17 November 2009

I just sneezed all over this blog post

I refuse to believe the flu vaccine gave me the flu. Mike and I got the live vaccine, the nasal spray (yuck!), because there's a shortage of the killed vaccine shot here, and we are young, healthy adults who can handle it. I expected mild side effects; I always get them when they are there to be had. But I didn't expect that after a weekend of mostly sleeping, I'd start feeling worse every day instead of better. 

To be accurate, I don't have a full-blown flu. I have mild precursors. I'm annoyed that resting, drinking tea, and taking vitamins hasn't healed me yet. This morning I woke up feeling the worst I have in days, with a headache, achy neck and shoulders, and a sore throat. I'm not quite sick enough to stay home, but just sick enough to be mildly uncomfortable at work.

If we stayed home from work every time we felt even mildly sick, as we are constantly informed we should be doing to prevent spreading germs, we'd never get any work done. We have cycles of feeling flu-ish every couple of months from all the new and exciting bugs in the air here. We were probably going to feel like this for a few days anyway, and the timing of the vaccine was just a coincidence.

We got vaccinated for the same reasons we did last year. We live in an undeveloped region where if there's an outbreak, it will spread quickly. We also travel often through international airports, which are hotbeds of germ transferral. We've only received the shot for the seasonal vaccine. The H1N1 vaccine may be made available to us; if it is, I'm getting it. For those same reasons. 

The real worry will come in a day or two, when my supply of Riccola herbal tea from Switzerland runs out. I don't know what they put in it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's illegal in the States. It makes me feel magical.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hope you get better soon. Read your other post and didn't know you are celiac. A bummer. So am I. Someone needs to educate doctors on celiac disease.