love in the time of influenza

i would have loved that to be the title of this point of my life, but sadly, it's just the "influenza" part that's, well...partly true. i had missed work today because of an awful cold, sore throat, cough, and nose-and-chest congestion--all the fun stuff that will sentence you to a mug of hot ginger ("salabat") tea...which i'm just not a fan of.

it was saturday night when i started feeling this strange sensation in my throat whenever i ingested something. i felt somewhat thirsty whenever i swallowed something, which made me drink water to wash the feeling away. but it didn't go away. the feeling grew into something more uncomfortable on sunday morning when i woke up...it had undoubtedly become a sore throat. i had also developed a stuffy nose.

it was a challenge trying to sleep on sunday night, as my chest and nasal airway wrestled with the mucus that was building up inside me, like walls of barbed wire scratching against my lungs. at 3am, i decided to make the call to my manager about my health situation and told her i wasn't going to work this monday morning.

i spent the day frequently blowing my nose, coughing up the pesky phlegm and panic-eating oranges. i breathe and sound like darth vader. when i spoke to someone on the phone today, she had noticed that i sounded different.

webmd differentiates the common cold from the flu by defining that the latter would give you high fevers. i had checked my temperature repeatedly since last night but had gotten a normal reading, although at one point tonight, i seriously felt warm.

i didn't get a flu shot this time around, so i'm really vulnerable. my chest still feels congested, but i'm thankfully not feverish.

i'll drag myself to work tomorrow. hopefully i'll feel better, but i'm definitely bringing a box of kleenex with me.