Sculpin

Ye gods, is this ever one hell of a flu season.

Josh came home from work early on Wednesday, dazed and exhausted. I paid the cab driver and packed him off to bed. It was an amazing thing to see. He’d overheat in bed, then try to stand up for an exciting trip to the bathroom (so far away!) and immediately his body temperature would plummet and he’d shake visibly. Plus the joint aches were driving him crazy. At one point he was using a cane to get to the bathroom, just for a little extra stability, and I’m pretty sure he would not have turned down a Zimmer frame.

“This is what it’s going to be like when I’m 80, only all the time,” he kept saying.

“No, it’s not,” I kept replying. “We’re going to be tough. Like those old birdwatchers at the Audubon Society. We’re going to start taking walks every evening, and by the time we’re 80, we’re going to be unstoppable.”

“Grmph.”

By Thursday, he seemed to be on the mend, and then Friday more or less kicked him in the head. Friday night his temperature started spiking fast, from 99.2 to first 102.8 and then a bit over 103. He was starting to get pretty well cognitively addled. I decided that we were going to the ER, figuring that if his temperature had kept rising the way it’d been rising, he could be well over 104, maybe close to 105 by the time we got him in to see anybody. I felt like something of a Nervous Nellie, but it bothered me that he had a very stiff neck, headache, and sudden fever spike; I couldn’t help thinking of the kid I knew in college who got bacterial meningitis and didn’t get it treated with appropriate swiftness. (The kid lived, but I understand he’s stone deaf now.) I called Josh’s mom, who lives half a mile away, and away we went.

Well, Josh’s temperature dropped on the way to the ER. Blood tests were run, strep cultures were collected, and the verdict is that he’s got something viral. About what you’d expect: rest and fluids. (”Oh, she’s keeping me hydrated,” Josh said to the doctor. And I am. He’s starting to protest that his back teeth are swimming.) The ER staff was awesome and, it seemed, generally sane and well-balanced, so this did not much resemble any other trip to the ER I’ve ever taken.

Josh is tottering around the house today — he even managed to walk up and down the block once, though he regretted it afterward. It’s such a beautiful day, and I know he’s got a good case of cabin fever. Oh well. No bike riding for Josh today. Only rest and fluids, fluids and rest.

Personally, I’m wiped. I was pretty wiped anyway from getting up early to go to the UW. “There’s not a whole lot of slack in the system here,” I thought a few days ago, and here I am feeling that non-slack. I sure as hell hope I don’t get this bug, and if I do, I hope it’ll hold off a few days until I’m done with this stint as a standardized patient. Gah. In addition to taking care of Josh, I’m trying to get the house and garden in order so that I can be sick for a week without having the full-on Den of Filth and Plague experience. I think we’re all ready for this to be over.

I’d never seen Josh this sick before. Yow.

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