SO, IT'S THE NOSE


Last Wednesday afternoon, my throat felt dry. I was coughing slightly. Nonetheless, I finished a BIG packet of tapioca chips. Later on the same night, my body started running a slight temperature of only 37.5oC. I attributed it to the untimely feast of tapioca chips.

The fever left the next morning; and I was somewhat relieved. But gone as the fever may be, I was still feeling queasy though. You know, the queasy feeling of not being in tip-top condition. By the following Monday, I totally lost my voice out of the blue. To make it worse, 2 days later - on this Wednesday - I started developing a massive headache.

For the first time in my life, I HAVE A HEADACHE! And it's SOOO unbearable. My head pounds and aches with each step I take, and each cough sends such sharp, intense pain that I thought my skull was splitting open.

The totally weird thing is, I'm not experiencing any raging fever. At most, it's just a recurrent, on-and-off, mild fever which never crosses the 38.5oC mark. Kind of irritating, really, because if it would just rise higher, I would have gone to the doctor for an MC.

And because it's just such a mild fever that keeps coming back persistently and irritatingly like a pest, I doubt the doctor would deem it serious enough to warrant an MC. Thus, armed with a throbbing headache, I had no choice but to force myself to school this morning to take a test. I'm seriously going to buang the paper. I was totally ill prepared for it; and each time I bend forward to scribble my answers on the test paper, my head protests violently. How to deduce the correct molecular structure by reading the NMR spectrum, IR spectra, and Mass Spectroscopy spectra when my head is screaming murder, and the brain, refusing to focus? DIE LA.


After the test, I headed off for the second lecture - Instrumental Analysis II - from 12pm to 2pm. I could hardly register whatever the lecturer was saying. Linear sweep voltammetry... Cyclic voltammetry... Limiting current... Faradic current... Negative scan... Positive scan... Scan rate... Cathodic current... Diffusion layer... What... The... Bananna...
The lecture ended at 1.45pm. While we were packing up our stuff to adjourn to the next lecture threater, ML joked and asked whether did I have a through-the-night mahjong session. "NO LA!" I replied, "In fact, I slept very early last night at 11.30pm. I didn't even really prepare for the test this morning!" It's true, I am practically a hibernating bear these past couple of days.

"Is it?" She was surprised, "But your eyes are so swollen! And the dark circles! You look like you didn't sleep last night!"

I paused, and thought for a moment. Okay, I feel horrible. But I have no idea, until this moment, that I look horrible as well. I thought of the next lecture from 2pm - 4pm. Oh, crap! It's level 3 ORGANIC REACTION MECHANISMS! Instrumental Analysis alone already killed me! Deciding that attending Organic Chemistry lecture at this current state of health would be a pure waste of time, I headed down to the campus health center for a medical consultation.

The waiting time wasn't long. I had my consultation within 15minutes of waiting.

"How may I help you?" The doctor asked.

"Well, I've been having a recurrent, mild fever since last Wednesday. On and off. Then I lost my voice on this Monday. On this Wednesday, I started having a massive headache." I babbled away.

"Got phelgm?" She asked, while jotting down and making notes of my medical symptoms.

"Nope, no phelgm. Dry cough."

"Does your throat feel dry or itchy?"

"Nope, not itchy."

I involuntarily let out a cough.

"The cough just now, is it due to irritable throat; or did the cough just naturally come by its' own?"

"By its' own."

"Got runny nose?"

"Nope," I replied. Just then, I remembered vaguely of sniffing my nose late at night while I slept, and experiencing the resultant CRAZY headache that left me coiling in pain. Needless to say, I have been making a conscious effort to resist the tempting urge to sniff my blocked nose since then. "Ehmmm... Just a bit." I amended, "Stuffed nose. But no mucus."

She took a wooden stick prod from her desktop. Shining the torchlight onto my mouth cavity, she asked me to "Ahhh..."

"Ahhh..."

"Ahhh again."

"AHHH..."

She took a stethoscope from her desk, and proceeded to listen to my airway passage.

Satisfied, she returned to her seat; and scruntized the medical notes she had made. She looked stumped. Alright, I admit - even to myself - this illness seems so weird. I'm not having a fever; so that definitely rules out any viral infection or bacterial infection. I'm not having a runny nose; so it rules out the common flu or influenza. BUT I'm having a persistent bad headche, a stubborn, recurrent mild fever, and a spate of bad cough. The symptoms don't make sense.

"Your headache," she probed, "does it hurt always? Even when you're doing nothing?"

"It hurts slightly while I'm walking or turning my head." I replied, "But each time I cough, the pain intensifies like anything."

"Ah..." She smiled, "this is because when we cough, pressure is actually created inside. That's why your headache worsens when you cough."

She looked back at the medical notes again.

"Do you have any respiratory problems? Asthma?"

"Nope."

"Then how about allergies? Or are you sensitive to anything?"

I pondered for a moment. "Nope, I don't have any known allergies." I replied, "But my nose is kind of sensitive to dust."

"Ah..." She smiled finally, as if she's found the missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle. "I suspect this illness could be brought about by your nose. Nasal drip. Could be your nose's sensitivity to dust that's affecting your throat. As you know, the ear, nose, and throat are linked to each other. Your cough and persistent slight fever could have been superimposed as a result of the nasal problem. But sometimes because the mucus is not much, patients at times fail to realize that it's actually caused by the nose."

"I'll prescribe some pills for you. Paracetamol (that is, the active ingredient in Panadol) to curb your headache and mild fever, and some pills to help your nose. And a cough syrup for your cough."





SO! AFTER DAYS OF MYSTERY, IT'S THE STUPID NOSE'S FAULT!





And now, I have 4 medications to take. And it's such a bother. One has to be taken once in the morning, the other has to be taken 4 times per 6hours, another one has to be taken twice per 12hours, and the last one has to be taken at precisely 5pm and 11pm.

Keeping to medical complicance can be such a headache! So many pills at different timings! How to keep track?!