Bubble Girl Got The Flu

sunday night i was fine. i had a pretty irritating cough, but that’s it. yesterday morning i woke up and somehow between midnight sunday night and 6am monday morning, all hell broke loose on my immune system. 102.3 degree fever, bad cough, sniffles, puking, aches all over so bad that i could barely walk around my apartment–yesterday was effing miserable.

i made an appointment for 11 yesterday morning. they asked me a million questions and had me doing paperwork for like 15 minutes, and then the lady told me she had to take my picture for my records. my fever had spiked since i was in the office and i was sweating bullets (they had the heat on in the office since it was 60 degrees in charleston yesterday, which is evidently freezing) and my face looked boiling. of course they took my picture. i think she wanted me to be even more miserable.

the nurse finally came and got me, and i sat on the table in my little room. i did a lot of sitting yesterday. they really like to make you wait in doctors’ offices. another nurse came in and i answered the same set of questions i answered in the front office. which was kind of annoying. wait 10 minutes doctor came in, asked me a new set of questions mixed in with the same questions, round 3. wait another 10 minutes another nurse came in to give me a flu test.

this is the part i don’t understand. i guess they do something new for flu testing because of the H1N1? when i was little, i never got a rod jammed up my nose and into my brain. haha, i mean, i was 100% expecting a throat swab with that q-tip. she quickly set me straight and i am pretty sure like 3 inches or more of that thing was all the way in my head.

wait 15 minutes

results came back negative, and she’s all, “good news! you don’t have the flu!” followed by “bad news! the test is only 50-70% accurate!” WTF?

another nurse came in to draw blood. this was to see if it was bacterial or viral. i haven’t been to the doc in a long time, so i thought it was a finger prick. i asked her and she was all “no, it’s your arm”. huge disappointment. finger pricks take 1 second. getting blood drawn from your arm where the needle just hangs there, that freaks me out. so she took my blood.

i don’t remember what the results of that one were, but the doctor came back in and gave me a prescription for tamiflu, some cough syrup, and a new inhaler!!! HOORAY!

i went to CVS immediately after leaving the office because i knew i wouldn’t feel up to it later. 3 prescriptions = $140. being sick freaking sucks.

i got home and took the tamiflu and the cough syrup. in between throwing up. lucky for me, my stomach decided to puke after the pills and cough syrup had already kicked in. i was able to fall asleep on the couch in and out all afternoon, but not without sweating out every bit of water i had in me. gross, i know. that is the most uncomfortable feeling ever.

i went to bed at 10:30, woke up at 11 this morning, and i feel spectacular. so i’m guessing the pills are helping. my fever is almost gone, cough is pretty much non-existent, sniffles are about how they normally are, aches are almost gone.

i’m crossing my fingers that this keeps up and i’ll be able to work tomorrow. :cry: