A clear and present misery, and to some a danger: the flu.

This is Day 6 of the flu for me and am feeling much better than earlier in the week. Presumably the infamous H1N1, which evidently accounts for the vast majority of flu cases at the moment.

I've never before caught a flu so early in the season.

Think I may have caught it at jury duty last week. I was worried about being in the courthouse all day (five hours in a jury pool for a murder trial) and had antiseptic wipes and took care not to touch any doorknobs or surfaces, but in that confined space with so many people (took 100 jury candidates to get to the requisite 14 and we were all in a room that barely fit us), forget it. I'd like to know what the infection rate of current jury pools is.

Until this bug, I'd been blessedly healthy for 13 months. Hit out of the blue Saturday night with an excruciating sore throat. But I didn't associate that with flu and expected that it would migrate to a simple head cold or sinus infection. By Sunday night my throat was fine (thank goodness, that sore throat's been the worst aspect of this but was short-lived) and a head cold-chest congestion began. Then the aches, fever and chills emblematic of flu kicked in and I was surprised to find that the sore throat was a symptom of H1N1.

Monday - Night 3 - was the worst and the third in a row virtually devoid of sleep. 101.5 degree temp during the night, 101 at dawn Tuesday. I don't keep the digital thermometer in my ear all the time but that was clearly the most feverish night. Wouldn't be surprised if my temp had edged even closer to 102. But no higher than that.

Night 4 was markedly better with several hours of sound sleep. Last night was harder to get to sleep (some wheezing, there is a respiratory component to this flu) but my fever was negligible and this morning I actually felt like I did not have a fever. Walked Gidget for several blocks (avoiding people, coughing into an arm, etc.) and afterward felt a low-grade fever and tired.

Since that wicked sore throat abated, fatigue has been the big thing, typical for any flu I've ever experienced. All in all, not even close to the worst flu I've ever suffered (1994 stands out in my personal flu history - 10 days of abject misery marked by three consecutive nights of 103-degree temp and near-convulsive chills). But bad enough to make you want to take it very, very easy for a few days.

Below are two links that the Washington Post ran in which you take a brief test of your symptoms and are advised at the end whether to consult a doctor or seek urgent care. The answer options are so broad that I'm not sure whether it's going reduce or increase the hospital onslaught. It advised me to rush to the hospital but that was ridiculous, at my worst I felt nowhere near that bad. These tests are nearly identical but not quite.

Microsoft-Emory H1N1 test:
https://h1n1.cloudapp.net/Default.aspx

Federal Gov't version (slightly more involved):
http://www.flu.gov/evaluation/


More info:

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

Exposure to on set of 2009 H1N1 flu virus?
The infectious period for confirmed cases of H1N1 Influenza (swine flu) is one day before the onset of illness and up to seven days after.

Twenty-seven states are reporting widespread influenza activity at this time. They are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.

Any reports of widespread influenza activity in September are very unusual (the 27 state figure was from September).

Almost all of the influenza viruses identified so far are 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses. These viruses remain similar to the virus chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine, and remain susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir with rare exception.

Background

As of September 12, 2009, 99% of circulating influenza viruses in the United States were 2009 H1N1 influenza (previously referred to as novel influenza A (H1N1))