A Personal Account of the Flu

I recently received this from a friend of mine:

Ten days after returning from Mexico (Cancun – Maya Riviera) I was very, very sick. Sheila was also very sick – but not as severe. The week before we were both very, very tired.

I have relatively good health, don’t get sick too often, and recover fairly quickly. I haven’t been this sick in years; a once in 10 years flu for me.

Last time, about 8-10 years ago just before Christmas, I had a Norwalk type stomach flu; stayed in bed and ran to the washroom for about 3 days.

In 1973, when I was doing a work term at Philips in The Netherlands, I was sent “home” (Graduate Students Residence) for a week.

I also had a bad flu in the 1980s, but I can’t remember the details.

This time I had fever – 38 C for about 6 days – slept for 2 1/2 days – plus all the typical flu symptoms.

As with millions of others, I don’t have a Family Doctor.

So I went to Emergency at the local Hospital, where the Doctor said I had a bad case of the flu with no complications.

On Mon 27 Apr, after the “swine flu” news broke, I decided to drop in at Emergency at the local Hospital.

I reminded them how sick I was after returning from Mexico, but Triage wasn’t interested.

I don’t know if I needed to do anything else - I don’t think it will make any difference at this stage.

We “quarantined” ourselves, did our best not to infect anybody, and Sheila and I recovered well fairly quickly.