreading to various parts of my body, so which one of these would you think it is or is there another possible reason? Bad luck maybe?

Also something I wanted to mention that was very strange was that right on this phase of my week (sore throat & ear aches) they seem to come and go like a teeter-totter. If my ear is pounding with pain then my throat feels a bit better (physically, it doesn't just feel better because the ear hurts more, I swallow and it is nice and smooth compared to the coarseness and roughness it usually is). When my ear mellows down a bit my throat gets all coarse again and I start coughing a lot. I was just surprised at the physical difference in the feeling of my throat.

Anyways if someone could get back to me about this that would be great because I'm a little bit worried that there is something wrong with my immune system.

[TSmith17]

I did not get to see the doctor that day. I started feeling better that night anyways so I thought if I start feeling better I would assume (crazy enough) that I would actually be getting better. So I yesterday wasn't too bad, only thing wrong really was the mucus and runny nose. Now today, I have only been awake for about half an hour but the mucus is very excessive to what it was yesterday. Is this because I was asleep all night and I am just clearing away the buildup or is it just harsher than it was before. Regardless I am for sure going to the doctor this time, I will admit I am one of those type of people who likes to resist or deny help when they need it but I will not hold back this time. Also this time I will go see my family doctor instead of getting a random one, he knows me better and will assess me properly I hope.

Thanks for your concern, I will keep you updated.

[geminigirl1963]

How are you feeling today?  Were you able to get a better night's sleep?

Were you able to make an appointment with your doctor?  And if so, what did he/she say?

I'm concerned about you, so please keep me posted on how you're doing.

[geminigirl1963]

There's no need to thank me for anything - I'm glad I could be of some assistance.

Mono quite often does include a severe sore throat in its symptoms, however, just because your throat may not be severely sore, that doesn't necessarily mean you don't have it.  Just as it can cause a high fever in some people, it doesn't HAVE to cause a high fever in everyone.  I'm glad that you're going to ask your doctor to check for it.

Yellow mucous (or green, etc.) typically does mean some sort of infection - the blood could also be a result of an infection or just simply irritation from your nose being inflamed and blowing it.  Again, a good thing to have it checked out - as I said in my first comment, a sinus infection definitely could account for all of your symptoms.

Let me know what you find out from the doctor and I hope you feel better soon - it certainly is no fun being sick!

[TSmith17]

Again I thank you for your response. I had absolutely the worst dream last night because when I woke up in the middle of the night (a few times) it was hard for me to believe reality and I felt as if my life was that dream. It just screwed with my mind badly and I tried to snap out of it but I couldn't. So I did not get a very good sleep, and now that I am awake I am still tired, I have a headache, I still cannot hear out of my left ear very well, and my throat is still sore. Mono was something I was worried about but my friends have had it before and apparently your throat gets extremely swollen and sore and I do not think mine has gotten to that degree. I will go to the doctor and ask for a blood test to check for it anyways. I will give you a list of what medications I have taken during these 2 weeks I have been sick.

Dimetapp
Benylin
Ibuprofen
Polysporin drops (for eye & ear)
Tobradex (for eye)
Avamys Nasal Spray

Now I am blowing my nose and aside from the extremely yellow mucus there is blood in it as well. So I will go to the doctor and get it figured out I cannot stress how much I appreciate you taking time to help me, thank you.

[geminigirl1963]

I'm sorry that you're still not feeling well.

I do think you should go back to the doctor and get checked again.  It could be that you do just have an extreme case of the flu and it's going to take time to fully recover, however, since some of your symptoms seem to be getting worse or at the very least, ease up for a short time and then come back full force, I feel it would be best to check in with the doc again.

One thing I would ask them to check you for would be mono (it's a simple blood test) - unfortunately, your age group tends to be the age that are more prone to it, however, you can get it at any age.  It quite often shows up after a bout with a virus or infection and your extreme tiredness is definitely one of the symptoms (as is a sore throat).  When I had mono many, many, many years ago (too many for me to want to admit because that would show my age!), I ran an extremely high fever (105.6 when I got to the hospital and went up to 106.3 while I was there), but you can also have mono without a high fever.  I'm guessing you had at least a bit of a fever over the weekend based on you saying you had the chills.

I would defnitely make sure that the doc looks in both your ear and throat and perhaps ask them to do a strep test just to be sure.

The lightheadedness could be because of your ear (fluid or infection or even just inflammation in the ear can cause dizziness), but it's definitely a good idea to have that checked out.  PLEASE, if you are lightheaded or dizzy, do not drive yourself to the doctor - as your mom or a friend to drive you.

Are you taking, or have you tried, any other over the counter meds other than the ibuprofen you took when you first got sick?  If not, check with your doctor to see if it's ok for you to try something like either a decongestant or even an antihistamine to see if they help with the congestion and sore throat.

I hope you get to feeling better real soon - please keep me posted on how you're doing.

[TSmith17]

So it has been two weeks since I was diagnosed with the flu but I am still feeling symptoms. As we all know the flu usually cures itself in 7-10 days but it has been 14 now and I still feel terrible. During the week I went to school on Thursday and Friday, still mildly ill but I was falling behind in my courses so I needed to go. I would just have a cough once in awhile but no phlegm or anything like that. I still cannot hear properly out of my left ear but now when I blow my nose I can hear like a popping and crackling noise and it's very loud and painful. On Friday night I went to my friends house but opted not to drink with them as I was still trying to fully recover. I didn't feel bad at all that night or during Saturday. Although I woke up Sunday morning and my throat was sore (it was a different pain this time, rather than coarse and dry it felt inflamed). I felt perfectly fine during the day (except for throat and ear that were not bothering me) and I went to my friends house that night and started feeling really tired around 11:00. I slept at his house and in the morning even thought I got about 10 hours of sleep I was still extremely tired. I drove home, took a nap, then had to go out for Chinese Dinner with the family when I woke up from my nap. I didn't each much and was tired, cold, cough, and had a runny nose while we were there (need to note that I still have the throat pain and bad ear). Went home and I was feeling very lightheaded so I took another nap for an hour, woke up, then went to bed. So I started to think about how long my symptoms have been going on while I was lying awake so I once again jumped on here at around 11:20pm. Forgot to mention there was no school for me today (Monday) or tomorrow. So here I am with my sore throat, cough, lightheadedness, bad ear, chills, and now my body is starting to ache (slightly though almost not noteworthy). After typing this all out I realize how stupid it was for me to leave the house this weekend but it is what it is so now I need to figure out if I have a bigger problem or whether me being an idiot is the reason I am still ill.

My motive for coming on here is the fact that I would gain symptoms when I felt like I was fine and my energy levels were not effected. What puzzles me is how my throat got sore out of nowhere when I woke up on Sunday morning, when my only symptom I was experiencing was the ear (which I was told will just clear up when it is healed). Also at my friends house I started to become extremely tired even after sleep as well when my energy level was not previously effected. Only reason I thought I was good enough to go out was because my energy level was normal and my cough had gone away for the most part.

So again I am worrying if my immune system is not up to par? Or if the doctor I saw last Tuesday did not properly examine me (which is common at this time of year as they are very busy) or I have an even worse condition (possibly Pneumonia?). So do I need to go for round 3 with the doctor or is it my own fault that I am still sick?

Thanks in advance.