Venusian Death Flu

I've had a sore throat and cough for about three weeks now, but with no other symptoms of a cold or flu, I dismissed it as easily explained. It all started when I had acid reflux one night and burned my throat, gradually got better until I had reflux again, and the same a third time. No sniffles, stuffiness, fever, etc. so I figured it was just that. And it probably was.

This weekend I went to Carnage 12 without any worry that I might be contagious -- if I did think I were, I would have cancelled, despite taking a bath on registration and hotel fees, because it's not right to go make other people sick if you know you can avoid it. Now I wonder if maybe I had slipped into being contagious and didn't realize because the cough and its explanation masked the new development, in which case, maybe I got other people sick. Either that, or maybe I picked something up at the con and it just incubated fast.

Whichever it went, overnight Saturday into Sunday morning, I went very abruptly into flu symptoms. Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom I was dizzy enough I had to watch my step so I didn't bump into things. By morning I had a headache and very probably a fever (though I hadn't brought a thermometer with me to check) in addition to the cough and stuffy nose. The headache and dizziness suggested the possibility of flu instead of cold, but no way to be sure. Fever is the most reliable tell-tale between cold and flu.

We still went to our brief morning game on Sunday and by time we got home (a few hours early) I was convinced I was sick, enough to mark myself off for the whole week. (With the buzz about H1N1, my employers have a strict "don't come to work if you're sick" policy, with which I wholeheartedly agree. Plus I have an embarassingly huge amount of sick time, and this week is as good a one as any for me to be out, so why not?)

My fever has been up and down since, usually low or absent in the morning, building back up by evening. Every day I feel better than the previous, but it's that kind of tentative better that means, sitting here typing, I feel 80% of normal -- just a headache and a tickle in the throat that isn't even a cough -- but if I got up and walked around, I would wear out very fast and backslide.

No idea whether this is H1N1 or just a regular seasonal flu. This is the first year I haven't gotten a seasonal flu vaccine, because today was the day I got scheduled for one, the schedule happened to be late in my area, so I guess I won't be able to get that. Still trying to decide if I should ask my doctor for Tamiflu.

I sure hope I didn't infect anyone at the con.