Really bad, virulent flu infection is finally getting better

I have been feeling so sick since Saturday - that is just about a week of feeling so miserable and ill.

I got a really bad, virulent flu infection that had me laid down low in bed for the best part of this week!

The lovely flu virus (whatever strain it was) caused me to have: fever and chills, runny nose, inflamed sinuses (sinusitis), blocked sinuses, headache, sore throat, lethargy, cough, aching bones and muscles.

The coughing was so bad, my diaphragm started convulsing from the severity of the coughing. It almost felt like I couldn't breathe properly, because once I started coughing, I couldn't stop.

The coughing started on Wednesday night and I went to hospital, but after an hour and half of sitting in the waiting room, feeling worse by the minute, I decided to go home because while I was there, only three people had been called in and when I asked at reception, there were still three people ahead of me, so that meant it would take at least another hour and half of sitting there at least (so three hours in all) before I was even seen by the doctor. I couldn't wait that long any more. I decided to go home and take my chances - I would see a doctor the next day instead.

I saw a doctor on Thursday who told me that I had the flu, but now I had a cold. How does the flu virus suddenly morph into a cold virus? I thought that you had the flu and it got better after a week or so of bed rest, fluids, herbal tea and steam inhalation. Doctors! Some of them have no clue, whatsoever!

I felt very weak and lethargic driving to the doctors on Thursday, I didn't have much energy and felt like falling asleep while I was driving. I just wanted to close my eyes, but I didn't. After seeing the doctor, who told me my lungs were clear as was my throat (yet I was so sick), I went to the chemist to get some herbs and vitamins to treat my symptoms. I bought some olive leaf extract syrup (it has known and potent anti-viral properties), some cold and flu vitamins, as well as some honey and lemon lozenges to ease my sore throat.

In addition to this, I had been blowing the junk out of my nose every day, with my sinuses so totally inflamed and hurting, that even my upper teeth started hurting too!

My nasal passages are still inflamed and my voice still reflects the congestion in my upper and lower respiratory systems - it is so husky and deep, one week into having this flu, but at least after taking the supplements from Thursday, my symptoms have improved dramatically!  I went from not being able to sleep much, having lots of head and sinus pain, coughing as if I was about to cough up my lungs, to feeling a lot better.  I am not 100% recovered, but I am much better than I was yesterday morning, so if I continue taking these supplements, I should improve over the next few days.

Still feel really sick today

I woke up earlier this morning to take my antibiotics and then went back to sleep as I just didn't feel very well at all - my sinuses are hurting me, my head hurts, my lungs hurt, my throat hurts, my ears hurt and it all feels really congested in my upper respiratory area. I still felt dizzy and nauseous and weak.

I have the "asthmatic cough" again, which means the bronchitis has been triggered yet again by last night.

I was also feeling hot and cold last night - just a bit of a fever too.

I have an appointment with my regular doctor today, so I will explain all of this to him to try to get an appointment with an allergy specialist.

When I went into the family room in the morning to take my antibiotic (I have to take one every 8 hours for the tooth abscess), my mother and step-father were there, she was kneading some dough and he was sitting on a chair watching television. I took the antibiotic with some water and on my way out of the family room, my step-father goes to slap my backside as I am walking past time in a playful, angry way. He's so inappropriate. I got out quickly and he didn't touch me. But he acted like he was about to - with my mother in the room too. Sick sick sick people!

At the doctor's appointment, I told him all about my super strong allergies to everything, that I have been getting so sick lately with upper respiratory viral infections almost non-stop since the beginning of the year and that I just feel so tired all the time. He told me he could hear the congestion in my voice, so that was validating. He also referred me to an allergy specialist. I told him about my idiot family and their inability to understand that someone can get allergies as bad as me and that all this sickness I have been subjected to has all the worse since I cam back from the coast in late-November 2009 and had to live in the same house as all of the abusive family I have around me every day.

When I finished there, I had a bit of shopping I had to do and then I went home.

I prepared some food for dinner. My step-father was in the kitchen and then LayZ boy came into the kitchen as soon as he knew I was home. He has this weird obsessive need to be around me and antagonise me when he knows I am here. He then said to me, "loser, are you going to ask me to take off my jacket?" as his way of greeting. I just ignored him and held my nose while I was in the kitchen. I took my food into the lounge room, away from them, to be able to eat in peace and quiet.

After dinner I went to my bedroom, as the television in the lounge room isn't very clear, plus I wanted to turn my heater on and get warm. I turned on the computer for a short while and then I had to have a lie down - I was exhausted from doing the shopping, making dinner and eating it, that I had to sleep.

I fell asleep for about 1.5 hours and when I awoke, I felt completely exhausted but I forced myself to get up because if I kept sleeping, I would wake up in the early hours of the morning and wouldn't get back to sleep for ages and wreck my internal body clock even more.

It's now 10pm and my head still hurts, my sinuses hurt, I still feel dizzy and nauseous and lethargic and weak. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow!

Feeling dizzy and unwell again today

When I woke up today, I did so with great difficulty. I felt so exhausted and it felt very difficult to move my body. 

I had the alarm set for 9.45am, but when it went off, I changed it to go off at 10.45am instead and even though it went off every 20 minutes, I didn't get out of bed until about 1pm. So tired and feeling sick.

I found it very difficult to get to sleep last night. All of the nonsense with my brother upset me more than I realised and thinking about them all and the fact that I have absolutely no relationship with any of them upsets me a lot too. It's very difficult to live in the same house as people who are supposed to be your close family members, but instead who are totally unsupportive and unloving towards you.

Most of today I have been feeling hot and cold, have had the bronchial cough full on again and just feel really exhausted and lethargic. I just want to go to sleep. Earlier, when I was holding the cat in my arms and closed my eyes to rest them a little, I started to sway, like I was about to fall. My ears have been really hurting a lot since last night, so they are probably infected by a virus now too which is probably the reason why my lungs hurt again and causing me to cough. Ugh!

Because I feel so lethargic, I haven't really eaten much of anything today other than two cups of herbal tea (one peppermint, one rose hip), a row of organic dark chocolate and a packet of tangy chips. No wonder I am losing weight as that is not enough food!  I need to warm up the food I had yesterday to eat some proper food to provide me with some proper nutrition.

One good thing about today was that I got to speak to my grandmother to see how she is. My mother called her and I asked to speak to her after she finished talking to her. My grandmother is still in the hospital getting monitored by the doctors because she did have a heart attack, even though it was mild, it still did happen. I told her I was sorry I couldn't come but I have bronchitis and it wouldn't have been a good thing if I came to see her as I was sick. She told me that she could hear my voice sounded congested and not to worry, to take care of myself, she would be okay. I told her she needs to eat what they tell her as her diet is the basis of her ill health in regards to her heart disease. She listens but I don't think she takes much notice. She hears the same thing from my aunt and her husband (who also had a heart attack years ago), but as my uncle said, they cant monitor her eating every minute of the day, they can only do so much, she needs to take care of and responsibility for her own health.