Strepping Out

The entire day yesterday consisted of long, fitful sleep punctuated by bleary wakefulness. The culprit: strep throat. For some strange reason that nobody can figure out yet, our family has been especially susceptible to the bacteria, especially this year. Since February all four of us have been bitten by the bug four times. This time, my fifth, I’m so far struggling with it alone—only four days after ending my last round of antibiotics. My kids meanwhile have been put on a “maintenance dose” of penicillin that they will need to take until April 2006.

A few friends have asked if we’re going to have our tonsils removed, but our doctors don’t think that the procedure would have much if any effect. We have disinfected the house numerous times and replaced our toothbrushes. We’re just not sure what else we can do.

The whole situation has gotten rather comical, and it would be even more so if it weren’t also unpleasant and inconvenient. The good news is that by now we are well attuned to the symptoms, so we can have our doctors call in the prescriptions right away when we feel another case of strep coming on. This time my doctor didn’t even bother bringing me in to gag me with a q-tip. Ah, progress!