Hi, I woke up at 1am Saturday morning with a suddenly very swollen uvula, which makes swallowing difficult. My throat has been extremely painful since then for 4 days, the pain gets quite sharp and radiates to my nose, right ear, and now to the sinuses around my eyes and forehead. When I check in the mirror, my throat is just very red everywhere and swollen, but I don't really see any white patches, which seems to be the indicator of strep throat, and I didn't have any contact with anyone with strep throat recently either. I run a 100-101 fever with body aches, chills, and headaches from evening to late morning everyday, then it subsides and I'd feel better in the afternoon only to get hit by another wave of fever in the evenings ~6-8pm.
I can't figure out what's going on. I have hay fever around this time every year, but the symtoms were never so severe like this. I don't have any other cold/flu symptoms like running or stuffy nose, chest congestion, watery eyes, etc. except for a little dry cough. Neither do I see any white patches or rashes in my throat. I heard that viral infection will run its own course and should start to feel better after 4-5 days, but I feel like my worst right now. I tried warm salt water gagle, ibuprofen, and ice pack. The relief is temporary and after 1/2 hr the pain comes back.
I know I should probably ask my doctor, but I'm a cancer patient and really scared of doctor visits right now. My doctors are following very closely some lesions on my liver and lung. My next scan won't be due until June this year. I'm afraid they'll send me for a scan or X-ray immediately if I show up in their office with my symptoms, which I'm not ready for. And I really do have a strong gut feeling that whatever I might be having has nothing to do with cancer - probably my body's immune system hasn't recovered up to the level where it is ready to fight off the nasty bug yet. Please let me know if you have good suggestions for ways to boost my immunity and get over this thing. Thank you!