Monday, January 28, 2013

Crack-laced awesomeness that is Tamiflu

Twice in the last year the Vinson folk have dodged a bullet.  Last spring when we happened to have taken a spring break vacation the same week that Hand, Foot, and Mouth ran rampant in Ian's daycare and this weekend as I expected to be flat on my back for the duration of this week with the flu.

I'm not.  In fact I'm working today thanks to Tamiflu.  Last week was the change over between semesters with a bunch of deadlines on Tuesday before first day of 2nd semester.  Come Thursday I woke up hot and tired but felt functional enough for work.

By the time we made it home and made dinner I was good as gone.  I think the words, "yes you can watch more horrid circa 1993 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Netflix streaming until your father gets home" was uttered in the triple digits.

Once home, Bill got them to bed and before 9 pm I fell asleep in my work clothes until morning. I contemplated calling in sick, but hearing we were on a 3 hour early release due to expected bad weather developing figured I could make it until I could get to the doctor.

The crazy thing is I wasn't thinking flu outside of the extreme tiredness, I thought all the other symptoms were just the same as Bill's annual  winter cold.

The doctor thought the same and not until she offered to just be on the safe side and rule out flu did she even mention the test.  Sadly it came back positive.  I managed to get both kids picked up from school and then make it over to the pharmacy inside my local grocery.  Luckily since I had picked up groceries ahead of the storm I was in and out quickly.

We got home and I again parked the kids in front of the tv watching more Power Rangers with snacks with the instructions I was going upstairs and "unless the house was on fire or someone was bleeding" to please leave me alone.

Luckily Bill was able to get home earlier than normal and took them the rest of the night.  By Saturday I was already feeling better and by Sunday I almost felt normal.  Granted I have done nothing but watch tv as well as planned a unit on Jacksonian Democracy for the week.  I also finished a book and started another.

Basically I did exactly what I needed to, rest and get over what I still question was the same nasty strain of this season's newsworthy flu.  Honestly I am beyond thankful that catching it early, getting Bill on preventive Tamiflu and treating both boys for their ongoing colds with rest and lots of liquids was basically our uneventful weekend.

The last time I remember having the flu was Christmas 1995 when we had just gotten engaged.  I sadly remember both Bill and I being sick for what seemed like more than a week, unable to leave the house and feeling like hell.  I vaguely remember driving through the parking lot of a friends apartment complex where they were hosting a New Years eve party and gasping, "we got engaged, and we are sick and going back home" to our friends.

If Tamiflu existed, I didn't know of it.  It is some crack-laced awesomeness of modern medicine and worth every bit of the $100.00 I paid for the two prescriptions.

1 comment:

Beth said...

Thank God for small miracles, right? So glad you're feeling better.