I have been sick this week. It started Sunday. I finally went to the doctor today, Friday, because it wasn’t getting better and I decided it must be a sinus infection, and I wanted antibiotics.
As a precaution they did a test for the H1N1 virus, which involved sticking a long cotton swab up my nose and then dipping it into a test tube. I may have it backwards, but I think she said, “Red is bad, blue is good.” I cracked a joke about political orientation and thought nothing of it.
I can’t have the dreaded Swine Flu, I thought. The media reports that it’s deadly and that you’ll be horribly ill and in the hospital. What I had, I thought, was a bad cold which turned into a sinus infection.
Well guess what. I do have the Swine Flu. I tested positive for H1N1.
And, also, I have a sinus infection.
Because of all the fear mongering going on about this dreaded flu, I have been taking extra vitamins and washing my hands so often you’d think it had become a compulsion. Maybe because of that, and also maybe because I’d gotten the regular (not H1N1) flu shot, my case is ultra mild.
My lungs are clear. I never ran a temperature. Two of the things closely associated with the H1N1 infection didn’t affect me.
What tipped off my doctor’s office that I might have it was the fact that I was having hot and cold flashes, that I was feeling bodily aches and pains (though not severe), and I did have the occasional dry cough. All my other symptoms were those of the sinus infection.
Because the onset was last Sunday it was too late to give me Tamiflu, and she said the worst of it was already past. True, because today I feel 80% better than I felt yesterday. I’m now on antibiotics for the infection, and am cleared to go back to work next Monday.
So as a layman, and not a doctor, here are my generalized recommendations, being that I’ve gone through this:
- If you feel sick at all, stay home from work so you don’t spread what may be H1N1.
- If you’re an employer, don’t require or expect your employees to work when they’re sick. Allow them to work from home whenever possible.
- Take lots of vitamins as directed by your health advisor. Well nourished is well prepared for any sickness.
- H1N1 doesn’t seem to be that bad a flu, it’s just far easier to catch, and so it spreads to more people. Any flu can be dangerous if you already have health problems – this one doesn’t appear any more dangerous, except that it’s easier to catch. So don’t work yourself into a panic about it – the stress of worrying could end up being more dangerous to you than the flu that you’re worrying about.
Personally, I am wondering how many people have had it, or will have it, and never notice. I wouldn’t have. Its a fluke that I got tested.
