Let me start off by being 100% honest and state candidly that I am a slight hypochondriac because I have generalized anxiety disorder that is pretty much under control until I get sick!.
Anyway, Friday, my son woke up with a pretty high fever. Over the next couple of days, he stayed in bed and developed a pretty nasty sounding cough and sneezing. His first day back to school was today - he no longer has a fever (48 hours ago was his last) and only has lingering cough that seems to be getting better.
Well, as hard as we try - he is 12 and is NOT good at doing what he needs to do not to infect other people. Well, Tuesday, I woke up and had a sore "throat". I put throat in quotes because it was not really the traditional place one would think of when you say sore throat. It was a little bit further down my windpipe I guess you would say. This was the only symptom that I had at this time and the sore throat went away within an hour or so, though I started to feel "not quite right" if you know what I mean.
Well, throughout the morning, I started feeling worse quite suddenly - mainly burning, watery eyes, muscle aches, feeling feverish, chills, etc. I left work early for the first time in 7 years (because I just do not get the flu usually) by that evening, I was in the bed, achey, bad all-over headache, fever of about 101.5 ish to 102. Still no cough or runny nose or anything.
The next morning I woke up and felt HORRIBLE. I was all sweaty (had only slept for about 4 hours of fitful sleep), bad headache, very weak, fever of nearly 103, muscle aches, etc. At this point, I did cough a few times, but nothing regular, and not anything like my son had.
Throughout the day yesterday, I started feeling much better, fever was hovering around 99-101, but I felt better. (I was taking very minimal amounts of ibuprofen). I though I was going to be lucky and have kicked this thing in a short period of time - I tend to do some non-stop drinking of water during this time and have been drinking 4 packs of Emergen C, which is good, but I have since had to stop do to too much Vitamin C causing slight diarrhea.
Well, I took a nap at around 4 and woke up about 6:30 - when I woke up, I felt bad again, which freaked me out a bit. But as I drank more water, ate some tuna sandwiches, I was feeling better again. By the way, my appetite has been almost normal this whole time.
I slept pretty well last night - about 7 hours, woke up and felt better almost well again! However, as the day progressed, my temp hovered between 98.9 and 100.9, though the aches and slight chills and sweating returned. I still have very little cough - I do cough - but not like most do when they have the flu (trust me I am not complaining!). I am starting to develop a little bit of a stuffy nose and have sneezed about 5 good sneezes in the past 6 hours (that feel like those you get with a cold).
So, my question is - does all of this sound pretty status quo for the flu? And can you have the flu with very minimal actual respiratory symptoms. Actually, logic dictates that I have the same thing my son had and he has all the respiratory issues, but I don't? Am I just lucky? Or should i expect that part to get worse?
Sorry, for the long-winded question, but I am pretty bored at this point after being in bed for 3 days. I am very much high energy and never sit around - I haven't taken a nap (a regular nap) in years! That might explain that while I am weak feeling, and feel fatigued, I can't really sleep.
Mike