Flu @ MindSay

I had a really bad cough and it was unusual too. Finally, after trying EVERYTHING (chicken noodle soup, nasal spray, green tea, etc.), I figured out that it was a dry cough and due to ALLERGIES!  With the help of Claritin, all my troubles started to go away.

But then the weather got really hot again, and the cough kind of came back, so I needed to buy more Claritin. I had the 12-hour kind and it seemed to wear off after only 5 or 6 hours. Now I have the 24-hour kind, and sure enough after about 10 hours, I become desperate for another one. It is so weird, but Claritin seems to last only half of the amount of time they claim.  However, it works, so I'm not complaining!

My sense of humor is a cause of concern to some people.

Yesterday, Gene came into choir rehearsal, saying, "Hey, did anyone see the news yesterday?" Well, apparently 1,700 body bags were delivered to Ghost Town, in preparation for the coming flu pandemic. That's their estimate on how much of Ghost Town will be lost if the bird flu comes here.

Ghost Town is the nearest decent-sized city to Mountain Town. Mountain Town, for reference, is a little larger than Stepstone, if anyone remembers me going to school there. Anytime anyone wants to do anything city-related, they head to Ghost Town, so we're all rather aware of where it is in relation to us.

A little over 24 hours later, I'm in my Biology lab, and find myself feeling pretty lousy. I left in the middle of some discussion on dilutions (I've mostly got the concept, but I also had the dry heaves), hung out in the bathroom, having a chat with one of the toilets for a bit. Came back just in time to get my books, and my instructor praised me for being on top of the dilutions concept, and then said I looked pretty flushed, and did I have a fever?

Hmmm. Good question. Heaven knows that whenever I call either my mom or the almost-nurse that is my boyfriend on such a topic, the first question is either whether I have a fever or what my temperature is. Regrettably, it seems that no one in my dorm has a thermometer. Ah well. Head for bed.

Now, at this point, I'm freezing. Really, really cold. I've piled on my big fluffy bedspread (this is the same one I halfway throw off every night because it's too hot), and my Madgickal Sleep Blanket (you didn't think I'd leave that in the Midwest, did you? It has superpowers of heat!), and I'm still shivering. Can't really sleep, reading Terry Pratchett, who for once is failing to elicit high amusement out of me (generally, Mr. Pratchett's work has me laughing out loud every 2-5 pages). Give up on the book after about forty minutes (maybe because I'm done), go to the bathroom again. Er, yes - body's got no interest in food at all and is throwing everything through me at a rapid rate.

Which reminds me that I still have to do my homework for my Nutrition class. Not happening tonight, sonny Jim. Fitfully try to find sleep, while my brain carries on a debate about whether the hottest thing in the world is my face, or the stuffed animal I'm holding. The rest of my skin is so cold that I'm imagining it as grey, which probably goes against all the positive energy things we've been learning in General Delivery.

Check my watch again at about ten to six. I declared that I was not going to miss class. My 8th grade English teacher (her son was in my class, and confirmed this) had a rule with her children - if you could walk, you could go to class. Righto. I need to pick up my test and journal anyway.

83/85 on the test, and glowing comments on my journal. Not too shabby, I'm momentarily pleased. We're watching another video on yet another condition of the nervous system, and I start to feel really, really bad. I'd dressed rather warmly, but I was shivering the whole way to class, and sort of huddled into a charcoal ball of fleece as soon as the movie started. After about fifteen minutes, I realize that I can't stand it, and have to go out to somewhere where I can at least lie down without becoming the center of attention.

Er, I made it as far as the corner of the hallway. Hmmm. This fails on the 'not drawing attention' business, but fortunately, I don't care. Something milks my tear ducts, possibly just because I'm feeling so wretched, or want my Dad (I should do something about that for my Psych class - when I'm really suffering, I'll sort of whimper, "Daddy," without a conscious decision. I don't know that it makes me feel any better, and it's rather embarrassing, but it's a fact - happened once I made it to the bathroom), and I try to get this under control.

Hung out in the bathroom for a little bit. Really, all I wanted to do was go to my favorite practice room and make music for awhile, even if it was really bad music. I sort of wanted to go to bed, but then I knew I'd fall asleep, and I still needed my backpack.

A valiant effort was made to go back to class. I parked in the cushy chairs outside the restroom for awhile, arguing with myself. Made it most of the way down the hall, had to stop and hold up the wall for awhile at the corner (maybe it's a psychological thing about corners - the extra effort needed to make the transition just does you in), and evidently the wall just outside the classroom door needed some support, too.

