The endoscopy shows no problem. Back to square one. Now Greg is saying he has a sore throat. Is it from the endoscopy? “Open wide, honey.” I peak in and am shocked by what I see. All those pustules. Is this strep throat? After we share the results of the endoscopy with Dr. Angulo, he examines Greg’s throat and prescribes an antibiotic. “Vuelve dentro de diez días.” (Come back in ten days.) There is clearly a horrible infection in my guy’s throat. And it doesn’t go away. Not even after the whole series of antibiotic are finished in ten days.

Our dear friends, Sean and Dori, are both veterinarians. As you may be able to tell, they are also quite the hilarious couple.

We often discuss medical issues with them. Not just regarding our dog Isabela’s issues. Our medical issues too. They are doctors after all. Most of their patients have at least four legs, but what the heck? When talking with Dori, (she isn’t mincing words) she admonishes us. Apparently we made a big mistake not getting a culture done on Greg’s infected throat. “A culture will tell exactly which antibiotic will work on this particular bacterial infection.”

Of course. Anyone knows this. Even we know this, but somehow the location where this information got stored in each of our brains is malfunctioning. Asleep on the job. Like Dr. Angulo. Why didn’t he take a swab and do a culture? Instead, he only sent the fluid from the endoscopy to the lab (to see if it is acid reflux I’m assuming) and they found nothing significant. And as far as we know, the throat infection is not related to the original problem. But this infection problem can be solved with the correct medication, so we decide to stick closer to home and go to St. Jude’s Hospital/Clinic in Todos Santos to request a throat culture. As it turns out, we never go back to Dr. Angulo.

It takes a couple of days for the throat swab sample to grow, so we wait. For someone who rarely sees a doctor, my husband is visiting many of them now. He’s not a happy camper about it either. “This is going on and on,” he tells me, “and I’m sick of it.” If we only knew what was in store for him.

Things did not progress as we hoped. Now the results of the culture come back tainted from all the antibiotics he’s been taking and he needs to wait a week before they do another culture. Get the antibiotics out of your system and come back. August is turning into September and we are no closer to discovering an answer to our original question. Why is there pain with yawning or opening wide? Greg has seen 4 doctors in a month, had two procedures, and the only thing we know for sure is he has an infection on his left tonsil.

You cannot accuse my husband of having patience. He has not been known for it, even on one of his good days. While he will learn to have a little during the next eight months, he is sorely lacking in this area at this point.

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He’s not one to “reign himself in” about his frustration either. If you have a problem with expletives, you don’t want to be around Greg when he is exasperated. This time I do not blame him for being highly aggravated, but really there is nothing we can do now except follow through with the next culture and do some more waiting.

We agree to take one thing at a time, and the second culture gives us the name of the right antibiotic. A doctor at St. Jude’s in Todos Santos writes up the prescription and none of the pharmacies have it.