So, we had the influenza. (Doesn't that sound so much more melodramatic than saying "the flu"? Either that or so much more 1918-ish.) And of course everyone wants to know if it was the piggy kind, or the regular kind.
Look, I don't know. Does it really matter? I wasn't sure what the flu was like before this, seeing as I'd never had it before. (The only time I've been even CLOSE to being as sick as I was with this flu was when I had mastitis. And that was about a month and a half ago. I don't remember basically ever having had a fever before in my life and then in 2 months I get one twice? I believe I have now MORE than filled my quota of violent paralyzing chills followed by fever and exhaustion and achy-ness for the next decade or so, okay? Thanks.) Now I know I had some sort of version of the flu and so I can say definitively with absolutely no authority whatsoever that either the seasonal flu is worse than you think or the swine flu isn't as bad as you think and therefore they're about the same.
I don't know which kind of flu we had because I didn't feel like paying my doctor's office a $20 copay just so that they could answer that question and then send me on my way to wallow in my $20-poorer-with-no-actual-treatment misery. Apparently, at least at my doctor's office, Tamiflu is only for those with "compromised immune systems." (Also, apparently 3 month old babies do not qualify as such.)
But I'm not complaining. Because what's worse than deadly flu? Deadly flu that has become resistant to antiviral medications. I'm okay with having my immune system duke it out in the name of the greater good. (It's easy to say that because we all, like, survived and stuff.)
The flu took it's sweet time slowly working it's way through the family. I would keep thinking we were done and then the next family member would come down with it almost a week after the last person. Well, everyone except for M, of course. OF COURSE. Having been spared himself, he can continue believing we were just being sickly pansies as we laid on the couch and lost the will to live. But at least he escaped (knock on wood) and could help take care of all of us.
So the last few weeks have been interesting. And just as I was feeling better, I had to frantically get our house ready for guests we had in town last week. It was really fun to have them here, but I'm SO ready for life to be boring now... HA! Fat chance!
3 comments:
I'm sorry you had the flu, but I'm glad your immune system (and the kids's immune systems) are better for it. I am getting rather annoyed with all the folks who are so livid about not getting the H1N1vaccine. I mean, come on, you are most likely NOT going to die. If you have a compromised immune system, well, then maybe it is okay to be livid. Everyone else needs to suck it up and count on getting the flu any day now. That's what I am doing. (I did not mean that to be a rant for a comment. Sorry.)
You sound just like me! I'm right with you on the whole didn't want to pay the copay to become a statistic thing. But I do know that whatever I had was nasty. And took forever to get out of my system. And wiped me out. YUCK. Glad to know you're feeling better, though!
Yes, the flu is the flu is the flu. Pigs or no pigs. It is just another strain that we haven't seen in a while so it happens to spread faster because of the lack of antibodies in our bodies. And you and yours are evidence that most people don't die. 36,000 people in the US die each year of the flu, but those people were not part of the healthy population to start with. Besides, even if you do get a flu shot, you still might get the flu anyway. I did 2 years ago. People get sick. Some people die. I wish more of those people were the media who were spreading all the FUD about swine flu.
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