Pig Tales: The Story of a Swine Flu Survivor
Kejal Vyas
Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: Life & Leisure
Amidst all the worry over swine flu, the confusion over vaccines and Tamiflu shortages it would be good to hear from a voice of reason to make sense of all this brouhaha. Well, we rejected such a voice in favor of this shamelessly sensational report. Your News Editor came down with the swine flu and this is the story. Prepare to be frightened! Alarmed! …And bored!
Two weeks ago on Tuesday morning, I woke up with an itchy throat. By my final class of that day my body began to ache, but I thought it'd go away. When I got home I figured I'd take a nap and then head on to work. Three hours later I had missed work and puttered around like an old woman.
Hollywood has always promised me a glorious time of movie-watching and magazine-reading, lying patiently in waiting for me the instant I fell ill. I was ready to live out the dream, wrapped in 20 blankets and about half as many pillows, a steaming mug of tea, a red nose, a heap of discarded tissues, and the best place on the couch in order to delight in what the tube had to offer.
It actually goes something more like this: hours of drugged-like sleep where one is dead to the world (and by extension, the television) or restless consciousness, where the only thing on your mind is the newest ache or cough. I had no pile of tissues and I could not stomach tea, which in healthier times is a favorite drink of mine.
Of course, I did not know I had swine flu at the time. The official diagnosis came one week after I had begun to feel better and had finished my medication.
In my pre-lapsarian state I was unaware of the portent of my illness, but I can say that I have never felt so sick in my life. I cannot compare it with regular flu, since I have never had that, but I am sure that swine flu outclasses it.
I literally could barely move or sit up without feeling tired and dizzy. Splitting headaches accompanied most of my day, along with the aforementioned aches. My stomach also reacted against the Tamiflu, which was also due to the fact that I wasn't eating much, but I had intense cramps.
Two weeks ago on Tuesday morning, I woke up with an itchy throat. By my final class of that day my body began to ache, but I thought it'd go away. When I got home I figured I'd take a nap and then head on to work. Three hours later I had missed work and puttered around like an old woman.
Hollywood has always promised me a glorious time of movie-watching and magazine-reading, lying patiently in waiting for me the instant I fell ill. I was ready to live out the dream, wrapped in 20 blankets and about half as many pillows, a steaming mug of tea, a red nose, a heap of discarded tissues, and the best place on the couch in order to delight in what the tube had to offer.
It actually goes something more like this: hours of drugged-like sleep where one is dead to the world (and by extension, the television) or restless consciousness, where the only thing on your mind is the newest ache or cough. I had no pile of tissues and I could not stomach tea, which in healthier times is a favorite drink of mine.
Of course, I did not know I had swine flu at the time. The official diagnosis came one week after I had begun to feel better and had finished my medication.
In my pre-lapsarian state I was unaware of the portent of my illness, but I can say that I have never felt so sick in my life. I cannot compare it with regular flu, since I have never had that, but I am sure that swine flu outclasses it.
I literally could barely move or sit up without feeling tired and dizzy. Splitting headaches accompanied most of my day, along with the aforementioned aches. My stomach also reacted against the Tamiflu, which was also due to the fact that I wasn't eating much, but I had intense cramps.
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