It’s Friday and I just got back out of bed to force myself to eat lunch. It’s been like this since I got back in bed after lunch on Monday. With the exception of a couple of misguided short outings (trips to the store, dog walks, a few hours at a conference) after convincing myself I must surely be feeling better by now, I have slept on and off all day and been incapable of doing pretty much anything other than going to the bathroom, for five days now… Poor Vincent.
It started Sunday afternoon with the sudden onset of a sore throat that was markedly worse by that evening. Monday morning I decided to go to the doctor just because I had a press pass for a huge Internet conference I really didn’t want to miss on Wednesday and Thursday.
My regular GP looked at my throat, pronounced it strep and gave me antibiotics. I accepted that – it was really sore – and started the antibiotics right away, knowing I’d be feeling better soon, maybe as early as the next night, when the conference networking events (code for “parties”) started, and certainly by Wednesday morning.
Sore throat was pretty much gone by Tuesday evening, when the first party started, just two blocks from my apartment, but I felt no better and decided to stay home, although I really wanted to go to this (an exclusive boat party on the Seine for conference bloggers only!). The bug was moving into my nasal passages, like they do, and I still had a fever and felt like merde. So I figured I’d rest up and that surely I’d be ready for the conference the next morning. I had an important meeting with a blogger from an exciting website I may start doing some writing for and a bunch of women entrepreneurs.
Woke up Wednesday morning not feeling nearly as well as I expected considering I’d been on antibiotics for two full days. But I went into denial mode, hopped out of bed, took a shower, put on make-up, walked the dog, popped some Advil and sudafed, and went to the conference. When the drugs wore off about four hours later, I crashed bad and had to come home and go back to bed. By that night, I couldn’t breathe through my nose and my sinuses were on fire. Still had a fever, still feeling merdique.
The next morning I felt worse than I had yet and decided to go back to the doctor cuz I thought I probaby had swine flu. No way I was going to make it to my conference (massive bummer). Last time I was this sick was in 1994, and I had to ask a girlfriend to come stay with me because I couldn’t take care of my 8-year-old son for three or four days. (Thanks again, Syb.)
My regular GP was not available, so I went to see my backup GP, who said I had a sinus infection and proceeded to give me… more antibiotics. I said “So it’s not the swine flu?” and he said I was having a “viral episode” in addition to the rest. I asked how he knew it wasn’t swine flu and he said there were “certain signs.” One of them, I guess, is the fever; my fever hasn’t ever gone over 100. But not everybody has a high fever with the swine flu, and my resting body temperature is only 97.4 to begin with.
So I’m thinking “viral episode my ass.” There’s a flu epidemic. And by the time I go to see Doctor Number Two, I have all but the last two of the following swine flu symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue and sometimes, diarrhea and vomiting. Plus I have already not responded to four days of antibiotics. So why doesn’t he even seem to entertain the possibility? I don’t get it. All I know is today I’m still seriously fucked up and Doctor Number Two’s antibiotics aren’t doing jack either.
(Part of the problem is I’m spoiled. For 16 years I had a father-in-law who was like Dr. House, only nice; a world-renowned researcher and professor at a UC med school. Any time anybody got sick, we got real House-style diagnostic attention and some mini med school. It’s been hard getting used to doctors (here and in the US) who treat you like you’re an idiot and don’t explain things.)
Anyway, this is day 5, about when things are supposed to either start going south or getting better. I’ll keep you posted. Or not. In any case, despite what these two doctors say, I have the strange feeling that I’ll come out of this magically immune to the swine flu…
This post was brought to you by Advil. I’m going back to sleep now.