The Weekend That Wasn't and Tamiflu

I am not supposed to be here! Well, if everything had gone to plan I would be somewhere else.

What I can say is internal hysteria has played a mega part in me not being miles away and wallowing in nature's glory.

Thursday had not been a particularly good day for me, physically or mentally, but I tend to err on the side that most of my physical problems are reactions to mental illness and stress and so I rattle along, sometimes crawl along, with all kinds of physical stuff happening because I don't know any better and neither do the GPs.

The Labrynthitis had seemed to be easing but as the week went on the itching in the ear came back, along with swooshing in the head by Friday it was overwhelming dizziness, throbbing head, sore throat, achey limbs and feeling totally exhausted. I had been trying very hard not to get caught up in the Swine Flu histrionics but got wind of the new estimated death toll which scared the crap out of me. Not helped by a friend who was texting me how bad she was feeling.

Derbyshire friends rang me around lunchtime when the symptoms had not got so severe...and I was not so hysterical...and said they were picking me up around 4pm. By 3pm I was envisaging myself in ICU. I rang them back and said that I felt bad and didn't think I could hack travelling. Their advice was to ring GP straight away. I don't blame them for being overly concerned, I was in a right state.

So I rang the GP's practice and the receptionist said that if I wanted, she could get a GP to ring me back. I did...because I was in a pickle and didn't know what was what.

The GP rang back and after I reeled off my symptoms said "I will give you the benefit of the doubt" and wrote a prescription out for the drug. I am not sure I wanted the benefit of the doubt. I wasn't sure that I had Swine Flu....although I was paranoid about having it and frightened by my symptoms. I don't blame the GP for saying that either. Is hard to know what anyone has in a one minute phone call and, from what I gathered, the surgery had been in-undated with people ringing about Swine Flu.

Was a logistical nightmare getting the tablets but thanks to another friend, I did get them and amazing it is that I have had no (not a single one) bad side effect from taking them.

So do I have Swine Flu? Maybe/maybe not and maybe it is only a mild form but I am sleeping lots and have little spurts of energy then followed by hours of slumping.

I feel guilty that I am quite possibly taking someone else's supply of the medication. Someone who could die without it. In my defence, all I can say is that I was so scared by my symptoms that I didn't know what else to do but ring the GP and apologise unreservedly for not being stable enough to see the wood for the trees for more than an hour at a time. :>(