I'll be honest when I say there's been a couple 2-3 hours stretches where I now truly understand "survival mode" in relation to health. Like nearly all men, I'm stubborn and want to avoid the doctor and meds at all costs. I sat on the side of my bed at 9:30 last night contemplating asking my wife to take me to the ER. I was really worried about vitals. I'm glad my wife's a nurse and we have good equipment at home (pulse ox monitor and nebulizer with a full stock of albuterol). She actually wanted me to go to the ER this morning, but backed off when my O2 stats stayed consistent between 94-96.
Here's two really weird symptoms this time. One is the constant sweating, but at one point last night, my entire body was covered in a cold, slimy sweat that made me feel like I'd stood in front of a mister. It was not the usual "fever breaking" sweat that I've experienced in the past. And the second is a crazy look at how your body tells you something is wrong. I'm taking 3-4 showers a day for the steam and comfort, but within 30 minutes, my armpits smell like I ate nothing but ramps for a week straight. Not a faint smell, but ruin a new sweatshirt within an hour stench.
The other thing that interesting is any time I have a fever, I can knock it back with ibuprofen and in a worst case, tylenol. All 3 times I've had the 'Vid, I haven't been able to completely eliminate the fever. The best I've seen since Sunday is 99.5, which for me is man flu level and it's enough to make me feel half the man I usually am.
I hope this group can avoid whatever strain I encountered this year!