flu season

After several years of being spared the flu virus, it finally hit me late last week and over the weekend.  I do not take the annual flu shot for many reasons.  Mostly, my exposure to the annual flu virus is no worse or less than others.  I work at a small company and my wife maintains a very clean and sanitized home.  I have no recollection of exposure to this flu virus in the last few weeks.  Yet, it hit me real hard.  The symptoms are severe body aches, head aches, sore joints, stiff neck, fever and general misery.  I got dehydrated in the first 12 hours.  I also completely lost my appetite and ate only one meal in three days!  I knew it was a virus so I self medicated on ibuprofen every 4 hours, Zicam nose swabs every 4 hours, and slept as much as possible.  After a miserable Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I slept well last night and got up early this morning ready for a new week.  Ate a small breakfast and drove to work in a new snowfall of 3 inches.  I am tired and weak today, but can tell that the worst is over.

My GERD seemed to take a vacation during the flu siege.  I am so thankful for that, because every other function of my body hurt!  At least, I did not have to deal with heartburn too!  I took enough ibuprofen for the year, but so far my GERD has been quiet.

So, for me, I am surmising that ibuprofen does not promote GERD.  And, this strain of the flu virus did not cause any GERD problems.

If you get this flu virus, be careful with it.  As I mentioned, I got dehydrated within the first 12 hours.  Because of my exercise history I recognized it quickly and hit the fluids hard from that point, drinking mainly water.  Once I got the dehydration issue corrected, I was not quite as miserable, but it was still bad.  Liquids, ibuprofen, Zicam, and sleep.  Lastly, I am convinced that Zicam nose swabs do as advertised, that being lessen the severity of a virus.  No doctor had to tell me these OTC items and common sense treatments were my prescription for healing.  They worked!