Friday, January 19, 2018

Influenza A

We got home from Hawaii early Sunday morning and I immediately got to work on laundry, which I polished off by noon. Spent the rest of the day watching football and the evening ended with what was immediately dubbed the "Minnesota Miracle".

With 10 seconds left in the game, the Vikings were behind 24-23, quarterback Case Keenum threw a 61-yard pass caught down the sideline by Stefon Diggs. Unbelievable! Like other Minnesotans, I was still grinning when I woke  up feeling somewhat sick with "flu-like symptoms" (all of them!) on Tuesday morning.

I spent most of the afternoon resting and, by bedtime, I wondered how I'd make it through the night. My sleep was fitful and troubled by weird dreams of myself as an older teenager. I remember lying on the couch in our living room during the Christmas holidays of 1968, feverish and so sick, unwilling and unable to move. It was called the Hong Kong flu , and  though I thought I was dying, I've really had a pretty good half-century since then.

I am considered immune suppressed because of the infusion I get every eight weeks for  Crohn's Disease so I checked in with my gastroenterologist's office. I was advised to get a flu test and sure enough the result was positive for Influenza A. On Wednesday evening, I left Fairview Highland with a prescription for Tamiflu and another for Ventolin.

I didn't read much positive press on Tamiflu but by the next morning I was no longer waiting for death. The Ventolin has helped me breathe easier and while the wheezing isn't gone, it's a lot better. Unfortunately, Bob seems to have developed similar symptoms and his doctor put him on Tamiflu as well. 

Too bad this year's flu vaccine was next to useless.

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