The only nice thing about getting sick is how teriffic you feel when you get better. Spouses who have to deal with this sort of thing deserve medals, I know mine does.
The doctor warned me to expect 5 to 7 days and she was right. Even though I was only down a week I count my blessings. I know one senior here who got it so bad they put him in the hospital for days, in ICU no less.
Had I come in within 48 hours of noticing the symptoms I might have licked it with a drug called Tamiflu, the same one they are stockpiling in case the avian flu turns pandemic. But of course being the macho dump truck type I figured it was a head cold and would disappear in a couple of days. So by the time my personality type had morphed into something more like a bowl of Jello my destiny was decided, at least for the next week.
Luckily though this new drug is also a preventative (thus the stockpiling) so the doctor prescribed it for Sally and she remains hale and healthy. Which is a godsend else I would have spent the week eating Spagettio's or Macaroni & Cheese right out of the can,which I probably would have heated right on the stove. I won't even go into what it might have been like with respect to linen changes, washed dishes, showers, etc.
The downside of Tamiflu is that it was $8.40 per pill which comes to $84 in the prescribed 10 pill regimen. Our Medicare Rx plan cut that to $34 but if you're not retired yet with that benefit that's a costly way to get well. How could a family with 3 kids afford to treat and prevent them all?
So listen up all you dump truck types; go see your doctor when you feel sick. If it's only a head cold, write the visit off as a social call. But if it's this stuff, you may just have saved a week of misery.
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