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Five to nine servings of vegetables a day. Lean proteins. Fish oil pills fo rmy Omega-3s. Neti pot. Constant washing of hands with old fashioned soap. I do all of the things we are supposed to do to stay healthy except for possibly getting enough sleep and avoiding stress. Those two things are just not going to happen in my world, except maybe in a feverish dream.
And yet here I sit. Flat on my arse. Flattened by the flu. The REAL flu, not that "Oh, I had a touch of the flu yesterday" ilk. I might be inclined to smack someone if I hear them misuse the term 'flu' in that way.
The REAL flu, influenza, is in a category by itself. Think of fevers between 101 and 103.5 for forty-eight hours straight, no matter how many ibuprofens or acetaminophens pass over your lips. Think chills shaking your body so hard that you think surely something is going to break. Think of every follicle on your head hurting- feeling like you can count them just by their fiery burns. Think of being parched but knowing that liquid is going to hurt your throat. Think of a cough that shakes your whole body but blessedly makes you forget about all of the other places that hurt. Think of being so exhausted that walking from your bed to the bathroom seems almost impossible. Think of not caring that your children are blissfully living on Nutella, goldfish and Spongebob cartoons.
That, my friends, is the flu. The REAL flu. The kind of flu where your friendly neighborhood nurse jams a cotton swab up your nostril until you swear she hits your frontal lobe for a flu test. The kind that makes you happily spend the money you had scraped together to pay a bill and rush to the pharmacy to pay ninety-six dollars for Tami-flu. (Many over-exaggerated thanks to my Humana faux insurance which knocked six dollars off of the cost. )
I must say, Tami-flu feels like a godsend. Three doses later, and my fever is breaking and I don't feel like crying when my clothing brushes against my skin. I will continue to eat my veggies, take my fish oil, use my neti pot and all of the other good stuff, but I now understand the difference between 'a touch of the flu' and 'the real influenza flu.'
Photo by faqs.com
