Strep Throat? - Hope Not!

Jacob began complaining yesterday evening of a sore throat. He was in the middle of doing a packet of homework, SOOOO, I wasn't sure if he was really hurting or if it was a ploy to get out of his homework duties. We went on to prayer meeting, he wasn't running a temp, and he ended up going to sleep. When I put him in the car, he woke up enough to begin crying with his throat. He woke up at 4:00 this morning, not due to the pain, but he was in a good mood and you would have thought it was time to get up. He said his throat still hurt and I checked his temp. It was only around a 100. I decided to take him on to the doctor to be safe and he was checked for strep. She said his throat was really red and one of his glands was swollen in his neck. That gland seems to be swollen often and she said it was something I might want to bring him in and have checked if it was swollen when he seemed to be well. She said it would take longer to go down than it would take for him to start feeling better, so perhaps the times I've noticed it might be due to the lingering after an illness. But, it is something I will watch. She showed me where you really didn't want to see any swollen glands and it was down lower. So, now Jacob is on Amoxicillin and we will call in the morning to get the results of his strep test. He can't go to school tomorrow because if he does have strep, he will be contagious. Ordinarily this would be the grand thing about being sick for a 6-year-old. NOT IN THIS CASE! Tomorrow is the last day before spring break, AND it is Easter Egg Hunt day! VERY important to a first grader! I have told him that if he can't go to school that I will hide the eggs at home that we had gotten to take to school and he could have his own egg hunt here. I have decided that if the results come back negative in the morning and he is not running a temp, that I will take him to school anyway. His teacher has said this was okay and I know how much he wants to go. I would never take him if I thought he was contagious, but I hate for him to miss if it's only something as minor as a little drainage or some irritation from being out in the cool and damp at baseball practice Monday night. So, we're hoping for a negative test, so he doesn't have to miss out on the fun at school. He has not had a fever today and I would LOVE to have one of them there thermometers the doctor's office uses. It's like a magic wand; you just wave it over their forehead and wa-lah!! Too bad they can't come up with a magic strep test that would alleviate the gag reflex!