It all started on Thursday night.  It had been a very stressful week so when I was feeling run down and semi sick, I just thought it was the weight of a bad week on me. 

Until I woke up in the early hours of Friday with a cough deep in my lungs that burned like lava.  “Shit,” I muttered to myself.  I knew immediately this wasn’t just a normal chest cold.

Regardless Friday morning I dragged myself into work since I had already called in sick once that week and thought maybe I would feel better as the day went on.  Ironically Josh (my coworker) was out sick, so I stayed but as every hour went by I knew that Matt and I were going to miss The Boys birthday party.  Yes, they are such a cute couple they even have birthday’s just days apart.  ALthough I was super bummed to miss it,I figured nothing says, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” like hacking up a lung all over the artichoke dip.

Saturday I woke up feeling OK.  Little did I know that was the best I would feel all day and it would be downhill from there. 

We had plans Saturday night to go to my friend Darcy’s house for dinner.  So around 4:00 pm I made the accent up Mount St Helen’s, or my stairs…it was hard to tell.  I took a long hot shower that was an almost an orgasmic experience, until I finally decided I should leave some water for the fish and got out.  Once out of the heaven I called a shower, it took everything I had to just put a towel around my hair and get on my robe.  As I collapsed into bed I knew there was no way we were going anywhere that night. 

Instead of spending the night with friends, food and wine, it was a night in with my boys, dressed like a homeless person clutching my tea.  By Saturday night the body aches were so bad and my fever so high I was delirious.  At one point I asked Matt for more ibuprofen.  Five minutes after I took it, I looked at him and asked for ibuprofen.  “Honey, I just gave it to you,”  Matt said.  That’s when I declared that I was Done With The Day and took myself to bed.  Where I proceeded to sleep for 12 hours.

Today I woke up feeling much better.  Now I just feel like I have a bad cold which I would take any day over the previous feeling of my lungs being filled with cement on fire. 

However, as each minute I feel better, there is a little boy on the couch next to me who’s sinking deeper and deeper.  And I need to figure out how to not go insane by the fact that I haven’t left the house for more than 48 hours with many more ahead of me.

Even though I never made it to Urgent Care, I did talk to a friend of mine who is a doctor and pronounced me a H1N1 victim.  Serves me right that I would get this weeks before work vaccinated me.  Remember I was the one who cried pig!  I was the one who called this just a big media hype. 

So let my lessons learned be your knowledge.  1) you don’t have to guess if you have the Swine Flu.  You will know.  Just like you don’t have to guess if you are in labor… you know!  And 2) it’s not just a media hype.  If you have a chance to get vaccinated, DO!  Trust me, this is a nasty virus which I would have been so happy to avoid. 

Now everyone cross your fingers that this passes through my family in time for us to catch our flight to D.C. on Thursday.  The Obama’s are counting on us.