Anyone here have the swine flu yet? I seem to have allowed it to sneak up on me.
I was well prepared -I have Tamiflu on hand, and I even ordered a supply of 50,000 IU vitamin D capsules, which can be used to squelch the flu, if taken at the first sign of symptoms, at the rate of about 1,000 IU per pound of body weight.
Unfortunately, both of those treatments have to be started with the first two days after the onset of symptoms.
Last Thursday night, I attended a meeting, which lasted for several hours, and the fellow seated next to me was coughing, and sneezing, and blowing his nose, throughout the meeting.
Sooooooo, it was no surprise, when I noticed a little hint of a sore throat, congestion, and an overall impression that I was getting a cold, on Sunday morning. Since it didn't seem to be anything serious, I took 20,000 IU of vitamin D, and did the same the next day.For 3 days, I thought I had a cold. On the 4th day, however, I began to notice that while I had a fairly persistent dry cough, I almost never had to blow my nose, (once in the morning would usually do it, most days, though one day I had to wipe my nose about 3 or 4 more times, during the day).
Today, the 6th day, I can feel those old familiar flu symptoms, (stiff neck, kind of a drugged feeling first thing in the morning, etc.), but I never had any nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, chills and fever, that I expected to develop with the swine flu, (though I did have a mild fever at first). Apparently, those of us who have some tolerance, due to past exposure to previous versions of swine flu, usually don't develop those symptoms. At least, that seems to be the consensus of opinion around here, among those who have been through it.Since the swine flu is kind of running amuck in the county I live in, (and surrounding counties), right now, there's no point in me going to get tested, because they just automatically assume that you have it, if you have those symptoms, and you live in a high-risk area. I'm kind of annoyed that I let it blind-side me, but that just goes to show how easy it is to make incorrect assumptions, that get us into trouble. I assumed that I had caught a cold at that meeting, since the risk was so obvious. Actually, I probably caught it at my doctor's office, the next morning, when I went there for my followup appointment, to discuss the tests that I had taken because of the TIA event. Since I didn't notice anyone there, who seemed suspicious, I didn't even think about that possibility.
Oh well, at least it's not too bad. I never had to stop working, though I did slow down a bit, because it's easy to get overheated, with something like that going on. I just feel cheated, because I didn't get to properly "enjoy" it, since it didn't dawn on me what was going on, until it was too late.
I hope that if you catch it, it's just as mild as what I've experienced.
Tex
