It’s official: I have the flu. I tested positive for Influenza A, although apparently for the seasonal type rather than the H1N1 piggy flu type, which I suppose is a small mercy. However, it’s still the damn flu.
My fever spiked to 101.9 before I went to bed last night, though it finally broke sometime in the middle of the night. I woke up at about 2am and felt a lot better, but realized my sheets were completely drenched in sweat. That was just awesome.
The worst of the fever seems gone – I’ve been hovering between 99 and 100 all day today – but the coughing, exhaustion, and loss of appetite are still on full-force.
I will say, the flu is a very effective (though not at all recommended) way to balance out the fact that I ate like a pig in Chicago. Between basically having to force-feed myself even the 1200-1400 calories a day I can get down and spending a lot of extra energy on such illness-related tasks as sweating profusely, I’m already back down to what I weighed before I left.
I would have preferred the traditional exercise method, but I certainly can’t deny the efficacy of the flu.
The doctor wrote me a scrip for Tamiflu, which she thinks will be effective in preventing this from turning into anything worse, as well as possibly knocking a couple days off the end of the illness.
She also gave me among the more amusing doctor’s instructions I’ve gotten in a while, which were “Sleep a lot, drink a lot of fluids, and watch a lot of T.V.” Waaaaay ahead of you there, doc.