At Least It's Not the Flu....

I woke up Sunday morning feeling just a little bit as if being dead would be a nice option.  Babygirl had a killer headache and my nose was running and my eyes wouldn't stay open, so I sent hubby a text to let him know we weren't actually deceased and crawled back into bed.

I can't recall the last time I spent the nearly 36 hours in bed.  I got up Monday, worked 3/4 of a day, came home and immediately went to sleep.  I awoke this morning voiceless and achy. 

Now, I know the difference between a cold and the flu, but this year's flu has been breaking through the vaccine and causing atypical symptoms.  I haven't had a cold in years that left me so exhausted and pain-soaked.  And there is Babygirl to consider.  I mean, if I have influenza, do I have to move out?  But technology is a wonderful thing.  We now have rapid flu tests in the building for the pediatric clinic upstairs, so we swiped one. 

The downside to this test is that it requires a nasopharyngeal swab. No one on my staff has done one, so I was put in the rather awkward position of having to demo the technique on my own nose.  Just so you know, 'nasopharyngeal' means a thin Q-Tip in your nostril straight back (not up!) across the top of your palate to the back of your throat.  Rotate 360 degrees twice, cough (or gag as the spirit moves you) and voila! You have collected your specimen.  The nurses were appalled that I was able to simply do this to myself.  It was, frankly, less scary than having someone do it who looked like they might be willing to try going UP my nose.  There is no 'up' in a nose.  Honest. 

The test was negative.  This was good for several reasons.  First, I'm not bringing something deadly home to Babygirl.  Second, there has been so much influenza that the clinic upstairs has had only positive test results. I proved that negative results were possible, which was reassuring.  Last, it means I didn't expose all of yesterdays' patients to flu either.

I managed to stay awake for a couple of hours after I got home today, but I fell asleep before dinner anyway.  And I'm about done now.  Colds just stink.

DeeDee