The plague

Monday I had coffee with a friend I hadn't seen in ages. I've always jokingly called B my "first friend" in Eau Claire. She is an alumni of the forensics program, and I met her my first fall at UWEC. Even though we hadn't seen other in, literally, several years (and we should be ashamed because we live in the same city!) conversation with her is always easy. We talk, we laugh, we analyze. She is married with 2 kids and I'm single with 2 cats - our lives are so very different, but we have so much in common.

After a great morning of coffee & conversation followed by a doctor's appointment, I headed home to do some class prep. I had a headache come on in the late afternoon and ended up going to bed early. Around 2am, I woke up shivering with chills. I turned up the electric blanket and tried to go back to sleep. At 4am I was all the way awake because the chills were worse, my head was pounding, and any position I slept in ached unless I moved every 3 minutes. I finally got out of bed and took my temperature. 103. Great. I took some Tylenol, cozied up in the lazy-boy with a pile of blankets and finally dug out some frozen peas to put on my forehead. My body wouldn't stop shaking, but I was burning up. I dozed a bit, but by the time 7am rolled around, I knew I was fully in the grip of the flu.

And the flu sucks. But it sucks even more when you got the damn flu shot, but STILL ended up getting the flu. To make matters even better, it was snowing out. Hard. There was no way I was going to get to the doctor because I was plowed in. Repeated advice on FB was to get to the doc so I could get a course of Tamiflu started. I could barely walk from the bed to the bathroom - there was no way I could shovel my drive.

I slept off and on through the afternoon with my temp fluctuating between 101 - 103. And the body aches - oh my gosh, they were horrid. When I nap in the lazy-boy, the cats usually come snuggle on my lap. But I wouldn't let them because their weight (all combined 18 pounds of it) was agony on my joints. At one point I really had to go to the bathroom, and I didn't know if I had the strength or balance to get out of the chair.

At about 4pm, I heard my neighbors start up their snow blower. And an hour later, they had completely cleaned out my drive and walk-way of the 9" of snow we had received. (1-3" was predicted - whatever) I would have run out and kissed them but I was barely able to stand up-right. I called Urgent Care and got an appointment right away. The drive across town was painful, but uneventful. I got right in to see the doctor and he confirmed I had the flu, one of the strains NOT covered by the flu shot. He prescribed Tamiflu, and said it should help shorten the course of the flu.

When I got home, I was exhausted - completely, utterly, totally exhausted. I got in the first dose of Tamiflu and went to bed. Wednesday morning, my temp was still hovering around 101, but I was able to move a bit more easily. My body aches were a bit improved, though my eyes were killing me. Reading or watching TV just made them hurt more. As the afternoon wore on, my headache was getting better, and my fever slowly came down. For a couple of hours in the evening, I was sweating and agitated - but then, the fever was gone. Man, that is a good feeling!

This morning, my core muscles are really stiff and sore, probably from shaking when I was chilled. My balance is wonky, so I'll be traveling with my tacky cane until I'm more sure on my feet again. I've continued to feel better throughout the day. Fever is gone, headache is gone, body aches are gone. It's amazing how good a person feels after a bout with sickness. Tomorrow, I take the forensics kids to a tournament in Iowa. Without the Tamiflu, I'm pretty sure I'd still be fighting with the 103 fever!

I'm trying to be grateful that if the plague had to hit my household, at least it chose before the semester! Here's to feeling back to normal soon!