So I knew we were entering a new stage of winter when I woke up and pulled up weather.com, and it reported a temperature of -7°F with a wind chill or -10°F. I was feeling pretty miserable until I pulled up the weather page for Marquette, MI and realized Brittany was dealing with -25° temperatures. Yeeee-ikes! I hope she wore her scarf!
Sorry about the one-panel comic. It’s not actually what I’ve been working on, but I think you’ll understand after I present this public service announcement.
Are you still on the fence about getting a flu shot? Well, let me take a moment to tell you my tale. I’m allergic to Benadryl, so I can’t get a flu shot without making an appointment at the doctor’s office so that they can supervise me afterwards… you know… so I don’t die…
What this actually means is that I almost never get a flu shot… who has the time?!? This year was no exception…
After the holidays, I got hit with the flu pretty bad, but I’ve always felt the flu was God’s way of saying “hey… you work hard… take a day off…”, so I muddled through…
The thing is… this year… once isn’t good enough… this flu likes to come back for a second, harder round…
Sadly, this year, I was no exception…
On Tuesday, my coworkers sent me home because I was coughing very violently, very often and… there was spittle… So I left at three… by 7pm, I felt like the room was heated to about 105° degrees but simultaneously, I was frozen to the freakin’ core. Barely able to sit straight, I crawled into bed… with a hooded sweatshirt over my jammies and under two comforters… and I was still cold… and hot… it’s complicated…
Now the news has been reporting that when this flu comes back for a second round, the people that are getting really sick and dying are doing so because of dehydration. Forewarned is forarmed, right?
So, I’m in bed by 7pm… for the next 40 or so hours, I am urinating every 45 minutes on the dot… need to sleep? Too bad, you have about a quart of fluid to void? Too sore to walk? Too bad, you’ve got a quart of fluid to void.
It wasn’t long before the fluids out were far exceeding the amount of fluids coming in… I had some gatorade in the house at first, but when that ran out, I had to switch to water… man is it just me or does winter water taste ooky. The water wasn’t doing it for me, so I eventually found some more instant tea which seemed to help me get the fluids in.
As of now, I’m feeling very weak but much better. My diaphragm is sore to the touch from all the coughing, and the mucus… Dear God, the mucus… but definitely on the mend…
I guess what I’m trying to say is…
Get your butt into the car and get yourself a flu shot!!!! NOW!!!!
I’m just saying…
That…sounds quite bad 🙁
(Also, you get the Irony Award for being allergic to allergy medicine)
It ain’t great, I tells ya…
Also, thanks for noticing the benadryl thing… I was starting to think I was the only person who thought that was funny… tremendously inconvenient, but very, very funny! You can’t beat God’s sense of humor!
Oh, man! I could understand your reluctance with flu shots.
Still, hearing your story and how hard you got hit, and hearing the stories of other friends of mine who got hit really hard, I’m very glad I rolled up my sleeve in October. Now, of course, that’s not an absolute guarantee, but I’m hearing about more and more folks (celebrities included) who didn’t get the shot and got knocked flatter than a pancake.
Keep feeling better, and I’ll send lots of get-well, chicken-soup positive juju your way!
Merci… went to a meeting at work today, but afterwards came home to crawl back in my hole… not there yet!