Summer Flu

I have the flu. Can you believe it? Jon and I went to the beach on Friday morning. When I woke up super early for the trip, I wasn't feeling quite right, but I attributed that to waking up too early. I figured I would sleep on the beach. We got to the beach okay. I was still fatigued, but not so bad that I couldn't enjoy myself. We frollicked and rambled and had a good time. Then we left so Jon and I could have a final lunch with my relatives from France. They were leaving that night.

At lunch, I started feeling light headed. I reasoned that I got too much sun, not realizing yet that I was coming down with something. We finished lunch. My mom and I took Jon to the train so he could go to work. I drove both ways. I have to practice when I can. While I was driving, I wasn't paying attention to how I was feeling. It was nice to drive in my bathing suit and flip flops because I haven't done that in a long time.

When I got back to my mom's, I went next to door to hang out with her neighbor and my friend. She has a pool and two kids. My cousin's kid was one of the visitors. So I went into L's pool, with my cousin's kid and her two kids and we splashed around a bit. We made a human whirlpool, which is something I hadn't ever done before. L understood that because I grew up on the beach, I never played in pools as a kid.

Anyway, a "whirlpool" is when everyone in the pool walks in a circle until you build up enough momentum that you can float in a circle. But we didn't do that. Instead we changed directions and walked against the current we had created. It was fun but it wiped me out. I was exhausted after that. I had to get out of the pool. I sat with L for half an hour on her screened terrace discussing life and movies. And I started getting really, really sleepy and achy. I had to leave.

I got back to my mother's and that was it. I knew I was sick. Once my neck and shoulders start to get a specific kind of achy I know I have a fever and I was that kind of achy. I took a shower and took a nap. The aspirin helped me feel good enough to go with my parents to the airport to send my family on its way.

The airport was nightmarish. For a variety of reasons, most attributable to the fact that the check-in agent was brand new and unsupervised, check-in took an hour. But my family eventually made it on to their flight.

I stayed at my parents. I wasn't feeling well enough to go home.

I took the train yesterday afternoon to come back to the Astoria. That 50 minute train ride felt like an eternity. After I walked through the door, I took my temperature. 99.9 degrees. I know that's not very high but it was high enough to make me uncomfortable. Two hours later, my temperature was 100.5. I took some tylenol. I slept. I watched some TV. I went to dinner with Jon and had some Japanese soup. Yum. And then I went to sleep.

This morning. Not a smidge of fever. I looked up the symptoms for summer flu. And sure enough, the discription matches what's happening to me.

Two days of fever followed by upper respiratory complaints -sore throat, congestion, coughing, etc., which is what I am now experiencing. This is the second time in my life, I've had the flu. So while this story may seem unremarkable to you, it's pretty remarkable to me. Summer flu. Whodathunkit? Not me. I've had summer colds but never a summer flu.