Back from the depths of the dreaded flu

I never get a flu shot. M. gets on about every year, which is fine. I'm not opposed to flu shots, but since you can get sick from them and they don't guarantee to stop the flu from entering your body and wreaking havoc, and because I don't remember ever really having the flu except for one time when I was a sophomore in high school and that lasted for half a day, I just don't get a flu shot. Well, welcome back flu, it's been a long, long time since I've seen you.

I worked in our office attic for a few hours last Friday. I am not good in heat (I get physically sick if I get too hot) and that attic gets hot. Anticipating it would be warm up there even though the outside temp was only in the 60's, I went up early. I'm moving boxes and going through them and deciding what we can pitch to make more room for client file storage. Oh the joys of sorting through boxes from the late 90's (and some of them haven't been touched since they were hauled up there, so you can imagine the dust and grime).

Anyway, I started feeling a little questionable after a short period of time up there, but thought I would stick it out, make sure I drink lots of water, dug out a fan. Around 11am I decided it might help if I got out of the attic and had some lunch. So I went to lunch (later that turned out to be a big mistake). I thought I felt better after lunch, so I went back into the attic armed with a super-sized drink to maintain hydration. After about half an hour I knew it wasn't going to be good. I went back down and did some work in my office, felt a bit better, and decided to have one more go at that attic. I had nearly two shelves done when I knew this was not going well, so I headed back down, cleaned up my workspace and told my supervisor I was gone for the day.

I went home, still thinking this was just some heat exhaustion, but once home I ended up spending the afternoon in the bathroom, on the floor, getting to know my toilet pretty well. Once I had emptied myself, took a nap in my whirlpool tub, and generally did nothing until M. got home and I was still feeling sick, I knew this was more than regular heat exhaustion. I was sick, sick. And I usually do not get sick, sick. Sure, I may take half a day off for those monthly cramps, but other than that, I usually don't take time off for sick. Further proof I was sick, sick, I probably spent no more than 10 hours awake from 2pm Friday until this morning.

Even though I could complain about things M. does and nit pick away at his little eccentricities, he was absolutely wonderful this weekend! He took care of me (even though that couldn't have been too big a job since I was asleep most of the time). He took care of the cats (much bigger job since they are spoiled and demanding). He took care of the laundry (all by himself without asking for my advice on sorting, cycles, etc.). He scooped the cat box (yes, falls in with caring for the cats, but this deserves it's own accolade). He went and picked up some $5 foot-longs when I felt I could actually eat something and keep it down. He's a very special person, that M.!

So today I'm not feeling 100%, but it's mainly just the muscle aches. Tonight is M.'s online gaming night with a friend who lives up north, so I will probably soak my flu-battered body in a warm tub. I knew that upgrade to the whirlpool tub when we built our house would be worth it!

Here's to hoping it will be another 12 years before I deal with the flu again!