pharyngitis
"I caught a really bad flu (maybe H1N1 - it was going around in my city). It started with a dry cough which led to violent coughing within a couple days. Violent non-productive cough, where I got coughing fits that went on for about 30 seconds,  which is really long when you're coughing.  Anyway, I had chills and a fever and muscle aches and sweating.  A few days later I lost my voice completely for 9 days. My regular doctor didn't give me anything. So I went to another doctor the next week when I could barely breathe. The doctor told me to go to the ER. I asked the ER doctor for Z-pak as I knew it worked on me when I had pneumonia before.  Amazingly, Z-pak started making me feel better after 2 days. After the full course, I was so much better."