I had a rough week. I managed to contract a stellar case of Influenza-A. This is not the “stomach flu” that everyone thinks of when they hear somone has the flu. This is the real deal. Influenza. A nasty, upper-respiratory illness caused by the Influenza virus. The symptoms include high fever (100-103 degrees), body ache, chills, headaches, sore throat, extreme fatigue, along with the upper respiratory symptoms that you’d see with a typical cold.

So here’s the story. A week ago Friday I knew I was sick, but I had a presentation I needed to do for work. I put on my game face and toughed it out. By the time I got home, I was wiped out and felt horrible, so I beached myself on the couch and slept for two hours. When I awoke, I didn’t feel better. I felt worse. My wife checked my temperature. Yup. 102 degree fever. I went to bed. The next day (Saturday), I planted myself on the couch all day and felt miserable. The 102 degree fever stuck with me most of the day. By late evening, it had crept up to 103 and I felt even worse. After much cajoling by my wife and mother (via the phone), I was convinced that I really needed to see a doctor to rule out strep throat. So, we made the trip to the ER at the local hospital. My fears were confirmed. It wasn’t going to be that easy. It wasn’t strep. It was something else and the doctor need to confirm whether or not I had Influenza.

A nurse marched in and jammed what looked like a pipe cleaner up my nose for a sample. Although she probably only had to shove it in an inch or so, I’d swear she shoved it a good six inches up my nasal passage. After doing that to both nostrils, she sent it off for analysis. About 40 minutes later the doctor came back and said it was Influenza-A. There was nothing they could do to treat the symptoms since it had been more than 36 hours since the symptoms appeared. If I had come in sooner, they would have given me something like Tamiflu, which is an anit-viral medication that takes the edge off the symptoms and gets you better a little bit sooner. Too late for that. I went home.

Sunday I still felt bad. I still had a really high fever — 103 again. I don’t remember much of Sunday. This continued on throught last week. I finally started feeling better on Wednesday. By Thursday, the fever was gone and I was actually able to put in a full day of work, although I still had a terrible sore throat. By Friday, the sore throat had finally eased as well and I felt mostly human again.

The worst part of all this? I gave it to my wife too. She was sick all week with me. Fun, huh?

–Pete