Swine SUCK and are keeping me off topic!

No sooner did the glory (and mild soreness) wear off from my triumphant triathlon moment than my body ate it and life caved a little around me.  My mother-in-law who's company I enjoy arrived Sunday afternoon, to spend the week with us leading into my son's birthday party weekend.  I had some fun explaining the permanent marker numbers that wouldn't quite wash off my arms and legs to inquisitive people at work, who were impressed considering I don't have the outward physique of a triathlete, and then Wednesday night was the return to my DivaFit class.  It was fun, but I wasn't able to pull off the inversion move without a spotter yet.  I'm the last in the class needing to be "certified" to be able to do so, a crucial component of completing this level and moving on. 

Meanwhile, Thursday brings the usual amount of muscle soreness, but by midday I was starting to feel miserable.  Like I needed to crawl under my desk and sleep, and like walking around was a big challenge.  We had a family dinner out, and I honestly had to muster enough energy both to sit upright in the restaurant, and to consider the seemingly "challenging" 10 minute drive home, wherein a fever joined the mix.  Friday morning I made a Dr. appt., after first attending my staff meeting.  Deep, extended coughing made an entry by that point, and I had to take a nap in the car outside my Dr.'s office while waiting for it to be my appointment time.

What do I have?  Swine flu.  FREAKING SWINE FLU!!  H1N1 is apparently still an issue, and has a strain that is apparently going around this area.  I was upset at first, but she told me that it is not as bad as the regular flu, which is something to be grateful for.  The regular flu I have only gotten once, about 6 years ago, but it nearly killed me, and disabled me for about 3 weeks.  This version I am on my 6th day of, and I am finishing the cycle of Tamiflu they give you this evening.  At this point the fevers have stopped, the body aches have eased up quite a bit, and I am just left with the coughing and STILL being tired, even after many days of much extra sleep.  That, and raw hands from all the Purell.  She said it is mostly spread by the cough, so I've been coughing into paper towels, throwing them away, and then cleaning my hands and nearby surfaces.  I've scarcely handled my son up close (which actually upset him a bit and had him peeing the bed 2 nights in a row, which has never happened before, but once I started tucking him in again he settled out of it), and he was a real trooper when learning that his much awaited Blue's Clues birthday party with a bunch of friends had to be downgraded to just a themed dinner with us and the local grandparents (the mother-in-law bolted for home within 30 minutes of my news...)  He's a sweet kid.  My also sweet husband has had to pick up a lot of slack for me, and is stuck sleeping in a different room.  

So, tomorrow I plan to drag myself back into work (although I'm sure that will horrify some people, but I think I'm basically at the end of most of any contagious time), and I'm not sure how long it will be before I'm back up to exercising speed.  Cranky and bitter about it!

(And yes, I KNOW swine are barely involved in the makeup of swine flu, but as I know not a soul who has been sick, never mind really sick, I've got no one to blame and nowhere else constructive to direct my bitterness toward!)