I was at work yesterday in a morning long meeting when I noticed I was abnormally tired. I hadn’t had a poor night’s sleep, and was feeling pretty good when I was heading to work, so I was at a loss for what was wrong.
By the time I got home around 2 p.m. I could barely move. I had a horrible headache and I just wanted to lie down and die … I mean sleep. I had a bit of a fever, and my stomach was all icky. Though I had an evening class, I was able to cancel it with only a slight argument from my boss. I spent the rest of the night sleeping and sweating.
I would go through moments when it felt like my core temperature had dropped to sub-zero levels, and I would lay there and just shiver – then a few moments later I would be sweating something fierce and burning up. When Maggie got home from her yoga class she made me some chicken noodle soup (Chinese style), and I couldn’t even take a mouthful of it without wanting to vomit.
After some more napping, some miscellaneous Chinese medicine and an aspirin the size of a nickel, I felt a bit better. Sleep brought more of the freeze/sweat alternations. Now, I am feeling a bit better and have the energy to use the net to sort this out… I love playing Internet doctor, and before you say, “nono… that’s SOOOO bad!” – please visit a Chinese hospital.
I’ve narrowed it down to either the straight out flu (influenza) or the Stomach Flu (Gastroenteritis). The symptoms of the first are:
- chills and shakes [check]
- high temperature [check]
- watering eyes [oh, so I wasn’t just getting all emotional!]
- sore throat [nope]
- headache [check]
- body aches [check]
- tiredness [che…zzzzzzzz]
- sweating [ah, check]
The problem being is this little line of the medical Web site:
Note that influenza is NOT associated with stomach problems. The “24 hour stomach bug” is caused by a different type of virus.
So… I checked out this 24 Stomach “bug” thing, and the symptoms were:
- diarrhea [welcome to my everyday]
- fever [check]
- headache [check]
- dehydration [I’m still looking for my levels dipstick]
- vomiting [no, but close]
Well, it could be that the stomach cramps, loss of appetite and diarrhea are not directly connect to the rest of it, as they’re not totally uncommon for me to have here in China. So, I am leaning towards just the standard flu. The good news is both tend to only last 1-3 days.
Bad news is, Maggie just came home complaining of being tired and having a headache…
