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1 day agoTIL why my mom always checked my throats for spots whenever we mentioned any kind of not feeling well. First thing she did. I always assumed it was just a strep thing, but she grew up in a time when measles was still an active threat. I just remember white spots in the throat being the biggest thing. No white spots, go to bed. White spots, go to doctor.
Fun fact: I ignored that advice in my late twenties and ended up with scarlet fever. Like a fucking Victorian child. Didn’t even know scarlet fever was still a thing.
Thing is, I only had a minor sore throat for like 24 hours, with a couple white spots, and honestly, I just thought the sore throat was from some, uh, recreational activity the night before. But I felt just awful and flinchy* for several days, then I got these red bumps all over my back and shoulders, and then almost died.
*I get flinchy when I have a fever or get sick. Something touches me and it’s like my body jumps or flinches and I don’t understand it at all. It’s happened my whole life, but about 6 months after the scarlet fever I got mono, and got super flinchy as well, and now that’s just a thing that happens to me now, where my body involuntarily flinches whenever anything touches it. It’s not all the time, but it’ll do it for several days with no reason, and then not again for months. Doc doesn’t know why, but guesses it’s because the mono virus sticks around in you forever, and it’s just an after effect. Says hopefully it’ll go away eventually, but it’s been like 5 years, and every so often (coincidentally happening the last couple days) I just suddenly become a scared Chihuahua or some shit