Flu

Stage 1: Wednesday night I woke up at least 8-10 times, tossing and turning all night with heat waves rolling off my body as I shivered. Still, I trudged to school the next day and managed to stay on my feet and finish up substitute lesson plans. That afternoon, I hopped on a plane to Utah and tried to sleep through the misery.

Stage 2: The soreness of the next day reminded me of my first skiing adventure. I must have fallen 20 to 40 times and I could barely walk the next day. Luckily, my mom was around and I was able to find the appropriate medicine in her portable pharmacy. Standing up for long periods of time also caused dizziness.

Stage 3 of my flu experience happened to be congestion. I could feel it coming. It began with frequent sneezes and progressed to stuffiness and pressure that caused intense headaches. Soon I could no longer breathe out of my nose and I was going through tissues like nobody’s business.

The final stage was a short bout of nausea that hit me as I was attempting to shop in the mall. I had to sit down for about half an hour.

Unlike last year, when I suffered through monthly and sometimes bi-monthly colds, I've managed to stay very healthy during the 2008-2009 school year. I was just counting myself very blessed to have been able to avoid contracting the illness that wiped out my classes for the past several weeks. Students were disappearing for 5-10 days at a time, left and right. I now have firsthand knowledge of what they experienced. I've only had one cold this school year, so I suppose that I was due for some sort of sickness, but did it have to be during Spring Break?!