The Piggy Flu

Last week, Peter and I spent a few days in the lovely little town of Midway, UT at the Homestead Resort along with Peter’s family on his father’s side. All of his immediate family was there, except for his eldest brother who had to work, as well as his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. We all had a wonderful time and a lot of fond memories were created. I enjoyed every minute of it up until the day I woke up with an infected eye. From past experience I figured it to be conjunctivitis, or pink eye, as it is more commonly called. I had to throw out my contacts and I didn’t have my glasses with me so I had to spend the rest of the reunion practically blind. It was frustrating, but I wasn’t going to let it spoil my fun. The next day however, was worse. The infection had spread to my other eye, and I was running a fever. I had spent the entire previous night tossing and turning and moaning in pain because my entire body hurt. I didn’t get a wink of sleep, and I don’t think Peter got much more than I did. I remember that night as being one of the longest nights of my life. At this point I figured I had finally come down with the flu that my husband had had about a week ago. So, while I lay wallowing in misery on the bed, Peter packed up all of our belongings and we made a hasty retreat from the reunion. I felt bad because Peter hadn’t seen some of his extended family in several years, and I was dragging him away, but that day was practically the end of the family reunion anyway.
Once we got home I crawled back into bed and spent the rest of the day there. I had called into work the day before and had my shift on Saturday covered because I didn’t want to gross people out with my infected eyes (plus it’s really contagious). Sunday and Monday are my normal days off, so I figured I had a couple of days to get plenty of rest so I could be better enough to go back to work on Tuesday. Well, Sunday I woke up and I still felt like I had been beaten within an inch of my life. Plus I had a new symptom: a very, very sore throat. My throat felt like it was on fire and every time I swallowed it felt like I was swallowing shards of broken glass. When I discovered blisters on the back of my throat I suspected I didn’t have the flu but Strep. By midday Sunday I was completely miserable. I was in a lot of pain and I was still running a fever. I was burning up and yet I felt like the temperature in my house was 30 degrees. Plus I had completely lost my voice at this point, too. I wanted to curl up into a ball and die. So, in tears because of the pain I told (or whispered rather, since I couldn’t speak very well) Peter I wanted to see a doctor. This posed a couple of problems, however. First of all, we don’t have insurance. Second, the nearest town was Evanston, WY and they don’t have an Instacare or some other kind of clinic, only a hospital and emergency room. We also don’t hold a lot of faith with the doctors in Evanston, either. So Peter packed me into the Jeep and drove me two hours to Logan and the Instacare there. I spent most of the car ride curled up in the fetal position shivering even though we had no air conditioning in the car. That was a horribly long car ride. Those two hours seemed to stretch on forever.
Finally we made it to Logan and the doctor’s office. We signed in and I donned one of those lovely masks that made me think of photos I’d seen of Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) visiting a foreign country…or maybe he was just having a bad nose day. Any ways, I finally got in to see a doctor and he took one look at me, asked me a few questions and then fled the room. Peter turned to me and said, “You scared him off!” He came back a few seconds later wearing his own mask. He went through a series of questions, looked at my eyes, ears, throat, etc. The usual doctor poking and prodding. Then he took a culture from my throat and my nose. A few minutes later he came back with the lab results: I had Strep just like I suspected, but I also had Swine Flu and my conjunctivitis was viral and not bacterial. Most likely a side effect of the Swine Flu. So he sent me on my merry way with a prescription of Tamiflu, an antibiotic for the Strep, and a narcotic-based cough syrup to help me sleep at night, as well as instructions to quarantine myself for about one week. The worst part of all is not that I was sick but the fact that before I had any idea I was ill I had been with Peter’s entire family. The time you are most contagious is the day before you start developing symptoms. I had no idea that while I was having a grand ol’ time and hugging every single member of Peter’s extended family I was subjecting them all to a big dose of Swine Flu. Worst of all I exposed several of his cousins who are under the age of 5 to it, as well as his pregnant sister, and his grandparents. It still makes me cringe just thinking about it. Worst possible time ever to have Swine Flu. I had no idea, though. I had no reason to even suspect Swine Flu. Peter had been sick the week before and it had wiped him out for a few days, but he was practically over it by the time the reunion came along. We figured he had caught the flu from his coworker who had had it a week before him. She had actually gone to see a doctor about it too, but they told her it wasn’t the Swine Flu, just the normal flu. Well, the doctor in Evanston didn’t even bother to do a culture and just gave her a prescription for high-strength Ibuprofen for the body aches. So once Peter and I found out what was ailing me, we made a few phone calls to spread the news and warn family that they had been exposed to “the piggy flu” as Peter and I like to call it.
So, a week later I’m now finally feeling a little more like my normal self. For a while there, I wanted to die, though. I have never felt more miserable in my life. I think it hit me so hard because my body was battling two very different infections. At least I survived it, though. I’m so happy to be back at work and interacting with people again. I love Peter and I appreciate everything he did for me while I was sick, but he was gone at work every day and I had nothing to entertain myself with while he was gone but books, and although I love to read it gets old after a few days. It was incredibly boring. We also had to reschedule our trip to Yellowstone because I was sick. I swear I’m never going to get to Yellowstone. Every time I’ve tried, something has come up. We’re going to shoot again in September for our Anniversary, but I won’t hold my breath.
I’m just glad that I was exposed to Swine Flu now instead of in the fall or winter during the normal flu season. It’s frustrating to deal with, and I felt awful having people cover for me at work. I feel like I’ve been a burden, but at least with this job I have sick leave so I don’t just have to eat it if I’m sick. Plus if I had gotten sick in the fall I would have missed work and school and it would have been a lot worse. So I’m counting my blessings that if I had to get sick, at least I got sick at a time when I could afford the trip to the doctor, and the time off.
But seriously…Swine Flu sucks.