When I was around the age of eleven, I told my mom about this weird feeling in my throat—as if I had something like a hair in there.* She suggested I drink some water, which I did. It didn’t go away right away, but when it did, I thought I had solved it.

*I was pretty sure it wasn’t actually a hair, but I didn’t know how else to describe it.

Over the years, the weird feeling came and went. It was annoying (having something in your throat poking the wall), but before I could think about what to do, it went away. Several times, I had actually stuck my finger down there just to see what it was. I did find out that it’s long and narrow, instead of it being a lump, like what I originally thought. But that was about it.

THEN in Fall ’03, it bugged me enough to tell my mom about it again (I brought up the moment mentioned at the beginning of this entry, and boy, was I surprised when I found out she remembered it…it was such a small moment, I thought). She didn’t think it was anything serious, but just to find out what it was, I had to go to this doctor who would do an ultrasound of my throat.*

*And the ultrasound, boy was it weird. O_O The computer display thingy where you could see the inside of whatever they’re inspecting and they also put this clear gel on the area. It wasn’t warm or cool. I actually wouldn’t have known it was there if I didn’t see her put it on.

Well, she didn’t find anything (the feeling had chosen that moment to disappear—LAWLS). But I remember a friend suggesting that I drink some water before I go, so I’m wondering if drinking water makes it (temporarily) go away (see first paragraph). With that thought in mind, I just drank water whenever that feeling came.

Just last night, that feeling came back. And it was so prominent that it annoyed me greatly. So greatly that I was absolutely determined to look up on it the next day (and wow, why have I not thought of this before?). Drinking water didn’t help (in the moment I was awake), so I lived with it for the rest of the night.

Sometime before dinner, I remembered what I planned to do and went to Wikipedia (which is usually my first source, just to get an idea of what’s going on):

1. I looked up said ailing body part (in this case “throat”)
2. Looked for anything under “disorders”, “medical conditions” or the like, related to my problem. In this case, there is none, so I examined the illustration that showed the anatomy of the throat.
3. The only thing that’s in the same general area as the weird protruding thing is the epiglottis. I didn’t think it could be the epiglottis, but heck oh well. I took a look at it anyway.

Upon reading the article, I started to think that maybe it could be the epiglottis, especially after reading the “Infection of the epiglottis” section:

In children, the epiglottis will occasionally become infected with Haemophilus influenzae or Streptocoche in the trachea, causing massive inflammation. This condition has become rare in countries where vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae (HIB) is administered.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiglottis

Some of it does make some sense. I first noticed it around the age of eleven. I googled epiglottis infection and got Epiglottitis. Apparently, as the Wikipedia article had said, the infection is less common in countries with the vaccination (and I don’t know which ones they are ._.). But the one thing that raised questions in the air is the fact that if not treated quickly, it can cause breathing difficulties and death. Assuming that this is what’s going on, I’ve had it for about thirteen years now (got it when I was a kid too!), and it hasn’t turn into anything really serious. I’m 100% positively sure I’m still alive and I haven’t had any real problems breathing. There are moments where I felt a short of breath, but that’s about it. I guess it could varying depending on the person. :/

So, looks like I’m off to see the doctor. Even if it’s not epiglottitis, I can at least give the doctor a better idea of what to look for, rather than pointing in a general direction and telling him “look there”, without giving them an idea of what to look for. Even if it has nothing to do with the epiglottis. (It also gives me the reassurance that I didn’t make it up…not that anyone’s suggesting that, but it sure felt that way to me when the doctor didn’t find anything after inspecting my throat via ultrasound. ;o;)

As for the cellphone situation, our phones came in on Tuesday. Both my mom and Lorin got the dark red ones, and Ryan and I got the light blue ones (black was out of stock T_T). And yup, that is Mocha as the wallpaper.