Swine Flu?!!

I'm really sorry if we got anyone sick. Really.

You see, after going to bed Friday night, I came down with the flu. At about 2 in the morning, I woke up with the chills. Luckily, my husband was in bed by then, so I snuggled in. That helped. Two hours later, I woke up feeling ill. Was the queasy stomach just my supposed ulcer acting up again, or what? I fell back asleep, waking around 6. It was freezing. I went to turn the house thermostat up. . . oops, I mean on. The house was at 60F. No wonder I was so cold! But I still felt awful. My head hurt, and I ached all over. I checked my temperature. 101.9!!!

Time for a hot bath.

I ended up staying there for over two hours. It was the only place where I wasn't shivering and my poor aching muscles could relax. I would have stayed longer if General Conference wasn't starting. We were watching it by internet in our family room, so I curled up on the couch, warmly dressed and generously blanketed to fall asleep after the first speaker. I might have heard a total of four talks that day. Maybe. I was out, hard.

Apparently, Bailey came down with the flu that day too. She curled up at my feet for Conference, copying my every word, and sleeping through the second session. After that, I checked her head. Yup. She had a fever, and now we were both coughing as well. Not the "tickle your throat" kind but the "rip your esophagus to shreds" kind that does nothing to nice to your headache. And our appetite, even with all of the treats that we'd gotten for Conference, was gone. I almost had to force-feed myself.

Sierra had slept through the second session as well. She's had a cough for a few days, but because she never had a fever or anything else, I had just thought that it was leftover from a cold. Nope. We'd gotten the flu from her-and I'd sent her to school on Thursday! Sorry!!!

So, I Tylenoled all three of us and told my husband to call his parents and tell them to not come visit as planned the following weekend. The boys had yet to get it, and I had honestly never remembered feeling so awful in my life. And, due to the severity and the season, I figured it was likely to be the Swine Flu that we had. My mother in law, who works under Utah County's Health Department in the Emergency Preparedness section, seconded the likelihood. Yay.

Well, Sunday was a little better. I was able to stay awake until the very end of the first session anyway, and I did get about half of the second. My fever was also slightly lower, and I no longer had the chills. Bailey was still going strong though. She seemed to be about half a day behind me. Sierra's cough was still there too, but it seemed to be getting better. To late, I started making Seth stay away from all of us. The last thing we needed was for him to get sick, though we pretty much assumed it to be inevitable.

Monday, Blake came down with the flu. Bailey was feeling a bit better, and so was I, though we both still had fevers. Sierra felt fine, except for her cough. Seth had a court hearing in Denver and a signing meeting that day. I made the girls do some schoolwork (there would be little else to do then watch movies all day, and since their brains weren't fried, just their bodies. . .) We spent the rest of the day veging in the family room in front of the screen. The kids watched their movies while I streamed ones for myself from Netflix onto the new laptop. (I love Netflix. It's helped me out a lot in times of need.)

This morning, Tuesday, Seth came down with the flu. Well, we were expecting it. Luckily, he has no out of home appointments today or tomorrow. He has a court hearing on Thursday though. Hopefully he'll be feeling well enough by then.

It's been four days for me, and I've still got occasional surges of cough and fever. Bailey's acting mostly normal with a very small fever. Blake is cranky and hot, and Sierra is just chilling while she waits for the rest of us to feel better. I told her we can't go anywhere until I haven't had a fever for a whole day. Bailey and Blake aren't leaving the house until their fevers have been gone for a day either.

Sierra's taken it well enough. I told her we'd get her a new Disney Fairy book when I'm better. She's read all of the ones we have already. That made her happy. Hopefully, that won't be too long from now.