Saturday, April 26, 2008

Got me the bug

So yesterday I wake up in the middle of the night because my teeth were chattering and I was drenched in sweat. Sinus' are stuffed up. I felt like crap. I took my temp and it was at 98.5. On average, on paper, that looks ok, but my norm is around 97 (I've heard that 98.6 is not the norm, it was an average based on some dudes research, but seemed to stick as the 'normal' body temp--so says the lore). Anyway, you could say I had a very slight temp, but I didn't think it was much. My resting HR on the other hand was thru the roof. Usually I am at 48-52 in the morning. Not so--it was 75-78. I knew I was in trouble. I managed to get sorry a$$ to work then called the doc for an appointment. Couldn't get in till after 1pm, but I went. For the preceding few weeks I have been waking up with a sore throat--the kind that makes it hard to swallow. That would go away after I was up and moving. Anyway, I first see a nurse. She take vitals and by then my temp was 101.5. She is sure I have the flu. The doc comes in and she is sure I have this nasty virus--something that can last 1 to 6 weeks. That would be fun. She is sure I will come down with a nagging cough. She writes me a laundry list of OTC drugs to fight the symptoms and thinks that's what I have to do. Drugs, fluids, and rest. I mention to her that the nurse thought it might be the flu. She said if I had a high temp, she'd consider that. I said, "What's one hundred and one?" She looks at the computer and says "We oughta test you for the flu just in case, but the last person with the flu was in her about 3 weeks ago. It's sorta late for that." She whips out a 4 foot Q-tip and swabs my throat. I didn't think they could actually do a throat culture for the flu. Oh well. I am told to go home and call the automated number tomorrow morning to see if the flu test was pos or neg. Great. I took the bus in to work. I have to wait till 3:40. I get home, pop some tylenol and a sudafed (the real stuff, not that worthless phenylephrine crap they're pushing by the name of Sudafed PE). Within a couple hours I am feeling a little better (why didn't I take some stuff earlier, I don't know).

Again, all night Friday to Saturday morning I awoke with the cold sweats, the chills, body aches, etc. At about 9am I called the number to get my test results. BAM!: "Your recent test was positive. The flu is in your throat." Nice. Actually I was happy about that. I had something that will have a lifespan then be gone. I don't have some freaky unknown virus, endocarditis, or coxsackie (you get paranoid about stuff when you're sick and have children to worry about and also fear that you'll never race again because you have some infectious cardio disease).

With a race coming up on tomorrow I figured I gotta skip it. However, right now, later on Saturday night. I am feeling pretty good. I think I may go to the race, warm up and see how I feel, then decide.

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