It’s been a long and interesting week.
Sunday I started the Santa Hustle Half Marathon at Cedar Point. I didn’t finish (and I’m even more glad now than I didn’t than I was before) but I started, and I made it half way.
Monday I made it to work.
Tuesday I had before and after hours work to do (and I HURT from the race) so I worked from home.
Wednesday was infusion day. Was feeling pretty decent by Wednesday. Afternoon was my infusion. They did a blood draw before the infusion (my quarterly blood tests) and then my infusion. I had cookies and Gatorade.
A couple hours later we went to Walmart and I started to feel horrible. Stomach ache and exhausted became EVERYWHERE aches and freezing and exhausted. EVERY joint screamed. I hurt from the end of my toes to the most horrible not-migraine headache I can ever remember having.
Bad enough I called off work Thursday morning and went to the doctor. I vaguely remember being there. I had a low grade fever. I vaguely remember walking to the car after my appointment. I vaguely remember getting home. Sleep, I learned, is definitely your friend with the flu.
$40 worth of Tamaflu at the ONLY pharmacy in town known to have it (the pharmacy at Cleveland Clinic) and that’s all I remember of Thursday.
Yesterday my rheumy called. Turns out my blood work came out with an elevated white blood count (go figure) and I’m off my methotrexate until the Sunday a week after I start to feel human again (so… I’m guessing January).
I was instructed to NOT go to work until at least Monday so I can keep from infecting my co-workers. So I worked from home Friday. It’s the holiday and my team is growing thinner and thinner and I need to be Johnny On The Spot through after New Years. It’s going to be a long holiday season.
Yes. I got my Flu Shot. I got my flu shot before the doctors ever even thought of trying to get me to take my flu shot. September, about 2 weeks after the flu shot signs started to appear at the local pharmacies I got my flu shot.
Funny… Rheumy told me what everyone else (well… all the medical kind of people anyway) has told me. The flu shot doesn’t prevent the flu. It makes the flu you get (if you get it) less horrible and helps prevent one or two or a handful of types of the flu.
According to the CDC the strain of the flu that is rampant right now isn’t actually included in the flu shot. This year’s flu shot is primarily H1N1 and a couple strains of influenza B.
Please don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that you have gotten the flu shot. If you feel sick, go be seen as soon as you start to feel awful. Tamaflu doesn’t make you better but it makes you feel less crappy. TAKE ALL THE PRECAUTIONS YOU CAN to avoid the flu germs especially for those of us that are immuno-suppressed. If I wasn’t on MTX and Orencia would I have gotten the flu or gotten it as badly as I have it? I don’t know. It’s immaterial I have it…
I know that hand sanitizer (handsitizer) isn’t all the answer and bleach wipes and Lysol isn’t all the answer and that I’m going to go a little nutsy over trying to make sure I don’t get it again and I don’t get another strain this season because I’m going to use everything I can to prevent it.
This year, I drew the short straw.
A Figment Of Fitness 
Oh, yuck. I had it last year and it kicked off the flare from hell, which is ultimately what drove me to get answers, and led to my RA diagnosis. Get some rest, drink plenty of fluids, and try not to work so hard. I hope you feel better soon.
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