Amy

This is a bit involved, thanks for reading all the background.

I've been suffering from pretty severe tonsillitis for the past five days. Symptoms include: Severely swollen throat (2x normal size), pain similar to a bad burn in the back of my throat, swollen tonsils, extreme pain when swallowing, swollen glands, dizziness. No fever, no loss of voice, no viral symptoms (originally). I have seen a doctor, been diagnosed with bacterial tonsillitis, and am on the second day of my antibiotics (amoxicillin 3x daily). The first four days the only thing that helped my throat was drinking cold water. Over the counter pain and numbing agents had zero effect.

Today, I seem to have developed a cold, flu or viral tonsillitis, as now I am sneezing, coughing and suffering constant runny nose. Along with these, drinking any water provides a split second of relief from the cold, and then the most fiery burning death as it travels down my esophagus. It feels like it is ripping the skin back and pouring acid in it. I have tried both filtered tap and bottled water, the same as I have been drinking all week. My throat has swollen even further shut, and taking medicine is extremely difficult. Over the counter medicine is still not helping with the tonsillitis pain, nor is it helping with this new development.

Any idea what is up? Is this just part of the healing process, a serious complication, a side effect of the antibiotics? Mostly just hoping to avoid going back to Urgent Care and waiting six years unless it seems necessary.

Medicine I have tried with no effect: Acetaminophen, DayQuil, NyQuil, Ibuprofen, Aleve, Halls Cough Drops, Cepacol Cough Drops, Target Brand numbing spray, Salt Water Gargle, Hot Tea, Hot Tea with Honey, warm compress, cold compress. I did experience Very marginal relief (5-10%ish) with combination Sudafed and Migraine Relief (Acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine triple combination pill), but the caffeine prevents me from taking this in the evening. None of these have been effective at stopping the tide of runny nose either.

So my amateur, bored friends, what's the deal?

Symptoms: For the last several weeks my Betta has been showing clamped fins with half of his anal fin becoming translucent. No rips, no fraying and no holes, basically it doesn't look like any case of fin rot I've ever seen, which is what I first suspected. No white spots, copper dusting, white fuzz, yellowing or popped fins. Slight bloating (which is likely due to overfeeding, whoops). Normal behavior, hangs out on the top of the tank, but swims around at normal speeds to investigate. No rubbing/scratching.

http://img.waffleimages.com/f21addc2a9f0cbc4f9eb3c...

Old picture, that wispy/translucent look is now halfway up the fins. Dorsal fin had some pre-purchase injury in this photo that has now healed.

Environment: 5g tank, heated to steady 80 degrees, filtered, cycled. pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all idle. No chlorine or anything of the sort in the water. Pinch of aquarium salt, added slime coat/stress reliever. The only problem is that our water is rather hard here (the joy of city water). His tank has two silk plants, an amazon sword and java ferns. Weekly 10% water changes.

Treatments tried: Did the 3 day temperature increase with salt, in case of Ich.

Followed by dosing of Mardel's Maracyn-Two and Maracide (in case of Ich or Velvet due to the clamped fins).

Any ideas on what could be causing this and what else I can do?

I'm looking for an affordable place to purchase a frame with mat from in 20"x30". Quality is not a big factor, obviously the nicer the better. Places like Walmart and Target don't seem to sell that size, and places like www.pictureframes.com are a bit out of my price-range (even the on-sale, ready-mades are $90+ with shipping/mat).

Online store is best, but if you happen to know of any really affordable stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, that would be good too :)

Thanks!

The local Safeway is overpriced with garbage, the smaller shops have terrible selection. What online spice vendor has a wide selection of quality products at a reasonable price? I don't want to order 5 pounds of spices just to end up with mostly expired sawdust.

I am not looking for a 5 second Google answer, I am looking for returning customer reviews.