As I said in my Friday post, "Cold and Flu Season," I have my first case of the flu since February 2003. That was, at the time, the worst case of the flu I have ever had. But, this flu I have now made me almost wish for death Friday night. I had a temperature of 103.5...and it would not go down. I was thinking of calling my sister when a voice from the past entered my thoughts. I could hear my mother saying, "Go drink as much ice water as you can get down. And keep drinking it all night!" I'm not joking about that. It may have been because I was delusional due to the high temperature or maybe it was my mother still looking after her oldest...even in death.

The problem was that I had the dry heaves for about two hours Friday night. Any water I would drink would come back up. But, I decided to drink the ice water anyway...and eat some jello in the fridge that my sister had left me. I ate the jello (why oh why did she make GREEN jello???) and did as my mother told me. (ok, I know I still sound delusional...but bear with me) I must have drunk about half a gallon of ice water from 9PM Friday night to about 2AM Saturday morning. My temperature had come down to 100.2 by 2AM. I believe the fact I had something on my stomach (jello) helped me also. It may have been the Tylenol or maybe a combination of everything. I don't know.

I fell asleep, I guess, around 3AM or so. I did not get back up until about 10AM Saturday morning. I was still weak (and still am). But, I felt I would survive. It was a horrible experience. I'm typing this up on Sunday night. I feel "better." But, I am still weak. But, thank God, I think the worst is over. It's been six long years since my last encounter with the flu. I think I am willing to wait another six years...or maybe much longer. My nine-month old beagle, Ralph, is basically fully recovered from his bout with a stomach virus. His appetite is back with a vengeance and he is back to being Ralph; he's grabbing my house shoes and hiding them again.

The flu shot, at least this year, was a waste of my time.