Dog, sick as a

[gwyn]

I wonder where that strange expression came from? Are dogs just generally sicker than any other creatures? It's very odd.

Anyways, that is what I've been. I picked up whatever cold my roomie had in Ventura and that seemed fairly mild, and went away by the end of the week. Until it came back, all morphed up, on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and then just hit me like a backdraft in a house fire. I can't remember being this sick in like, I dunno, decades. Every inch of my body has just ached, as if someone has been using a cheese grater on my skin, and my joints feel like I've been run over by a Peterbilt. Every time I'd think in the past four days that it had to end, it just seemed to get worse. The cough isn't even honestly that bad, I mean, it'd be great not to have to endure it, but it's mostly just that my lungs feel like honeycomb full of heavy, thick honey. Nothing really wants to expel, though. And I don't have a very runny nose.

Whatever the fuck this is, though, I want it gone. There's just nothing like having a raging fever and restless leg syndrome -- you're shaking with chills and can't handle getting out of bed, but you have to because your legs are going crazy.

I don't even have anyone to bring me juice and cough syrup anymore -- Dad always did that for me. I finally broke down and called my neighbor to ask if she could get me some. I don't know what I'm going to do when she moves away at the end of the month. I think -- I'm not sure -- that my fever might finally be dissipating. But I have a book due Friday and I'm nowhere near where I should be by now. I lost all day Sunday, and the rest of the week I've barely made a dent. It's not an especially engaging book -- some of the writing is lovely and she has some great turns of phrase -- so that makes it harder to pay attention to when you're feeling this bad.

I'm kind of pissed that my flu shot was so useless. I talked with a guy at my writing group who said that he was pretty certain things would have been a lot worse for him without the flu shot when he got sick this year, and maybe that's true, but geez, it doesn't feel like it. When all you can do is lie there and whimper; when every part of you is screaming in pain and you've got a 12 pound cat perched on your aching hip but you can't even brush them away, you're sort of raging against that useless $30 you spent getting a vaccine.

Comments

[umbo]

Hope you feel better soon.

*hugs*

[ratcreature]

It's not just an English expression either. In German you have "hundeelend" (i.e. miserable like a dog) too when you feel very bad.

Hope you'll feel better soon.

[fiercynn]

ugh, yeah, pretty much everyone I know has had a nasty flu at some point this winter, whether they had a shot or not. Though honestly yours sounds quite a bit worse. Feel better soon!

[gattagrigia]

Ouch. I would offer to fetch juice and soup for you, but I can't drive, and JL and I are both sick. I thought I'd escaped the crud, since it didn't hit me till yesterday. So many people I know have had a really bad case that lasted for 4-6 weeks, it seemed like Seattle was a vector. But I'm reading about sick friends across the pond as well. And I had a flu shot too, and am now thinking this virus is one they didn't see coming a year ago, when they started to build this year's vaccine. Which isn't comforting, I know.

Bleh. Hope things get better!

[the_shoshanna]

I think it's because nothing looks quite so abjectly miserable as (some) sick dogs. (And the flu shot will have helped, if only by helping to ward off other strains of flu...but unfortunately they can't completely predict which strains will be most prevalent.) I hope you start to feel better soon!

[emmarytz.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that the flu shot is effective something like 58% percent of the time. I also got a flu shot last fall and then went down sick with something last month. I felt lousy for several days and missed three days of work. It sounds like you have much the same thing and like you have whatever Alexfandra is enjoying this week. I hope you start to recover soon. Plenty of fluids. Lots of rest. I'm sorry you're feeling so lousy. -em.

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

I wish I could magically transfer some of my chicken soup into your home! I'm so sorry you have to put up with this -- you sound worse off than me. Even Truman has been splendid -- able to entertain himself, available if I need a snuggle. Hang in there.

[black-bird-777.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear you got worse, but again, if you don't have the sore throat from hell, I didn't give you this bug. I hope you get better quickly. Today was the first day I didn't feel like hell.