I'm (almost) back.

(Where I slept/ lived/ wanted to die for the last two weeks.)

I had the dreaded 2008 two-week flu. It was characterized mainly by shocking exhaustion: as in, wake up at 9 AM, choke down breakfast, go back to sleep for 3 hours, wake up, eat something else, go back to sleep for 4 more hours. Wake up again, eat something small for dinner, take a bath, go to bed, and sleep for at least 12 hours. Cough myself awake now and again. And, cough my (burning) lungs out whenever I'm awake. I'm still coughing, and I still have a sore throat from all the coughing. I expect keep coughing until the cows come home.

I was truly hoping to make this a weight-loss opportunity, since my apetite has been so poor, but alas. My food input about equaled my energy output, which was, and still is, rather miniscule. Today, though, was the first day in two weeks I haven't napped, and I actually got work done for my day job.

So, I have a recommendation. If you should get the flu, and know whithin one or two days that it is certainly the flu (main indications- 100+ fever, and EVERYTHING hurts- I swear, even my hair hurt) get thyself to a doctor and get a prescription for Tamiflu. It broke my fever instantly, and reduced my body aches significantly. After three or more days of flu onset, apparently Tamiflu isn't very useful, but I caught it early enough. Better living through chemistry. I'm pretty sure it didn't do much for my exhaustion, though.

This Tamiflu is the stuff that whole countries are stockpiling in case of a pandemic, by the way. Remember bird flu? We're still at level 4 on a scale of 1-to-5 outbreak probablility, last I checked with the WHO website. Which was about a year ago.

Honestly, I don't worry so much anymore about the bird flu pandemic. Now I just worry about peak oil. But that's another post(s!) altogether.