This last week I have been the sickest I have ever been probably in my life. Six days ago, I took a cross country flight. I was sitting on a 737 with 3 seats on each side and one aisle. I was sitting on an aisle seat. There was a woman next the window coughing who seemed sick or getting over being sick but would cough regularly. There was another guy coughing regularly across the aisle and one row behind me. I said to myself, I that I bet within a few days I'm going to come down with something. By the next day(friday), I had a dry cough developing. My sleep pattern was messed up and I wasn't getting proper rest and not even eating well. I went on a hike with friends Saturday and it was quite cold and windy. I was shivering at times and uncomfortably cold. I think that lowered my immune system. My stomach was feeling off all day and I took both ginger and pepto bismol. That night I decided to go out and celebrate a friends birthday. The cough seemed to be getting worse. Sunday, I finally was able to get caught up on some sleep, but the damage was done. by Sunday evening, I knew it was too late, I was coming down with something bad. I started feeling feverish, got chills, headache, sore muscles, you name it. I had had a bowl of vegetable soup on the stove I was making but by the time it was done, I could not eat, my appetite was gone, even though I hadn't eaten that day.
From Sunday night through last night(Tuesday), I was suffering. Could barely sleep I was so miserable. This was the mother of all flus I have never gone through a flu this severe. My temp got up to 102.7. Medicines didn't seem to be making me feel much better. I kept feeling like I might vomit even when I just burped up a little air. I barely ate because anytime I took more than a few bites of something, I started feeling waves of nausea. Tried to make a bowl of soup a couple times and couldn't get through even a few spoons before I had to lay my head on the table. It's now Wednesday night and I think the worst is over but I'm not out of the woods. The fever is gone so that's a good sign, but I'm still weak, still have a headache, I have this weird throbbing pain in the center of my gut that happens when my blood pressure or heart rate goes up for any reason, and worst of all, I STILL cannot eat. I know I need to get my strength back, I've not had a solid meal in 4 days just about. I just made myself a turkey sandwich and have some fruit to nibble on, but I took exactly one bite of the sandwich so far and a little fruit and I'm feeling the nausea coming on again. For a moment there, I thought I might vomit, but it seems to be settling down now. I have not yet actually vomited with this flu, but I know I could easily if I wasn't listening to my body carefully. My stomach has been growling almost constantly for the last several days due to lack of nutrition, but if I swallow more than just a few morsels, it's like my stomach is saying, "okay, that's enough! Stop!" I need to get my strength back in order to fight this illness, but I don't want to vomit either. I'm in a dilemma!
This might be kinda gross, but as an indication of how little I have eaten, the food that I ate Saturday is coming out now. I know, because I took pepto on Saturday during the day and it turns your stool almost black, so anything you eat during or after the pepto will be black. The black stuff is coming out now. 4 days later! So I'm wondering if that means my digestive system was essentially shut down by this flu. I know pepto contains some anti-diarrheal agents but 4 days to exit??
I know they say the flu does not attack the digestive system, but whatever strain I have, it clearly does. The good thing is that the nausea has been easy to control so long as I only eat very lightly and it small portions. Worse than the nausea is the hunger pain.