Craziest flu of my life?

[Hekyl]

I think I'm finally nearing the end of a nearly three-month odyssey of illness, my Lost Winter. It started in December with pain in my shoulder. Then I started to get heart palpitations and what could only be described as an inflammed feeling in the middle of my chest. As that subsided, I was overcome with incredible fatigue for about 1.5 weeks, as well as frequent urination. For a spell, it felt as if my spleen was enlarged, then my liver, and for a few days I had shooting pains up my right side as if they originated in my gall bladder. Occasionally, I felt either feverish or chilled; it seemed I was always adjusting the thermostat in my apartment. Then came the sleep disturbance. For a couple of weeks, I couldn't get to sleep at night at all, then, I would awaken at 4 AM with a pounding heart and a flushed feeling at the base of my neck. During the day, my legs were weak and I had tremors in my shoulders, hands and fingers; I suspect maybe somehow my thyroid had become involved. Finally, for the past week, I've had a head cold; at least it is something I can finally understand.

Through the course of this, I visited the doctor a couple of times; he did blood tests and ordered a ECG, all of which came back fine. He said I likely had a virus, and I'd just have to ride it out.

If so, this is the weirdest virus i've ever experienced; it's as if whatever had afflicted me was making a circular march through my body, messing things up in various systems/organs for a week-and-a-half to two weeks before moving on. I don't usually get sick, lead an active lifestyle, get plenty of exercise, work in a physically demanding job and it feels as if I just barely existed for three months. Now that it seems like I'm finally on the other side of this thing, I'm curious as to what it was that waylaid me for so long; nothing I ever read about the flu mentions this kind of symptomology?

[Oldbones]

My husband is finally back to work today after 5 weeks of being the sickest that I have ever seen him. It started with a mild sore throat that only lasted for a couple of days. Then the cough started..........and what a cough it was. It sounded like he was coughing his lungs up. He would cough until he threw up. I have never witnessed him or anyone cough so violently. He lost all of his energy and just stayed on the couch all the time. His doctor started him on Levaquin, Mucinex and a narcotic cough syrup. He decided about two weeks into this illness that he would go back to work. Bad mistake. What little progress he had made toward recuperating was destroyed and he was as bad as he was at the beginning.

He went back to the doctor and he changed his antibiotic to Biaxin along with his other prior prescriptions. He also got an antibiotic shot in the rear. He was prescribed some Darvocets 100's that made him feel a bit better but nothing stopped the cough and fatigue. He was warned to stay in bed or he was admitting him to the hospital. Back to the doctor he went for a CBC and Metabolic profile and everything was normal with the exception of his white count being slightly elevated and the differential showed a bacterial infecton. The highest fever he ran was 98.8 if you want to call that "fever". He had no swollen lymph glands and no joint aches except for one day that he complained of his knees aching. He had a chest x-ray and it came back normal. He continued going downhill despite the antibiotics. He wheezed as if he had severe asthma and you could hear him breathing a few feet away. The doctor started him on Ketek (another antibiotic) but wanted him to come back in three days. That doctor visit consisted of an antibiotic shot, a steroid shot, more antibiotics by mouth, an Albuterol inhaler and more cough syrup. His blood pressure also shot up to 150 over 110 and for two weeks, never got lower than 95. He had some dizziness. So the doctor had to put him on Benicar for his blood pressure. He had to have a CT scan of his lungs with contrast and without contrast. That was normal also. (We were getting very concerned by that time). It was a relief that the CT scan was normal because he use to smoke but quit a few years ago.

About 5 days ago, the coughing gradually subsided and he developed largyngitis and could only squeak when he talked. That lasted a couple of days and then everything he ate either tasted spoiled or had no taste at all. Water didn't even taste right to him. I think all in all, he saw the doctor 4, maybe 5 times, during this ordeal. He's never sick.........but this infection(?) really put him down. I really questoned whether he should go back to work or not (it's been 5 weeks) but his doctor said to go ahead and try it but he has to wear one of those gas mask looking things to keep any particles out of his lungs if he should have to walk through any of the buildings at his workplace where there might be sawdust or anything that might cause his lungs to flare up. He is only suppose to work at his desk.

He still doesn't have a lot of energy but I think he's sick of being sick and tired of staring at the 4 walls. He will be on blood pressure medicine at least for a while to see if it will finally go back to his normal blood pressure that he had two weeks prior to this super-bug. Whatever this stuff is, it is hanging on forever and you start to think you will never be well again.

I have sympathy for anyone that comes down with this. In my area, I'm starting to hear of more cases that are very similar to my husband's.

Oldbones

[Bell99]

Just curious? What part of the country do you guys live in?
I am in the Midwest and I was just thinking "ah we are getting out of illness season " and Bam I am sick again.
I was sick the entire month of October with a similar illness. Nasty cough and phlegm that would not quit. It took two Z packs and finally Predisone to rid me of this. I have not been the same since.

[QueenC]

The title fits my situation perfectly. My son has been fighting the flu for over 3 weeks now. Just when I thought it was over he woke up with a temp of 101 this morning and it just continued to climb. He hasn't been himself since the end of Feb. He is constantly exhausted and his appetite stinks. I called the dr. this morning to ask if this is normal and she said that this has been the worst year for the flu in children that she has seen in a long time. Stay well everyone. The northeast has no "get out of flu free card" this year. Let the warm weather begin.

[Oldbones]

Originally Posted by Bell99

Just curious? What part of the country do you guys live in?
I am in the Midwest and I was just thinking "ah we are getting out of illness season " and Bam I am sick again.

Hello Bell99: I'm from what they call the Midwest also. Near the Texas/Oklahoma state line. My husband still gets exhausted easily but says he's gradually feeling better. His doctor wanted to recheck his blood count and blood chemistry once he started feeling better. One of his blood tests showed an elevated ALT (liver enzyme). Doctor said he needs to have it repeated in a month. He rarely drinks alcohol or takes Tylenol so we think it may have been a reaction to all the antibiotics he was taking at the time the blood was drawn for the test. The other liver test was normal. He had the same tests done two weeks prior when he was feeling really really bad and all of his blood chemistry tests were nornal.......including the ALT. It still concerns me that his blood pressure shot up. He's now taking 20 mg. of Bextra each day and it's keeping his blood pressure normal. Less than two months ago, he had a perfect blood pressure without meds and then whamm-o! This whole illness is so bizarre.

Hi Hekyl: I sounds like you have really had a hard time too. My husband's doctor said he didn't have the flu. Due to the medical community not knowing exactly what it was.......but knowing it wasn't testing positive for flu, they decided to just call it an upper respiratory infection. It's one heck of an Upper Respiratory infection. Nothing like I've seen before.

Oldbones