The Piggies Got Me

It's (all but*) official - I have had swine flu.  And it was not fun in the least.

I've never had the flu.  My mom laughed at me when I told her this the other day, but when I asked her to name one time she could remember me having it, she couldn't.  I've always thought I just had some magical immunity to it, because it's not like I've never been exposed to it.  PSSSHHHH....funny!

This has been my view for the past few days:

(Including the big black blob in the bottom right of the picture known as Hardy - he has been with me NON-STOP.  It's almost like he thinks he needs to watch me and protect me.  It's really cute!)

So, if you do get this Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (like that elem. teachers?) disease, here are my suggestions:

- It sounds cliche', but fluids...as much as you can.  Because, all of a sudden, you will magically not have ANY fluids in your whole body and you will feel like you are ABOUT TO DIE.

-Gatorade, Emitrol, Tylenol, and cough syrup are your best friends.

-Don't eat anything that you actually like.  You'll never like it again.  And I'll leave that at that.

-REST.  I've been in bed for 4 days now, and I still feel like I've ran a marathon.  I'm a little bit of a work-a-holic, but even I had to call it for this.

-Don't go back to work too early.  Fever has to be under 100 for 24 hours before you are not contagious.  Trust me, nobody wants this business.

-Don't get it in the first place!  I'm not going to say go get the shot because I'm a little iffy about getting shot full of a vaccine that hasn't been proven not to cause long-term harm, but just use common sense - wash hands, don't go near sick people, don't share drinks, etc.

I think I'm finally ready to go back to school tomorrow...thank God!  My poor kids have had 3 different subs in 3 different days, and I know they're getting sick of worksheets.  I'm ready to go back!  But today, I'm doing a little bit more resting, and a TON of catching up around here!

And the positive out of all of this?  I'm immune to swine flu for the rest of the year. :)

*I went to the doctor Saturday and tested negative for the flu.  The doctor at that point said I might still have it, but it was just too early to test positive (my symptoms had just shown up 24 hours before that).  She said if I still had symptoms the next day (which I did), I probably did have the flu.  Trust me, this is not a mistakable kind of virus... you know when you have it. :)  Then, the nausea/vomiting showed up Monday - that means swine flu.  That also explains why my flu test was negative Saturday - we've heard of a lot of people with swine flu that had a negative flu test.