October 26, 2009

Fevered ramblings

All semester we’ve been getting emails about the status of the H1N1 flu. Students and faculty are told to stay home if they have the flu and isolate themselves from the rest of the population. This marks a big change in the campus culture. We’ve mostly always just gone to class no matter what.

But of course, now we’re hitting the season where everyone’s getting colds, sore throats, coughs, stomach viruses, sinus headaches — and all the normal stuff we get this time of year. All this newfound sensitivity to sickness raises a dilemma. Do we heed the warnings and stay home when we’re sick, even if it’s not something exotic like the swine flu?

I had a dreadful headache today, with nausea and a fever. But it’s probably not H1N1. Shaggy Hair Boy arrived home announcing that his roommate has the flu. Or at least, he’s pretty sure he does. Students are being told not to go to the health center, so he’s just making his best eighteen-year-old guess. Boy in Black says he doesn’t know if what he had a few weeks ago was the flu or something else: “I always have aches and pains from playing Ultimate hard.” He definitely had a high fever that made him kind of delirious.

I keep getting emails from students, who are sick, but aren’t sure if they are “that sick.” A colleague tells me he thinks he had the H1N1 flu, but it wasn’t that bad, and now he hopes he’s immune. In the meantime, it’s the busiest time of the semester: end of the month deadlines are looming, advising for next semester begins soon, and I’ve got stacks of papers to grade. I’ve got a long to-do list of stuff that needs to be done before I head south next week for a conference in Southern City at the Beginning of the Alphabet. My plan is to wake up in the morning feeling all better. Like my students, I just don’t have time right now to get sick.

8 comments:

heidi said...

lots of sickness making the rounds here too. hope you feel better soon.

Tie-Dye Brother-in-law said...

Great plan. Hope the implementation goes well. :-)

Liz Miller said...

I hope you can stick to your plan!

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

It is really bizarre, this new-found sensitivity to sickness. All the reports made me scared for my daughter, who tends toward asthma; but I'm quite sure we had H1N1 and just as sure that it affected us no worse than an ordinary cold. My daughter was never in any danger.

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

Oh and we were each feverish for exactly 24 hrs. So I think your plan is a good one : )

jo(e) said...

I did wake up feeling better today -- and went to class as planned. Not sure what I had, but at least it's gone.

Rana said...

I'm just hoping that, if I end up getting a flu, that it's not as bad as the one that was going around VA a couple of years ago. That one laid me out flat for nearly a week, and it took me a month to regain my strength after it. (Normally I don't get sick, let alone that sick. And this was _with_ the vaccine!)

Heh. The verification word is "flumor" (flu + rumor?)

Anonymous said...

sending some Reiki energy your way even though I'm a day late - let's hope not a dollar short!

hey Rana - maybe flu + humor!

mine is verappe

hugs from PA
connie