Down with Flu

My life has been plagued with viruses that seem to get attracted to me, like flies to honey. I guess I’m an excellent host. Viruses get all that they need for their subsistence and more when they colonise my Upper Respiratory Tract.

Initially, I used fall ill once a year. This was usually around February. The moment that cold winter and spring decided to clash, I knew I was going to be visited by the ‘Virus-Fairy’. This continued all throughout my school life. It was only when I entered Med School that the fairy decided to favour me and visit me more often.

I think it was related to the hectic schedule. I am the first to admit, I’m not the strongest of people, physically. A little less sleep or a little more running around than normal, and my immune system decides to go on holiday. At times, just emotional stress is enough to allow that immune system to file in its leave application. Med School is pretty demanding. It provides the perfect setting for viruses to surround me and my immune system to want its designated holiday.

Throughout first year, I fell ill twice I think. But, it wasn’t all that bad. Having parents as doctors makes you exempt from doctor’s visits every time you have slight cough or cold. You straightaway start with symptomatic treatment and stay at home for a day or two. Soon, you’re back to normal. So getting the flu wasn’t a cake walk, yes, but it wasn’t a matter of national importance.

It was only in second year (during my first terminal examination) that the flu hit me hard. At that time, I thought it had a lot to do with the long nights I spent studying, before the examination. Now, I think it was just a precipitating factor, rather than the actual cause. I fell ill after two papers, wrote the third battling high grade fever and hardly studied for the fourth. If the examination had ended here, I might’ve recovered faster. But, it didn’t. There were practicals to come. That is where I was hit REAL HARD.

I have a pattern. I guess it might be the same as everybody else, I don’t know. Flu starts with a unilateral sore throat and earache. There is a little bodyache but not something that instantly catches your attention. Soon the unilateral sore throat becomes bilateral. Next, runny nose sets in. Watering of eyes begins soon enough. This goes on for a few days. The sinuses start paining to add to the general discomfort, and there is a slight voice change. Ears get blocked to give you a compressive feeling. On day 3 or 4, the voice change is more apparent than ever. You start coughing a bit (but not expectorant, mind you. No use of those gargles, if you think they’re going to stop that expectoration from coming.). The nose gets blocked quite continuously, and watering eyes give you more problems than ever. Thereafter, that cough becomes expectorant (yes, the bacteria have decided to add to the colours of the ravishing part inside my respiratory tract :-P ) and fever sets in. The nasal discharge gets its purulent nature. Add on, there is a peculiar smell that comes. This smell to me, suggests that I need to start antibiotics immediately. Now, the voice totally goes. Problems arise in getting even a few words out. The fever makes a few visits here and there. With the effect of the antibiotics, the discharge stops, the cold decreases, the fever reduces. What stays is that cough and the voice change. I have been told that I quack like a duck. My dad has said that I sound like a broken gramophone record. This continues for 2-3 weeks. Gradually, the cough decreases, the sputum also reduces. The voice gets closer to normal. I strongly feel that the voice never really returns to normal. It just comes pretty close to it.

Going back to my second year problem, I had to give my practicals in that horrid voice. I couldn’t get words out. It was so bad that my mom finally took me to a doctor. She suggested that I immediately continue with the antibiotics and not talk at all. I had to spend a week at home, I think. I thought the degree of severity was related to my habit of saying things aloud while studying. I immediately decided to change my style of studying. I would say things in my mind or write down a few points. It took me months, but I managed to succeed in finally retaining what I had read and learnt without uttering a word.

Since then, I’ve fallen prey to the flu about twice a year. I usually start with antibiotics after 2-3- days. There is no use of giving prophylactic antibiotics in such a case. This time, maybe the trip to Kolhapur  was the precipitating factor. A day of travelling with the addition of a punctured tyre shook my immune system a bit. The Sunday following the trip, my aunts came to meet us. The preparations involved a lot of work. So there wasn’t any rest as such.

I’m in the initial phase of the secondary bacterial infection. I started with antibiotics yesterday. I don’t mind the flu. I’m pretty used to it by now. I mind the interruption of my studies and my project. I was feeling the urge to study. But, I’ll have to push that urge to Monday now. There is no way I can concentrate with the blocked sinuses and the on-off fever.

By the way, the reason for the trip to Kolhapur was that my brother got admission into the Government Medical College there. It was a shock to us, because the College usually is allotted to those whose ranks are between 700-800. My brother’s rank is 660 so we thought he would be going to Government Medical College, Solapur or Miraj. But, having made the trip to Kolhapur and seen the beautiful campus there, my brother decided that it was an awesome thing that he got this particular college. Since he is used to city life and its attractions, Kolhapur is a much better place for him than the other two cities. I wish all GMCs were like this one. It would make the first year of college very joyful and sweet J