I got strep throat and learned a lot from it
What worked, what didn’t, and what I’m doing next for more resilient health
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Please also note that absolutely nothing in this story is to be taken as medical advice, as it is simply a record of my personal experiences and ideas; please do your own thinking and/or talk to your healthcare provider. :)
Story time!
Last Thursday, while I was cooking dinner, I noticed my throat just beginning to get sore. I didn’t think much of it; most of the time, a little sore throat resolves itself overnight for me. But as the evening went on, it swelled up more and more. By the time I went to bed, I was feeling downright sick.
In the morning, I checked my temperature; it was 99.2. Just a low grade fever; nothing to be too concerned about. But my throat was hurting pretty badly, and upon inspection, my inflamed tonsils were covered in big nasty white patches… and bleeding a little, too. Yikes. So I called in to my workplace and let them know I wouldn’t be coming in, went back to bed for a few more hours, and then set to work with my natural remedies.
I constructed myself a routine that would surely support my body in doing what it needed to do to become well.
Remedies I used for sore throat:
Salt water rinses every couple of hours
Two big 40 oz. bottles of water a day, with electrolyte minerals added
Herbs taken multiple times throughout the day (via capsules or tea)
Echinacea
Goldenseal
Licorice
Fennel
Slippery elm
Ginger
Mullein
Clove
Fire cider (apple cider vinegar, rosemary, ginger, garlic, onion, horseradish, cayenne, jalapeno, lemon, turmeric, manuka honey)
Manuka honey taken throughout the day
Sips of sauerkraut juice (for probiotics and vitamin C)
Oil pulling for 25 minutes, twice a day, with coconut and clove oil
Red light and near infrared light therapy on the neck and mouth for 30 minutes, three times a day
Laying outside on the ground in the sunlight, whenever the sun was out
Castor oil pack on the neck, 30-60 minutes a day
Hot epsom salt bath, every evening
Plenty of rest
Fasting (I didn’t have an appetite, so I just listened to my body and didn’t eat much other than bone broth and manuka honey.)
That routine is pretty bulletproof, right?! I sure was proud of it. I was going to kick this sore throat in NO TIME.
The next day, I still had the low grade fever, but the big white patches on my tonsils had shrunk and I had decent energy levels. Nice! I thought I noticed a bit of an increase in the inflammation in my neck, though.
On Sunday, there wasn’t any mistake about that. I couldn’t open my mouth all the way. My neck was visibly swollen from the outside, to the point where you couldn’t see my jawline on one side. Half the roof of my mouth had dramatically swollen up, too. Swallowing had been painful before; now it was excruciating. The fever was still low grade and my energy was alright, but at this point, I felt like things weren’t going in the right direction.
Things kept getting worse…
Sunday night was awful; I didn’t sleep at all. I was too focused on trying to consistently breathe, as my tonsils had swollen to the point where my airway was restricted. On top of that, the swelling was beginning to set off my gag reflex. I would get up every hour to drink some water, but swallowing would set me off and I would lose a lot of the water I had just consumed. At this point, I was really concerned; If this didn’t improve, I was going to end up in the hospital.
But I managed to make it through the night. Kevin called our doctor first thing in the morning, and they had us in for an appointment in half an hour.
I had given up on the modern medical system.
I hadn’t darkened the doorstep of a doctor’s office in over twelve years. TWELVE YEARS!!!
When I was 13, I gave up on the modern medical system. I spent my whole childhood on antibiotics multiple times a year, and I simply didn’t feel that the system had any long term solutions to offer me... Just more antibiotics, with no answers as to why I was always getting sick. I made the decision then to learn how to heal myself, and never looked back... That is, until Monday. Because I had done the best job I had ever done in my life on administering the best remedies I could think of consistently, and things were getting worse. I always give my body the space it needs to use its mechanisms (which we refer to as symptoms) to cast off what it needs to, and heal. With that said, sometimes a line needs to be drawn. I couldn’t sleep, struggled to breathe, couldn’t keep water down, hadn’t eaten in days, and there wasn’t any light at the end of the tunnel. I needed help.
Humble pie
Kevin did most of the talking at my appointment, as speaking was immensely painful and would sometimes trigger my gag reflex (I was a hot mess, for real). We left the office with a strep diagnosis, a doctor’s note for work, and an antibiotic prescription.
An antibiotic prescription. I really didn’t want to do that, after the many years of work I put in to heal my gut from a childhood of bad diet and antibiotics. How big of a setback would this be for the precious universe of microbes in my gut? But then again, all those precious microbes might get to work breaking me down and returning me to soil soon if I didn’t do something, so…
I got the prescription anyway.
It said to take it with food. Food? I can barely handle water!
So I took my first dose with a big slice of humble pie.
I took a nap, and when I got up, had a meaningful conversation with Kevin for the first time in days. I took some big gulps of water with only moderate pain. That evening, I even ate a little.
I continued to feel better and better with every dose.
How I’m minding my gut health
I have been mindful to support my gut throughout the process of the antibiotic treatment, being generous with gut friendly foods like bone broth, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, and raw milk kefir. I know the probiotic foods are not able to be fully effective during treatment as the bacteria are continually getting killed back, but I figured I should give my gut whatever I can to work with throughout the process.
Now that I’ve finished the full round of antibiotics, I’m going to be taking a microbiome test to see just what things look like. The aftermath, if you will. I’m testing with Tiny Health; they offer affordable and in-depth microbiome testing, a detailed breakdown of your results organized into an easy-to-use dashboard, and targeted recommendations for strengthening and diversifying your microbiome based on your results. (They actually first started specifically to test mothers and babies so that parents could set their children up early for a long life of amazing gut health, which I think is a pretty sweet mission!)
If knowing what’s going on with your microbiome and having an action plan for nurturing it is something that interests you as well, I have procured a $20 off coupon for you! Just use the code “LISA” at checkout for your discount. Tiny Health is also having a Black Friday sale November 18-30, and yes, you can stack the discounts! The sale is on now, so head on over and secure your discounted test kit.
While I am very sad to have dealt a setback to my beautiful little gut bug community, I am actually really excited to see my results and have some data to work with as I rebuild my microbiome, better than ever.
Plus, I’ll be able to test again later and see what actually works for me… so I can relay the best information to you. So as not-fun as the last week has been, I think it will all work out for good. :)
Final thoughts, and moving forward
While the natural remedies didn’t seem to do much to manage the infection and inflammation (that I’m aware of— there’s no way for me to go back and relive the experience doing things differently to see what the difference might have been), by no means does this mean I have written off their validity. The inflammation/infection got to a debilitating and potentially life threatening point this time, so I needed to set my pride aside and do something that would change that, fast. But in the defense of my home remedies, I will say that the fever never escaped the “low grade” range, and throughout even the worst points, while the inflammation was terrible and painful, I had a clear mind and actually-surprisingly-decent energy levels. Outside of the inflammation, my body really did feel nourished, supported, and cared for. And in my view, that’s the point of natural remedies— to give the body some relief and support through sickness. A fast and drastic cure, like the antibiotics I took this week, should be saved for when it’s truly needed.
Moving forward, I will always nourish and support my body as a baseline with lots of nutrient dense food, sunlight, movement, rest, connection, and a joyful life; I will always employ my natural options first when sickness comes; and I will always be open to asking for help when I truly need it.
Have a great weekend!
Lisa
PS: If you’ve been around awhile, you may have read my past article, “On holistic health and healing,” where I shared my current views on— you guessed it— holistic health and healing. If you decide to read it today, take it alongside what you heard from me today. When I wrote that article, I didn’t think I would ever need to ask for help.