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H1N1 My Symptoms timeline Today updated in red
- Oct 19, 2009 at 3:35 PM
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- Comments (48) Total Views (8034) Everyone can see this journal post.
****Note to add: My kids had CONFIRMED tests 2 weeks ago, so since I was so closely exposed to it and having the symptoms, my doctor didn't want to even bother with testing me too****
Having had 3 kids and myself go through the H1N1, many people have asked me symptoms of the H1N1. So I thought I would document the timeline of symptoms,as they were for me, in hopes of helping someone else recognize them.
Day 1 (Tuesday)- TIRED!! Almost like when I was pregnant. THAT kind of tired (only mommas can understand that).
Day 2 (Wednesday)- add back pain. I related this to sleeping on the couch for several days when the kids were sick. I just knew I was in A LOT of pain. Almost back labor kind of pain. I know a lot pregnancy comparisons. Later in the day the headache started and discomfort in my neck began. I took some Excedrin and it did help. Also had some heartburn - I am thinking WHY all of these LATE pg symptoms (panic kind of started setting in, LOL)
Day 3 (Thursday)- The above continue, but I started noticing that my legs and arms felt funny. Almost tired. I called my husband and stated that I think I am having issues with my sugar, and I need to go to the doctor the next day. Fever started late in the afternoon. Chills started and a cough. That is when it hits me...... THE FLU!!!!
Day 4 - The fever goes up and down. This is the day that I feel my absolute worst. The body aches, fever, chills, cough, stomach cramps, sore throat, headache, neck ache............ I'd rather give birth. Naturally. To triplets, than endure the agony of this day again. You know you need to drink fluids, but you cannot stomach the thought of anything getting into your stomach. So you drink little (big mistake - DRINK DRINK DRINK))
Piece of advice for adults: Forget Tylenol!!! go straight for Excedrin.... it helped with the aches and pains, headaches, and brought my fever down too. Of course, only take it if you can. Excedrin has Acetominophen (Tylenol), Caffiene, and Aspirin. But I didn't discover this until late late Friday. don't make this same mistake
Day 5 (Saturday). The aches were not as bad, I was mostly just nauseated. No vomiting (of course I haven't eaten anything since Thursday afternoon, so what was I going to vomit???) Of course I did end up going to my grandfathers funeral this afternoon (I had to miss his viewing because I couldn't get off the couch, but I HAD to get to the funeral). Plus it was the coldest day so far and wet (not good). The nausea continued thru the rest of the day and the aches were gone by the afternoon.
Day 6 (Sunday) - I felt like a human. I was actually able to get up and get some housework done. I even took care of the kids. I was still very tired. My appetite was coming back. so yay! Life is good again!!!
NOT!!! This night was miserable!!!! THe cough is more than one person could bare. I would almost pass out at some points because i just couldn't get the breath in. I peed on myself (I know TMI) more times than I could tell you last night. The cough is fierce. YOu get to where you just don't wnat to cough anymore. It hurts so bad. It hurts your head and throat and OMG - my chest!!! I finally know what it's like to have a hippo sitting on me!! UGH! So I am thinking know that I have pneumonia. Tim gives me some old prescription cough syrup that has codeine in it. It only made me MORE tired, it didn't help the cough. So I took an albuterol treatment - still didn't help. I never had this hard of a time breathing before - I was scared. Out of desperation, I rubbed a ton of vicks on my chest. So I finally slept around 3-5 am. Then dozed on and off until the alarm went off at 6am. I was so "Hung over" from the cough syrup and lack of sleep. I didn't know how I was going to function.
Day 7 (Monday) - showed up at the dr office at 9:15 without an appointment. I guessed I looked so bad they decided to see me quickly. I finally see the dr about 10am. While he is listening to my lungs, each inhale was pure torture. So I don't have pneumonia - YAY!! I don't have bronchitis - huh??!!! But I walked out of there with prescription for an inhaler, a z pack, and that same cough syrup. So we will see how I feel in a day or two. Oh and the diarrhea started. FUN FUN!!
