My older son, Sam, is just getting over a particularly nasty case of strep throat and has been out of school for the past four days, ergo my absence from the screen. The hell of it was trying to figure out whether he just had a virus with a sore throat, or whether he had strep and needed medical treatment.

Y’see, I am categorically opposed to dragging kids to the doctor for each and every sniffle. I have three little ones, and if I did that, I’d spend my life running one or the other of them to the doctor. Especially do I resent making a sick kid sit in the doctor’s waiting room for an hour, probably picking up every other bug that’s going around in the process, only to be told “It’s a virus. He’ll get over it” and then charged $20.

So I try to figure things out for myself, with the help of Dr. Sears, whose website is my childhood illness Bible. On the subject of sore throat, he mentioned that the signs of strep include fever over 101, red spots in the throat, swollen glands, and a lack of pain during swallowing.

Well, Dr. Sears is awesome and all, but Sam’s symptoms were fairly different from those. So, as a public service, I offer you a list of the features of his strep:

• His fever reached 101 only once, instead hovering around 99-100 degrees and sometimes coming down completely.
• He had no red spots in his throat. His tonsils were mightily swollen, though.
• He had extreme pain on swallowing.
• His glands were not swollen or tender.
• Oddly, he was salivating heavily and spitting repeatedly. He said his throat was too sore to swallow his spit.
• He had constant nausea and occasional vomiting.
• He had absolutely no appetite whatsoever. None, and usually that boy is a real snack hound. He also refused to drink anything, including diet 7-Up, which is his favorite.
• He was nearly catatonic in the mornings, sleeping until noon or so, then perked up considerably in the afternoons, thereby fooling me into believing he was getting better.

When I finally took him to the doctor on the third day of his illness, the doctor did a rapid throat culture which was positive for strep. He started the amoxicillin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and by Thursday morning he bounced out of bed wanting to go to school, which request was denied on the fear that he would infect everyone else, whose parents would then hate us forever. Today, 48 hours after appearing to be at death’s door, it’s like he was never sick at all.

So, you know, it’s a dicey thing. Illnesses don’t always follow the common course, and it’s often tough to determine how sick a kid really is. Word to the wise. Have a good weekend, and watch out for spitting kids with sore throats.