The Blue Flu House

Influenza A hit our entire household last week like a freight train.

I woke up a little after midnight Tuesday morning, Feb. 25 thinking, “Huh, my throat’s getting scratchy.” By 2 a.m. my entire body ached, and I was wracked with terrible chills. And when it was time to start my workday, I could barely function.

My husband John had a scratchy throat the previous Sunday and managed to go to his sales appointments on Monday. By that evening, he was down for the count.

I, like most of us, had been hearing about this evil flu and had been washing my hands, avoiding touching my face, and doing all the usual steps to prevent myself from getting sick. But this sucker is stealthy. Just by having dinner in the same room with John Sunday evening, my sons Jonathon and Jacob were exposed to the flu along with me.

By Wednesday, we all felt absolutely miserable. Most of the time when I’m sick, I can sit on the couch in my pajamas with my laptop and get some work done. Or I miss one day of work, but I’m then back at it the next day without a problem. Not with this flu. I had to tell my team I’d be out of commission for at least a few days.

Thanks to the good folks at Noblesville Urgent Care, we got on Tamiflu, which gave us some hope. I clung to that hope on Thursday morning, when my symptoms were at their absolute worst. My throat was on fire, and I could no longer talk. I turned to my own form of sign language to communicate with John and Jacob (Jonathon lives on his own).

John turned a corner that day, which was a Godsend, as he discovered a leak in our kitchen sink that had left a great deal of water underneath after I had run a dishwasher cycle the day before. As I watched him tackle the mess, I was grateful he was able to handle it. If I had seen what happened, I would have been sobbing on the floor.

Before he left to go buy a new faucet that afternoon, mask in hand, he turned to me and said, “Well, now we can say we’ve had everything thrown at us including the kitchen sink.” I nodded weakly.

Jacob and I began to feel better Friday, although my throat still felt like it was in shreds. I was grateful to upgrade from “now I know why people go to the hospital with this” sickness to just “regular” sickness. I actually put on real clothes – well, yoga pants and a sweatshirt – and worked on the couch that day trying to get as caught up as possible.

Despite feeling better, we still had – and have as I write – lingering coughs. As we sat on the couch Friday evening eating our takeout (hurray for the new Thai place in downtown Noblesville!) we created our own little chorus.

Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough … Cough, cough … cough, cough …

Slowly but surely, the Blue Flu House, as John has named it, is recovering. Dear readers, please be careful out there … don’t hesitate to mask up if you need to, and if anyone has any little symptom, keep your distance. And be sure to reach out to your healthcare professional if you feel like you’ve got the flu. The sooner you get help, the sooner you’ll recover.

Amy Shankland is a writer and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John, two sons, two dogs, and a cat. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.