My poor hubby!! Lost his grandfather WEdnesday night. He didn't even have time to really be alone to deal with it. He took care of me (so did my mom - thanks mom) and helped with the kids. I am relieved to know that he CAN clean up the kitchen and put dishes away. *gasp* My mom even commented on how good he did :-). Then last night during the hellish night, he was up and down trying so hard to help me. He had to go back to work today. I just made it even harder on him. So to my hubby - thank you and I am sorry!!!
Now the severity of this illness will vary. I still think I had a MILD case. Take care and drink fluids. Keep you hands clean. You may still get it, but maybe you can recognize your symptoms quickly and get help sooner (I don't think that is grammatically correct, LOL - but I have had little to no sleep and I am hyped up on Codeine................So whatever!!!))))
May God Bless you.
If you think this may help someone else - vote popular :-)
Day 8 (Tuesday - today) - well these symptoms actually started late yesterday. But I still have the cough - BUT so much better, but still a long way from being gone. But my ears started hurting. Continually. my dd also complained about how dry her eyes were a few days ago, late yesterday, my eyes also became very painfully dry. So not sure if that is a typical symptom, but I am still dealing with those this morning.
Comments:
Hope you're all better soon...this sounds like no fun at all :(
Wishing you a full and speedy recovery.
That was really helpful information. H1N1 is prevalent in my community, so any I'm grateful for any info.
I got the cough on Tuesday (a week ago) and then have had a fever around 100 ever since with aches & bad cough as well. I didn't test positive with the quick test but the doctor said I had all the symptoms and probably had H1N1 regardless of the test. Dr. wouldn't give me tamaflu since I'm not high risk so now I get to suffer longer. Given this information I'm going in tomorrow to get a chest xray just to make sure I don't have pneumnonia since tomorrow is the 8th day of this. This is the first site I've seen anyone disucss how long the misery might last :). Thanks for posting.
Rachael, I'm so sorry to hear that you and the kiddos have all went through this. Thank you for writing this though, it is helpful. Maddy and I were sick 2 weeks ago and had all of these symptoms but in a shorter time frame and more mild. I'm now wondering if we had mild cases of H1N1. I hope you are all feeling better!
You did an excellent job helping us understand the crazy rollercoaster progression of symptoms...just when you start coming out of one set of miseries, another group begins. Thank you very much for taking the time to inform us. I am very high risk, also having asthma, so we are in hibernation. Wearing a mask if I absolutely have to go out once/week. Alzheimer caregiver so my husband and I are taking many precautions with sanitizing items coming into the house, washing hands often, cancelling any door opening on Halloween, not letting people in unless necessary and if they put a mask on outside the door and wash hands first before repairing anything.
I especially appreciated your comment about becoming afraid re: how severe the coughing and breathing became...I deeply relate to that with asthma attacks from years ago.
Glad you are well and especially glad your children were not hospitalized from it.
This was a great post.
I totally relate.
When I went in I did have pneumonia, and bronchitis.
Good luck to all that have to suffer through this. It stinks. But my dh stepped up to. It is amazing how much they do when they have to!
I work for a doctor and I'm here to tell you this is a BRILLIANT idea....I've forwarded it to all my accts. so I can pass it along via other avenues along with CafeMom. Thanks for being so kind as to give us this MOST VALUABLE information.
God bless you and yours,
Sherri
Ugh you poor thing! I'm on week THREE!!!! The lingering cough (still hurts but not as bad) the shoulder pains - like a charlie horse right behind the shoulder blades, still have the headache off and on and the fever that comes and goes without warning. My kids are on week four and completely symptom free! I only have a few days left of the this hell. Poor hubby is only on week two (which brings terrible ear pain by the way but NOT ear infections and a really sore throat with occassional voice loss)
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I love that you did this. So instead of writing my own I'll just comment here. My timeline was almost exactly similar! Except I didn't get the fever until day 4 afternoon, and the worst day for me was day 7 when my fever spiked higher than it ever had been. Also day 9 woke up with that hippo/elephant on my chest, they listened to my lungs, didn't think I had pneumonia but did an xray anyways. OH yeah, I had pneumonia, and bad too!! I don't trust them just listening to lungs anymore, do an xray!
I also think I got lucky and had a mils case, but it was still nasty and not fun!
- avpriddis
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