It's official - I have the flu

Last night was hard and scary. I woke up at 9pm, and checked my temp. It was 103. So I took some Tylenol PM and went back to bed, wrapping up well since I was freezing. I back up about midnight. Apparently my fever had broken, and I had sweated through the sheets and soaked the mattress pad. All the bed linens were soaking wet; and now I was cold because I was clammy. I had to get up, put my mattress pad in the dryer, and wrap up in my big terry robe while it dried out. Since I was up anyway, I ate some rice pilaf I had in the fridge, and thought I could keep down. I hadn't eaten any dinner, and knew I needed to eat something. Then I put fresh sheets on the bed and got back in.

When I woke up this morning, I had a fever again, so I took more Ibuprofen. I was sitting up in my robe when the fever broke, and I just started running sweat. I'm glad I wasn't in the bed or I would have had to change the linens again.

The doc ran a flu test, and told me it was official. Even on the ibuprofen, I still had a fever of 100. I haven't had the flu in years, because I always get a flu shot, but she said the flu shots this year weren't very good, and they had seen a lot of flu as a result of that. Now, I have to tell you, my doc and I have had some words before about her reluctance to prescribe any pain stuff for me, but she didn't stint me this time. She gave me Tamiflu, of course, but she also gave me a cough syrup called Tussionex Pennkinetic suspension MPI. Apparently this must be good stuff, because the pharmacist thought she had prescribed too high a dosage and called her about it. Apparently in higher dosage this stuff can cause respiratory suppression. They made me show ID, gave me a stern talk about how strong it was, and all but sent me to my car with a Brinks guard. It tastes like cream soda.

So I ate a bit when I got home, and went back to bed. I didn't take any fever stuff, since fever is part of your body's natural defense, and since this one wasn't high enough to give me the splitting headaches I have been having. I was sound asleep with my fever cheerfully cresting again when the tree service man showed up to give me an estimate on some work I had called them about a couple of weeks ago. I went to the door and talked to him, but of course by the time I closed it, I was freezing. I had full body shakes and chattering teeth. So I took more Ibuprofen and went back to bed.

I had noticed that not eating much and taking Ibuprofen on an empty stomach had been kind of making my stomach upset. Well by the time I woke up again, I was horribly, horribly nauseated. Every movement I made was making me feel like I had to throw up, even though I really didn't have anything on my stomach to throw up. I have Phenergan in the house, and some cola, and all I wanted was an icy cola to sip like Mama used to give me. But I just could barely move. Every time I got up, I got severely nauseated, and would have to sit back down in the floor. My house isn't that big, but that cola may as well have been across the state. After two emergency trips to the bathroom to throw up, and about an hour and a half, I finally made it to the kitchen, and got the Phenergan down, and made my cola. I got about half of it down, and went back to bed.

When I woke back up, my fever wasn't that high, apparently some of the Ibuprofen had stayed down, but I knew I couldn't take any more of it. I also knew I needed something on my stomach. So I called Dad, and he sent Mom over with some Tylenol, and a baked potato and some juice. That potato sure was good. I sat up for about an hour, then took some Tylenol, brushed my teeth, and went back to bed.

Where I stayed. I got up about 11 and took my Tamiflu and stuff, and slept through the night, amazingly since I had slept so much yesterday. I was in and out for parts of "Fiddler on the Roof", but mostly out.