Hi! So, this morning I woke up, and I've had a really sore throat this entire day, and it kind of hurts when I cough. The problem is, I have a swim meet tommorow, and I really need to be in it, because I'm in a relay. Also, I don't have a fever or anything like that. Should I go to the meet?
Your best bet is to thoroughly gargle with salt water and anything containing bacteria killing substances, I.E corsodyl. If you have no fever then you should be fine to go to your swim meet, however be wary of passing on whatever you have to the others. Be careful about taking things like pain killers, as they can reduce your breath rates per minute, which could result in running out of energy faster while swimming. Sucking on a lozenge would help, strepsils never go wrong with me, most effective lozenge I've come across. The fastest way to get rid of any sore throat is to keep the bacteria levels down. By manually removing them (I.E salt water rinse) you are drastically reducing the work your lymphocytes and phagocytes have to do, so the sore throat can be cured faster. Make sure to keep up vitamin and protein intake too. Over the next few days examine the back of your throat near your tonsils for any abnormalities, generally if it just appears inflamed then it's probably just an average throat infection. If at any point you see white spots that occasionally ooze pus, go to the doctor immediately. While there are a wide range of infections the spots could represent, a few of them can lead to serious complications, albeit very rare. All the best.
