Fever, chills, congestion… and a general feeling that some evil elf came along and beat me all over with a big stick: sounds like the dreaded “flu-like illness” that’s been making the rounds in the last few weeks.
Since I’m not in any risk categories and likely have at least partial immunity from decades past, I have just ridden it out the old fashioned way. Â Aspirin, lots of water and orange juice, a little hot tea and soup, is about the best one can do.
Today is Day 4, and the fever is gone. Â At this point, I’m just left with that “hurt all over” feeling… like I’ve skied really hard for several days, or completed a 50-mile bike ride. Â But I haven’t done any of those fun things. Â All I’ve done is lie in the bed. Â I don’t know where that big, ugly bruise on my left foot came from, but I hope it’s from kicking that evil elf to the next county.
In retrospect, it wasn’t nearly as bad (for me) as the media hype, and I’m glad to have gotten it over with. Â Years ago, just out of college, I worked for the Knox Co. Health Department, where I was sick for most of three years. Â Although I hated it at the time, I’ve become thankful over the years since that I did build up a pretty healthy immunity to the stuff that my kids inevitably brought home from school.
I’ve been through at least five different bouts of kids home with the flu, without catching it. Â A little over a week ago though, HWTFM came home from Pantex and fell ill within a couple of days.
Luckily, neither of the younger kids, still at home, have caught it. Â Yet.
The fear of the flu — at least for those of us without complicating conditions — is much worse than the real thing, in my opinion. Â It’s not fun, but it’s not as bad as the hype.
Had the “real” flu many years ago. Never been so “out of it” before or after. No fun.
1989/90 New Years. The second time in my life with a real flu. Legs were like lead the first day and tingled. Within several hours a 100+ fever and aches all over. Finally the stuffy nose that lead to the inevidible sinus infection. Two weeks of not feeling well at all and missing at least a week of work. New years 1990 hurled, literally.
Got this email from a friend yesterday:
“T—- had a brief illness and was told at student health that it was not
the flu (But it turns out they did not even test for the flu). His flu
symptoms got better after a couple of days and I thought everything was OK. He called after classes on Friday (9/25) complaining of a pain in his side. [My wife] decided to go up there. By Monday he was in the . . . ICU, unconscious and on a ventilator. He had developed pneumonia
and then empyema. It happened so fast. He needed to have major chest surgery to peel away the lining of his lung so they could remove all of the pus, etc.
“But all is well. Yesterday was his first day home. He is moving around
OK, but is still in a lot of pain. He should be able to go back up to
school in about two more weeks. I doubt if he can make up the work in his classes, but he wants to try.
“So make sure everyone in your family gets the vaccines. This was really
scary.”