Because I have been sick with flu, and because people have been asking, "THE flu?" and because Matt Davis asked that, if indeed I did have swine, might I write about it, I am.
First, I did not get a spit test so I cannot tell you definitively if I had it, nor do I have any interest in being the girl who had swine flu. I will just tell you what happened.
I went to Tacoma on Thursday, September 3. While there, I read the headline that 2ooo University of Washington students had tested positive for swine, a number I found shocking, not having paid much attention to swine since some months ago, when schools and whole townships were being closed in what seemed a rather premature and hysterical move. I knew swine could be deadly, just as all flus can be, though mostly for the elderly, the very young, and the infirmed.
I have only had flu once before. It was December 30, 1999. Din and I and another couple went to a Chinese banquet hall in downtown LA for dim sum. We sat down at around 6:55. By 7, when they brought the tea, I was thinking, wow, I really want some tea, and by 7:05, Din and the other male in of our party were carrying me out of the restaurant; it descended that fast. I was put in bed, where I spent the next 48 hours running a 104 temperature and shaking so violently my teeth hurt, after which I lay in bed for three days staring at the ceiling, which was all I could manage.
I spent Thursday and Friday, September 3 and 4 of this year, in Tacoma, on assignment. I shook a few hands. I had a meal at a nice restaurant. I ate a cookie from the reception desk in the hotel lobby. I was home by late that Friday afternoon, feeling fine. The next day, I went to get a haircut. Midway through, the hair-cutter got a phone call, and as I sat there staring into the mirror, it felt as though a blanket was settling on me, a blanket made of sick.
"Are you okay?" she asked, when she came back. I told her, not so hot; don't bother even drying my hair.
I came home and had a little dinner and got in bed. I was sick. No big deal. The joke in our house is, I am never (with the exception of that flu) sick longer than 18 hours; I get in bed and sleep and, voila, wake up myself.
I did not wake up myself. I did not wake up myself for five days, but got progressively sicker with what really was just a bad cold: sneezing, headache, listlessness, no appetite, coughing. I didn't go anywhere, I met my deadlines; I rested.
Friday morning, I thought I was well enough to at least strip the bedding I'd been convalescing in all week. I started to do so; it was too hard. I went to pull off the fitted sheet; I could not. I fell on the bed, laughing, sort of, saying out loud, sort of, "Loser." I sat up; it was a helluva lot of work. I gathered the sheets. I was panting. I crumbled them to my chest and made it down the stairs. Din was in the shower and so did not hear me say, "Help."
He found me on the couch. Because he told me and because I felt it, I know I looked like a broken doll. I could not lift my head. I could not talk. I thought I was going to vomit. I was shaking. He wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I said, no, just get me to bed. As though I had any choice. The fever shakes of the flu began to come on; you have no control, you're down for the count; I curled up and went to sleep.
When I woke up, there was no fever but I was nevertheless very sick, much sicker than the day before. There were emissions the less said about, the better. There was a horrible headache, and while the sniffling had subsided, in its place was a cough, a dry cough that hurt my chest, and a body that was utterly useless. I felt as though 98% of my strength was gone; I could barely make my hands work. And eating? No way.
This was Friday. With the blessed omission of the emissions, I stayed in this state for four days. I knew that my cold had somehow morphed into the flu. But was it THE flu?
I called Kaiser; I got a nurse; I told her what was going on, and if it was swine...
"Sounds like it," she said.
I told her, I had no fever; she said, a third of the cases of swine do not.
Okay, so, what do I do?
Here's what she said, in case this happens to you:
Rest, obviously.
Fluids, ditto.
Advil or Tylenol, every four hours.
Mucinex, to keep the cough loose and productive,
No cough medicine during the day; you want to cough. Robitussin DM at night.
Salt water gargle every two hours, because your throat will be raw from coughing and this will help it heal up.
Vaporizer at night.
Bland diet: rice, dry toast, soup, soda crackers, bananas
She said, if I developed a fever, or the cough turned to a wheeze, or if I felt much worse, to come in.
None of those things happened. It's now day eleven, and Din just said to me, as he poured me some coffee, "Look, you're smiling; you're getting better."
Yes.
This morning looked on the CDC flu tracker site; it said most cases of flu going around are swine. I also checked the incubation period: 24 - 48 hours, which means I brought it home from Tacoma, and also means, I have not given it to my family, who remain well. Din says, perhaps I've helped them build up some immunity. He also said, he's never seen me this sick this long. True.
Here's hoping you and yours avoid it.
