La grippe
Posted on February 10, 2008
I’ve been sick most of this week. La grippe is French for “the flu,” which is most likely what I had. The coughing is still going on, but the muscle pain is mostly gone. I went into work each day, but only stayed an hour on Wednesday and until about 3:00 on Thursday. I skipped both classes this week because I didn’t feel up to going.
Wednesday was bad. I had a slight fever when I went into work and I didn’t sleep well the night before. I only had a few things to do, so I only stayed an hour. I went home and took a couple of generic Nyquil “Liquicaps” and hit the sack. I was only able to sleep in one or two hour spurts because I would wake up with coughing fits. I would get up, get a drink of water, keep coughing, and not be able to get back to sleep for awhile. I was too tired to want to read or watch a movie, but too alert to fall asleep. Every so often I would check my temperature with a thermometer (old school mercury and glass style). When I got home from work it was about 102, but through the night it progressed to 104. I debated on going to the hospital, but decided to do what I could to bring the fever down. I had been using a thick comforter. I tossed that aside and grabbed a lightweight fleece blanket. I also dropped the thermostat in my apartment down a few degrees. A damp rag over my forehead and closed eyelids seemed to help, but the fever always warmed it up after a few minutes. I also took 500mg acetaminophen an hour after taking the Nyquil, because I think it is supposed to be anti-inflammatory. By the morning the fever was around 100. I went into work feeling better but not great.
After work Thursday, I stayed up a little bit but tried to get some sleep to make up for the lack of quality sleep the night before. It didn’t work. Again, despite the Nyquil and some acetaminophen, I still kept waking up with coughing fits. I went into work on Friday at my normal time, but my body was beat. I didn’t feel sick, but exhausted. However, I think this was mainly a residual effect of the Nyquil, because I felt better in the afternoon. At home after work, I wasn’t tired so I surfed the net for a bit and took a hot bath for the muscle aches. When I went to sleep it was the same thing as the previous two nights, though the spurts seemed to go a little longer. I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday because of the alarm on my watch and didn’t bother to go back to bed. Surfed some more, took another bath, and around 8:30am I laid down for a nap. This time I was able to sleep for four hours and woke up very refreshed. It was the best sleep I had had in days. The downside is I wasn’t tired enough to go to bed early, which is why I am writing this in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. I hope next week is a better one, but I’ve got a ton of homework to do.
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