Thursday, October 1, 2009

flu by any other name would leave me beat

It's been a bad couple of weeks for my physical health. First we had the local fires filling the air with smoke and ash. For a couple of days there at the end of August it was really thick. Public health officials encouraged folks to stay indoors with the air conditioning on. Then the fires mostly ended and/or moved east, but the Santa Ana wind pattern kicked in bringing hot dry winds from the east instead of the cooler moist air we get off the ocean. The change in winds meant breathing in a whole spectrum of desert pollens we hadn't had to deal with in several months. I got what I thought was an allergic reaction: itchy eyes and sinus congestion.

Well that may have been true, but over last weekend I moved on to something other than allergies. Whether it's a cold, or flu, and which flu, only a lab could tell me. But I do know my "allergies" got worse over Friday and Saturday and Sunday. I did a wedding Saturday evening and felt pretty well, but on Sunday after preaching in the morning followed by two back to back meetings in the afternoon, I came home completely exhausted and collapsed into a deep sleep at about 9 PM. Monday I did some housework in the morning and then drove off for a three-day minister's gathering, our annual fall retreat and UUMA Chapter meeting. I lasted through the afternoon "check-in" and then retired to my hotel room for a bath and some over the counter medication and a long sleep

Tuesday I got myself out of bed for some scheduled events I needed to participate in at the minister's meeting then came back to the hotel and slept and watched TV all afternoon and night. The sinus congestion started to ease but I was feeling feverish and weak and achey so it looked like I had the flu. Wednesday morning I felt a little better. I attended the last of the minister's meeting and then drove home, and then spent all that afternoon and evening in bed at home.

Today I'm definitely through the worst, and grateful that I have a day where the only work I need to do is some writing.

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