One Flu Over

One flu over (mostly)....two to go.

Great googaly moogalies! I'm not sure exactly what strain of flu is "going around", but it has knocked 3 of my family members on their butts. The only one unaffected (and we're praying, uninfected) is my daughter. So far, so good. This is not the stomach virus that a lot of people mistakenly call the "flu" -- this is the real old-fashioned influenza deal, complete with sore eyelids, fever and chills, etc. Nasty stuff, that.

I had a sore throat last Weds into Thursday, so when my husband started running a fever about 11:00 Thursday night I felt really bad -- I thought I'd given him something. Alas, it would seem that he did not have whatever I'd had and I had it backwards -- I started with the fever Saturday night into early Sunday morning, and my son started during the day on Sunday. At least my guilt over sharing something is gone. But if any of you start to get it, here's what you can expect:

Our fevers have all lasted 3 days, each. Z's ended on Sunday, mine and A's finally broke on Tuesday (in a blessed, but literally drenching episode). The fevers were high, too -- A's reached 104.5 and 104.7 at different times, so it was a challenge trying to bring his fever down when mine was right around 104 myself for a couple of days. I can honestly say I don't really remember a whole lot, other than being really lethargic and hurting and trying to keep moving up and down the stairs without falling down the stairs to get damp cloths to wipe him down (the only bathroom is on the first floor). The only one of us that threw up was A, but I suspect that was because of his very high fever and the temperature differential of the liquid we were trying to get him to ingest. He only did it once.

We have all had very sore throats, probably from drainage, horrible headaches, and excessive drool. Weird, but all of us have had a little extra spit over the last few days. Z is still dealing with the headache, achy joints, and a rather nasty cough -- but I watch his progress each day, because I know that that is where I'll be two days from now. I'm still in the lightheaded, achy joint (even toes and fingers! Good grief!), pounding headache, coughing phase, as is A. But we're getting better! I'm able to get by until I start coughing, and then my head feels like it's going to explode, and my chest muscles hurt from so much coughing over the last few days.

A hasn't even cared that his routine has been completely discarded for the better part of a week now -- he's felt like doing nothing but laying on the couch. He didn't even care that I finally turned off children's programming out of desperation and watched infomercials, just for something different. Yesterday A started to play with his sister a little bit, after his fever was gone, and this morning he is behaving fairly normal -- but you can still tell he's sore. Every time he tries to flap his hands to stim, he has to stop and gets this puzzled look on his face while he rubs his wrists and fingers.

One great source of frustration is the lack of communication between A and the rest of us. He still has a tendency to repeat the last word or words of whatever you just said, rather than volunteering anything. Z and I have tried multiple times to try to get A to tell us if his head hurts, or whatever -- to no avail. The only way I know what he's feeling right now is because I'm going through it myself. You can tell he's miserable by looking at him, but not why. This has caused us some frustration in the past -- especially with ear infections -- because he never tells us if something hurts, and we have no idea unless he starts acting differently that anything is amiss. *sigh* One of these days, we're hoping we'll cross that speech hurdle...

It would appear that once again, the flu shot manufacturers missed the mark in a big way, because this year's shot had absolutely no effect on keeping any of us from getting it, nor did it really reduce the length of time or the symptoms of the flu virus we have been fighting off (as the companies that make the flu shots love to advertise). The same thing happened last year, but luckily our family was spared. Other people in our area were not so lucky. Z has to get one every year, he has no choice, because he's required to by his job.

Bless Z's heart, he is still in the service for two more weeks, and Uncle Sam doesn't care how you feel. If you're not dead, you're at work. And, in the military, if you're sick, you go to sick call. Unless it's a holiday weekend, and the commander has issued Friday as an extra day off, so the clinic is closed -- yup -- from Thursday at close of business the week prior until the following Tuesday. Without that slip, you're out of luck, and the flu does not qualify as "urgent care" so he couldn't go that route either. And since Z didn't start getting sick until late Thursday night, he was one of those "out of luck" guys who just had to suck it up and deal.

So he's been to work last Friday (with a fever of 102.7), yesterday (Tuesday) and today. Sunday and Monday he wasn't scheduled to work, so that was nice. He was scheduled to work on Saturday and since he had a fever hovering around the 103 mark they let him stay home (his new NCOIC actually has a brain -- a seriously debatable fact about the one that just left. Don't get me started).

I'm so glad he's done with the random idiocy that occurs uniquely in the military setting. I have had many, many years of experience with it (I grew up with it), and I'm really fed up with it. We are proud to have served, and are proud of those that still are and will choose to do so in the future. But there really is an appalling amount of stupid junk our soldiers have to put up with -- mostly because "we've always done it that way". Just because you've always done something a certain way doesn't mean that it's not incredibly stupid. I don't advocate changing something just to change something, but if there are obvious issues, and solutions are available to better the situation -- wouldn't it make sense to make the improvements rather than digging in your heels and refusing to implement anything new "on principle"? That just smacks of ignorance and way too much pride getting in the way. Similar to a man in the Great Depression, who refused to let anyone give food to his starving family. Because he was too proud. And then the baby died of starvation. Stupid. But it happens.