Caught a bug

Picked up a really tough strain from someone recently. I had been exhausted and having headaches all last week but I forgot these were early warnings of the flu. Last semester I was largely flu-free since I stayed out of airconditioning and so forgot. So I did not take remedial action and instead battled against it best I could.

So it was downhill all the way after last Saturday’s ICCS Otters meeting which took place in an insanely cold lab. My friends will know, the flu is my Achilles heel, so when it strikes, I am usually out for two weeks.

And this strain was a tough one. It had my chest so congested I was struggling to breathe. The usual cocktails (I keep an arsenal) surprisingly didn’t work at all that night. When I found myself almost choking, I resorted to that homely remedy I reached to by instinct one tortured night many moons ago – I took two cups of hot water liberally doused with pepper and sat up on the sofa. That helped. I welcomed the sun in the morning and the warm day that followed allowed me some shut eye by midday.

The sofa became my base camp since it is the warmest part of the house and used that in combination with the very strong fan I had just bought. I tossed the blanket and sofa covers when the chills went away and instead the fevers returned. Then I turned on that strong fan to combat the fevers. I left my “turban” on though, had to keep the head and chest warm. Since I had to keep hydrating, that had me going to the toilet every hour. My legs and hands felt as if they were on fire so I washed down during each lo visit as well. That helped combat the fever; funny how a miserable flu bug could be so troublesome. Well to some of us at any rate.

So it’s been a drowsy five days. I have a string of postponed meetings and lectures that will be a nightmare to handle next week.

Still, I am pretty happy I shook this off this bug fairly quickly. Tiger has shaken off all his mite-itchiness as well in the meantime. Now I just have to readjust my clock that has me wide awake at 3am. And I guess I am not cycling this week.

Xylo keeps me company in the afternoon.

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