Swine flu - or maybe not.
My husband Carl went down with a chest infection and flu like symptoms last week. Quite a nasty one too I might add, though he had no temperature. Sunday night my left tonsil ached so much I thought it was plotting to blow up my throat. Monday morning I woke up with full blown flu - swollen tonsils making it very painful to swallow, head pains (not quite like any headache I've ever had), earache, aching limbs and generally feeling washed out. Yesterday my symptoms got worse and I also had a temperature of 38C. Fantastic.
Having very little faith in my new GP (long story that I won't go into now), I thought I'd try out this new fangled National Pandemic Flu Service website thingy provided by the NHS. I figured it couldn't do a worse job than my doctor whom you have to torture to get information from. So, I went through all the questions very carefully, as I'm not one to take drugs unnecessarily, especially not antibiotics / antivirals. At the end of the questionnaire, they gave me an authorisation number to collect some antivirals (free of charge), recommending that I take them. Along with that was some general medical advice - stay at home and rest (like I've had a choice anyway!), drink plenty of fluids, take pain relief medicine to control fever etc. All of which I've already been doing, but hasn't worked too well so far. The question is - do I really have swine flu or is this just a case of 'your symptoms roughly fit so we'll throw some antivirals at you just in case'. I wonder what happens if it isn't swine flu and some months down the line I do actually catch the real thing and because I've had a dose of Tamiflu already I either can't get more or they don't work? I am a bit concerned about this, but being honest I feel so shitty at this point anything is worth a try, so I will take them. On that note, my nearest distribution point for these antivirals is quite a distance away, so it's a good job I have a relative with a car! My Mom and new step Dad have kindly offered to go and collect them for me, am waiting on delivery as we speak. Just in case, I told them to post them through my door rather than risk contact with me. If you've been wondering why I've been absent from my regular online activities, apart from just being very busy last week, this is why. It's taken me almost an hour just to write this. Generally I've been sitting / lying on the sofa, having very little energy to do much of anything apart from a few attempts to relieve my boredom with a spot of gaming. But I can't keep that up for long. I hate being ill, it's so damn annoying! No idea how long it takes for Tamiflu to kick in, but I hope it's soon. I'd like to be able to eat without pain for a start, it's torture being starving hungry but very limited on what you can eat. Ah well, signing out for today, will hopefully be somewhere near back to normal in a few days time.
