Grateful for

my impending health.

After having been knocked flat on my heiny for about 24 hours.

Although a child in our playgroup was (momentarily) suspected of having the measles, and the girl I drive home after school was diagnosed with bronchitis, I actually think I am recovering from a bout of the dreaded swine flu.

It appears that H1N1 is THE flu of the season and makes its appearance with a fever and sore throat. This is so characteristic of this flu that at Chad’s work, anybody who shows both these symptoms is asked to stay at home.

It started with a headache and some strange other-body-ness that was so unusual (for me) that I didn’t immediately attribute it to sickness. Then the next morning I woke up feeling better and I went out to a La Leche League toddler meeting (but I didn’t hold any babies and mostly stayed away from people in general). By the time I got home I was feeling much worse and by lunch I was alternating shivering and sweating, and I had such bad body ache that my eyeballs hurt. Every once in a while, I got an itch in my throat that made me cough – that hurt too.

By bedtime I could barely turn my head, and nursing the baby to sleep was agony. This plus I developed a razor sharp ache in the right side of my throat. I remember thinking, I can’t do this for another day, before drifting off. Sleep was not much better as my affected sense of equilibrium inflected my dreams, giving them a nightmarish quality.

When I woke up – I could feel the body ache receding.

Hallelujah. I was still sick, for sure, but well enough to appreciate how sick I HAD BEEN.

Now that it’s bedtime, I can really appreciate feeling better, although I’m not 100% by a long shot.

Whew. Hope this one passes you over.

[Update:

It has now been exactly a week since I got my first symptoms of sickness. No more body ache, but I still feel slightly weak and I still have a deep cough, although that only makes itself known very occasionally.

Recovery is slow.

I did notice that my fever ebbed and returned several times over the course of a few days. Also, I had many disjointed symptoms that would disappear and reappear, like the fever, a stiff neck, a sore throat, and even this cough.

Chad felt unwell and stayed home two days from work, but never got it as bad as I did – and never coughed either. His worst symptom was a mind-crushing headache which was accompanied by a slight fever.

Christian and Bella remain healthy and are getting plenty of rest.

I’m staying home today and eating lots of soup.]

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