Flu

I don't know what to make of the "pneumonic plague" that is supposedly evolving in Ukraine--I suspect it's just H1N1, but then, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, so all I have is a sort of folk belief that three different viruses probably didn't just happen to somehow glom themselves together into one superbug.

On the other hand, having just survived what looks like a case of swine flu, well, H1N1 is really bad enough.  I have been sicker with the flu, a couple of times--during a memorable infection in college, my temp spiked briefly to 106, hallucination territory, before my nursing student roommate brought it down with baths and tylenol.  But I've rarely had an infection with such staying power.  If you've been wondering why blogging has been so desultory, it's because since last Saturday night, I've been pinned to my couch, alternately coughing, sniffling, and sleeping.  Even now that the respiratory symptoms have abated somewhat, I'm having trouble standing up for longer than it takes to do a few of the backlogged dishes and make a sandwich.  Whatever it was also delightfully comes with persistent nightmares that wake me up a 4:30 am. I'm back to a full workload today, but I confess I'm spending a lot of time looking forward to 7 pm, when I can go back to sleep.

H1N1 hasn't yet turned out to be the New Spanish Flu, but it's certainly created a memorable flu season.  Thankfully, I already got a seasonal flu shot, so at least I don't have to go through this twice.