I know I'm a jokester and pretty light hearted about things. But this tale is a serious one.
I will preface this by saying I have not had the flu since I moved to AZ in 2001. I'm a smoker, skinny, and pretty good looking. I work 100% from home.
I went to a goth concert on Tuesday night. I observed "social distancing" from the whole crowd which was cool to see. But when the main act came on, and the crowd reached capacity, we got a lot closer. Once they were kicking into high gear, social distancing was gone as we packed up close (I got to the rail
). Then people were sharing vapes, including me. I was not drinking.
I woke up Wednesday morning in pure hell. Constant fever nearing migraine levels and hot spells where I was sweating pools followed by chills to the bone. My usual smokers caugh was now almost dry. Intermittent nausea (though unable to throw up and didn't result in diareha). Body aches when I got up (I used rubbing alcohol to ease that). I slept on and off through the day, sweating profusely while I slept.
I reached out to BRC when he made a joke about it being hung over in a response to a previous post. He then urged me to see a Dr.. I said I would see how I felt in the morning and said good night. He said he was going to come out here and take me himself if I didn't. Shortly after lying down, I noticed my quicker breathing and my insides started "burning" and it was impossible to lie still. It was weird and the thought of spontaneous combustion ran through my mind. So I got up, updated BRC (who said he'd be thinking of me and sending positive thoughts), and went to the local hospital. I was pretty worried and sweating again. Then shivering when I got there (it was COLD in there).
I got in pretty quick, temperature taken, blood drawn, breathing monitered, stuck his stethescope all over my upper body. The Dr. said I was certainly presenting positively (but pending blood test) but a referral, and official test, would take up to a week or so to get approved (including waiting for the blood test to come back) and scheduled through the AZ medical board (or something like that) and said quaranteening myself would cure me before the test can even be administered. I questioned him about that as I am not going to show up in any statistics. "More important to get well", he said. "And every case is being treated this way right now". I was given some samples of Relenza, and a script. Even through in some Chantix samples. LOL
It's early Friday and I feel much, much better. No fever. Nausea is gone. Hot spells are a lot less and my insides are not burning. Still sweating when I sleep and hopeful that's the bug getting cleaned out. Body aches are minimal as well. However, I have tickets to La Cage au Fou on Saturday and a birthday party for a dear friend at a club. I will have to miss those now. And a local concert tonight.
Above and Beyond acoustic at The Greek Theatre in July better not get cancelled as I've been waiting for this show for over 4 years. Check it out.
I'm inclined to believe this is harder than the average flu, but not worth everything going to shit over. This happened because I was into the moment and stupid. A vape hit got me.
I'll be fine. T.Hanks has it worse I think. He is an ex smoker.
And thank you BRC. As I said, your concern was humbling and I believe it helped.
Take from this what you will. It was pretty intense but I will be fine. Looking forward to feeling even better in the morning for sure. I do actually need TP though...