Pharyngitis Ruins Shop Trip
When I was in 9th grade our middle school shop teacher would drive over to the high school and teach an extra class after regular classes were done for the day. It was this year I built a grandfather clock by myself that won best in nationals and best in state. I think Mr.Noble had something to do with that because he knew my mother had cancer and I was at his shop at Roosevelt every Saturday for two months completing the project by myself while the other grandfather clock that was being built for competition had three kids working on it.
Anyways to the title of this entry. One of the best things about being in industrial technology in 7th and 8th grade and for a few 9th grade was that we got to take a field trip to competition. The only people who could go were people that built their projects or worked on one that was being entered as well as anyone that had a computer project to enter. This meant that not only did we get to go on a field trip, but all of the most attractive girls went as well from their technology entries.
These trips were special in that we got to spend the night in a hotel which meant swimming at the pool. It was something a teenager looked forward to, especially when I had a lot of muscle and wanted to show off for attention. The trips in 7th and 8th were enjoyable, but 9th grade when I had done the most work and effort I got sick the day off the trip. The night before our trip to competition I went over to Charlie's house to hang out. When we were there I kept bending my neck to stretch it because it was stiff. I didn't know that this was the first symptom of several conditions, but for me it was a viral infection of the throat, or pharyngitis.
I woke up and went to school and headed to the shop classroom where we all met up before getting on the bus. The ride was fine, I had an iPod so I would just listen to music the whole time and look out the window. Once we got to competition however things went south. I was happy and talkative out in the grass after we had gotten off the bus, but all of a sudden I felt very ill. My throat hurt every time I swallowed and my neck was still stiff. Charlie said "you know there is something wrong with Michael when he stops talking." And he was right. I believe someone told Mrs. Beck I was feeling bad and there happened to be a retired nurse or someone who worked in the medical field on the trip so the two of them came to check me out.
The only thing they could suggest was to go with one of the other teachers to a grocery store and get some Advil, and so we did. After we got the Advil and headed back to the competition stadium I still wasn't feeling any better. It was starting to hurt really bad every time I swallowed my saliva and once the retired medical person heard this she thought I had Meningitis or something serious. The way the field trip works is that the only people allowed to spend the night and see the results of the competition are those with entries to which I was with my grandfather clock. The entire class gets to go on the first day but those not spending the night have to go back home after unloading all of the built furniture and eating at a restaurant. I was allowed to go to the restaurant to which of the choices provided, Charlie and I went to a basic American, Italian food restaurant to which we ordered and I could barely finish my meal. I just kept getting worse and so it was decided that I couldn't spend the night, something I had worked for months for, that instead I had to go home with then kids without projects.
I don't remember exactly when, I think it was the Saturday after I had returned, but my condition wasn't getting any better and I didn't know what to do, given we didn't have a doctor and I hadn't seen one in five years other than the yearly physical for sports. Eventually I went to my mother in the kitchen and told her I couldn't take the pain from swallowing saliva anymore and she was joking around with my sister when I was extreme pain and took until the conversation ended to decide to take me to the Emergency Clinic.
At the clinic the first thing they did was take blood and they thought they might have had to do a spinal tap, but instead they just wrote me a prescription for pain killers and sent me on my way. It was so frustrating that after all the work I put in I wasn't rewarded, rather punished needlessly.