About twelve minutes of discussing the surgical removal of benign brain tumors later, and I had to bolt. Slid to the ground at the corner, thinking that the bathroom seemed very far away. Determination - gonna make it there. It'll be okay. Honestly, I never really thought that I'd throw up. There was a time when I was pretty sick over the summer, when I was helping with a camp at a church, and I spent about forty minutes curled around the porcelain on the nice cool (but very hard) tile floor, because I was too sick to move. That's the association I had - I'm really sick, I need to go lie on the bathroom floor. I think there needs to be a regular inspection of the wiring in my brain.

About eight feet from the bathroom, I fell to the floor. Just couldn't walk - also a new occurrence. Promptly evicted a number of the tenants of my stomach. Big breath, cough, repeat. Three or four times - fun because my hair was loose, and I'd reflexively spasm backwards every time, so that I wouldn't be sitting in it. Since I'm eight feet away from the ladies' room, I'm actually about two feet from the men's room, and a very nice gentleman whose shoes I will be sure to remember later came to offer well-meaning uncertainty. Another two women came by - I wasn't sure it was because I'd sort of screamed before falling down (FYI: Not My Fault - this was involuntary as well), and were much more helpful. I realized, once I was capable of standing again, that one of them was my instructor and the other was the only other nursing student in the class. Pretty nursing student offered me some paper towels and placed something cool and wet on the back of my neck, which helped quite a bit.

I think I apologized about twenty-nine times in this segment. To the guy who was standing uncertainly nearby, just after throwing up for the third time (and coming up on the fourth). To my teacher for disrupting the class, to the nursing student (who was very kind and not only walked me back to my dorm, but carried my books as well, and offered her number), and to the custodian. I sort of gave her the impression that I had someone in Mountain Town who'd be there for me during this (we'd been talking about K and she'd learned that I wasn't from around here), and after changing all my clothes, went to bed.

But, the comment was, to a friend who was also in the choir for Gene's announcement:
"Um, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yeah." *bleafgh* "Call Ghost Town and reserve a body bag for me. A pretty white one - see if they'll let you draw stars on it."

Or, y'know, books, woods, waterskiers. Any of the things I enjoy. I'm totally the sort of person who would want my friends to sign and detail my body bag, just like a cast.

I really want my Mom's banana bread right now, but I don't dare put anything in my body. Even water's bein' pretty chancy right now. Sigh.

Multiple mutations in Indonesian bird flu strain
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How to Avoid the Flu

- Multiple mutations have been found in the H5N1 bird flu virus that killed seven family members in Indonesia although scientists are unsure of their significance, a leading science journal said on Thursday.

"The functional significance of the mutations isn't clear - most of them seem unimportant," the journal Nature said in a report in the latest issue on Thursday.

An analysis of virus samples from six of the eight members of the family showed 32 mutations accumulated as it spread, according to the confidential research obtained by Nature. The analysis had been presented by virologist Malik Pereis of the University of Hong Kong at a closed meeting of animal and human health experts in Jakarta last month.

The first infected member of the family was a 37-year-old woman who probably caught the disease from poultry and then transmitted it to relatives before she died.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), which has admitted that the cluster of cases was probably caused by human-to-human transmission, had said in May that there had been no significant mutations in the strain found in the family.

Nature said although the WHO statement was not incorrect, more could have been said about the changes that were found.

"One of the mutations confers resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine, a fact not mentioned in the WHO statement," the journal said.

The mutations found in the virus from the Indonesian cluster were not significant enough for the virus to spread beyond the family.

Virologists contacted by Nature said part of the reason the significance of the mutations is unclear is because withholding the information has hampered the study of the virus.

Scientists fear the H5N1 virus that has killed more than 100 people and millions of bird since 2003 as it spread from Asia to Europe and Africa could mutate into a strain that could spark a human pandemic.

There is an effective way to cope with Bird Flu -- TamiFlu. Please read more about it here:
TAMIFLU

 

Flu Prevention Tips

 

I'm feeling much better, but my mother is begging me to go to the doctor.  I've had pneumonia twice in my life and once you get that type of infection in your lungs you're prone to get more and more and most of them get worse.  I'm trying to take it really easy so I don't have to end up in the hospital.  I'm also trying to slowly get things back in order around the house.  The kiddo started back to school on Monday and I'm behind on chores from last week! You do NOT want to see the kitchen!

 

I don't feel as bad as I sound, but a trip to the grocery store laid me flat back on my ass. Damned lungs! By the time I got home, I thought I was going to cough up one of those creatures from the movie Alien(s). Anyway, this is the reason why I have to back off blogging and internet surfing for a while. I have a household to maintain and a hyper demigoddess to take care of inbetween bouts of energy, which limits my goofing off time.