Yoyo flu

It’s been donkey’s years since I have had the flu. When I woke up a month ago with rather vague symptoms I didn’t even think about it. Only a week later, when I had only the same very mild symptoms but felt rotten, did I go to the doctor. “Oh, I’m seeing this presentation a lot this year,” he said. “Typical of the present flu. Here’s some symptomatic relief”.

The symptomatic relief finally brought a return of health a week later, although I was very tired. I enjoyed 3-4 days of feeling good and beginning to get a little exercise. And then – back again. The scratchy throat, the cement in the sinuses, the feeling that my head had become much larger. And increasingly, a weird pain in the ear. A short stabbing pain, or a pain that came on with certain movements of the head or the jaw. I inhaled steam, which helped, but a couple days later the pain was back and getting worse.

Accordingly, I made a second doctor’s appointment. My physician will retire in the summer, and his replacements are already working part time at the practice. So I was not too surprised to be greeted by a slight young woman who looked about 20 – a mere child from the perspective of my age. I told her my symptoms. She painstakingly typed in the computer, asked questions, typed again, asked more questions. She looked in my ears, nothing. Then she just stared and frowned, the picture of perplexity. I assured her that I realized the symptoms were weird. She probably thought I was pretty weird, too, but discussed possible medications and I left with two little boxes.

It’s been several days, and my symptoms come and go. The ear

behaves for the most part, except once in the middle of the night. Naturally I saw a gloomy scenario in which I would call the ENT specialist, who wouldn’t have an appointment for ages, and I would end up on the weekend in the ER of the local hospital, where I would have to explain my weirdness to a callow intern. You know how it is in the middle of the night; worry, worry.

But then I began to hear from friends who have the same story to tell of improvement, setback, improvement, setback. If it is not this very strange flu it is a cough and sore throat, equally debilitating and difficult to shake. One has a picture of especially virulent viruses and then feels ashamed, remembering Ebola, bird flu, SARS. It is not the severity of the illness, which is mild, but the strange behavior of viruses that do not follow the pattern that makes one feel uncertain. Will their behavior get even less predictable in the future?

It was then that my negative thoughts were interrupted by a friend with the cough and sore throat affliction who said that she was quite accustomed to this yoyo effect and assumed that it would play itself out in time. Do not expect constant improvement. Take it easy. Have confidence. Spring is coming. Few things in life climb steadily upwards, most processes proceed in an up and down fashion, in fits and starts. Don’t panic. Forget the gloom, go with the flow.

How different are our experiences with real life and our neat picture of constant, steady improvement! One can philosophize for quite some time about this and apply it to virtually all aspects of life. Something to think about while convalescing.