Some of you might be surprised to know that I’m currently in San Diego right now. I arrived early Sunday afternoon. This trip came together quite quickly as I wanted a short vacation before starting my new job. I chose San Diego because when I visited previously in 2012 and stayed for six days, I had an awesome time. The weather was so good too! Twenty degrees Celsius in late January!
So this seemed like a natural choice for a repeat visit. Unfortunately, the trip started off badly even before I left Vancouver. On Friday afternoon, I was downtown running errands when I noticed considerable muscle aches all over my body. I knew this was bad. When I got home my head started to hurt. Later, I got the chills and began shivering almost uncontrollably. When that passed, I felt hot, like I had a fever. I’m no doctor but I was sure I had the flu. I felt just awful and I had to be on a plane in just over 24 hours. I honestly wasn’t sure how this was going to work.
I went to bed early (at least for me) and I planned on dropping by a walk-in clinic to see a doctor on Saturday morning. When I woke up I still felt terrible and I was just exhausted. It took a good ten minutes for me to even muster the strength to get out of bed. I got my ass to the clinic somehow. When I did see the doctor I asked if I was a candidate for Tamiflu, which is the only drug known to reduce the effects and duration of some kinds of flu. He said I was, so he gave me a prescription.
Now I’m not sure if it was the Advil, the Tamiflu, or just my own body fighting the illness but I started feeling better Saturday afternoon. The headache went away and the muscle aches reduced. I was still a bit tired though. That was enough for me to finish packing.
By the time I boarded my flight at 7:30am this morning, I was feeling almost normal. I’ve never really experienced anything like this before. The difference between how I was feeling in just 48 hours was two extremes.
Anyways, I gotta go, I need to see if it’s practical for me to go to Tijuana tomorrow.
I can attest to the magic of Tamiflu… Abi got sick first, 3 days later I started getting ill. I took Tamiflu, she didn’t. I was better before she was!
I’m still unsure how this near-miracle occurred but I won’t hesitate to look for Tamiflu if I ever get the stupid flu again.