I’m feeling better today. At least my gut has stopped spasming, and I don’t feel like I have curl into a fetal ball and dream about dying. I haven’t had the flu in about 5 years, I realized, thanks to all the sensible masking we’ve been doing, but when it finally sneaks past your defenses, it’s going to get it’s revenge.
I went back to work today, but it was a terrible mistake. I have a bad case of flu brain — I was stuttering through my lectures, making stupid mistakes in calculations, at one point I just froze and couldn’t think of a word. I was embarrassingly bad. A substantial part of the problem, I think, was that I haven’t eaten in two days, on top of a terrible sleep schedule. But I have no appetite at all! I’m going to have to force myself to eat something, and go to be early, and hope I’m at at least 90% functioning tomorrow.
Drinking lots of water helps too. But you probably know that.
Nutrition, hydration and rest (sleep) are the keys to recovery. Force the first two if you need. Rest will come, eventually you will succumb to sleep. Listen to your body, when it says sleep, whether or not you are ready, get comfy, close your eyes, blank your mind and welcome the darkness.
Back to work tomorrow?!
Convalescence is the better strategy, I think.
(What’s a day or three?)
A question. Here in Sweden we have the option to get vaccinated against the most likely strain of flu to emerge, and I took this alongside the Covid vaccine more than a month ago.
Surely, these vaccines are available in USA, so did you have the bad luck of getting a ‘rogue’ strain that is different from the ones the vaccines target?
If you have no appetite, maybe try drinking juice, or eating soup? There is a reason why chicken soup is offered to people who are sick.
@4 this years Flu vaccine is apparently not that effective. There was some recent research on a scheme to tie multiple segments from different flu types together on one antigen segment which has been found to give much better immunity. If RFK doesn’t screw vaccine development altogether we may see better flu vaccines in the future. The concept works because each person tends to produce a stronger antibody response to the version of flu they first encountered and having a piece of each type in one strand produces strong antibodies for all versions.
@6 I fear he is going to not only fuck with the Covid vaccine but all the other, more established ones, including measles, the flu, polio, smallpox, among others. We’re heading for a 2nd golden age of (preventable) childhood diseases. Hope y’all save your iron lung machines.
@4 birgerjohansson
I researched the flu vaccine about 5 years ago. Determining the next flu vaccine is basically a guessing game. The makers monitor the different strains that are circulating and try to predict (guess) the next vaccine. What I remember is the efficacy runs between 30 – 70%. The year I researched the efficacy was 30%. I was mandated to get the flu vaccine every year (heath worker). I would always have a reaction, 2 days of fever and feeling terrible, then later on I would get the flu. Once I left the field, I stopped getting vaccinated.
Influenza doesn’t typically cause such severe gastroinstenstinal systems. Sounds more like a viral gastroenteritis like Norovirus. As a nurse, it’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when every illness gets referred to as “flu”. I think that’s why a great many people downplay influenza’s severity. Even Norovirus is often referred to casually as a “stomach flu”, which is a misnomer, though it has the potential to be quite severe in its presentation. Obviously, what you’re suffering from is not some minor cold, but it’s probably not influenza. Regardless, I wish you a very speedy recovery. I’m sure whatever it is isn’t important when you feel like a walking pile of steaming hot garbage. That said, keep up with basic hygiene, stay hydrated with electrolyte solutions, and a liquid diet of broths until you can tolerate more. Get plenty of rest and let your immune system do its thing. I’m sure you know all that already. Hopefully, you’ll feel better soon.
When I had anorexia from Covid I drank Ensure. That will at least fix your hypoglycemia and hydrate you a bit.
My husband and I took both the COVID and the FLU shots in September.
We’ve both been fine until we drove up to UCSF for my quarterly medical treatment.
After we returned to our home, we both had similar symptoms to what PZ described.
My guess is that Norovirus is what we had. My daughter’s family went through a bout of it recently,
and that is what their family doctor diagnosed. She’s near Seattle.
The virus seems to be taking a leisurely trip down the west coast.
Sounds like UCSF is not a great place to be going for medical treatment, with hygiene like that!