The little bird called Enza.

"I had a little bird

Its name was Enza.

I opened up the window and

In flew Enza."

(Children's skipping rhyme, 1918)

Holy damn it's been a 100% miserable week since Wednesday but I'm finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. I had influenza, and by influenza I mean the real thing and not a common cold. If the world is fair I'll never have to have another one ever again!

Almost everyone in this house has had it or is suffering of it at the moment. We're all coughing here as if on cue - one begins and others follow suit one by one. According to the news Iceland has three different types of influenza going on at the moment, but as they all have more or less the same symptoms I can't really wager a guess as to which one I had. The most cases of influenza are in south-west Iceland which coincidentally is where we also live, but this could be just because most of Iceland's population can be found in this area. So, er, lie - massive lie - statistics.

The most unusual thing about this illness is how suddenly it began. I was planning my daily schedule and minding my own business, feeling totally ok when all of a sudden I just felt randomly afraid. I could not place the feeling at all and it intensified quickly until I realized that it actually was not an emotion but all of my muscles hurting at the same time (this was a pretty weird realization), and then I literally collapsed on the floor and couldn't move. I was totally conscious but couldn't move, that's how much it hurt. 

Eventually I pulled my socks up enough to crawl to the shower and sat there under hot water until the muscle pain went away, just as suddenly as it had arrived. The next thing I knew I had fever and was coughing like mad. From the start to this was maybe about 15min.

From Wed-Fri I've had non-stop fever that came and went in waves. For an hour I might be feeling ok and the temperature was down to 37°C but in the next moment it jumped a whole degree - rapidly. Everything happened extremely fast in this illness except the lowering of the temperature, after that quick jump up it steadily crept down and stayed down for a moment before the next leap. Thankfully I never had worse than 39°C (on Thursday). Compared to a normal cold this was something evil, like a distilled misery of everything cold-ish. It was entirely different, just like getting hit with a ping pong bat compares with getting hit by a speeding truck. Both of them hurt but you're not coming up anytime soon if you get the truck.

Today's feels with maximum dramatic enhancement: The Convalescent by Helene Schjerfbeck.

Not much got done all week except for sleeping or attempting to sleep. On the lower temperature moments I tried to catch up with the internets but that was futile, not to mention useless, I cannot brain while having this bug and the light of the screen quickly began to hurt my eyes. I missed the Lolita Blog Carnival's theme post which is a bit annoying because I liked the theme a lot, but I still can't muster the energy to actually put together a coord. Maybe I could do some clip art... oooooooor I could just go back the bed and read Master and Margarita. There'll be more LBC theme posts in the future.

I feel much better today although I'm still coughing somewhat badly, have chills and a feeling like my breath pipes are full of goo (they are, I can hear it when I breathe)(I have also coughed up evidence, sry 'bout the tmi). I'll destroy something cute and fluffy if I'm getting a bronchitis after I'm done with the virus, but I have this stupid tendency for it due to asthma so maybe I won't be able to avoid it... oh well, since I can finally taste something I'll just hit the oranges and hope for the best...