The raging Swedish winter flu, also known as vinterkräksjukan, or the "Winter Vomiting Disease" is on the loose again, as it is every february. Just when we start noticing the return of forgotten sunshine, begin paying attention to the chirping of birds and feeling hope and an incredible desire for spring, the country is plagued with vomit. Well isn't that just great? The winter is laughing at us thinking, "Haha sucker! It's not spring yet!"
As a nanny I encounter a LOT of kids. Not just the baby I take care of, but all the little kiddies in her open-pre-school (which we attend together), all the kiddies in the kiddy-library, the kiddies at the park and all the things that they touch and so on. It's a pretty well-known fact that children are hothouses for disease and infection, so I haven't exactly picked the best job if prevention of sickness is one of my priorities (and it kind of is). Since avoiding the largest source of sickness to the public isn't really an option for me, I've been meticulous about my hygiene, especially when it comes to hand-washing, hand-sanitizing after being on the train or bus and generally trying to avoid touching common surfaces. Despite my efforts, I too—alas!—have been infected with this horrid "Winter Vomiting Disease." It's not fun, but thank God it's not as bad as whatever on earth I had last year.
Luckily I've only actually thrown up once and that's all the movement there's been on either front—phew! Normally this "Winter Vomiting Disease" entails vicious, non-stop puking right and left, or so I've heard. I have felt pretty awful though. My body has been aching as if I'd been kicked all over, my head has been spinning and the headache I've had is incomparable with any other that I've had before. My stomach has been hurting, and I've generally been nauseous and extremely sensitive to smell. Last night I even experienced heartburn for the first time. That is not a pleasant sensation. I thought my chest was going to explode. I've basically just been sleeping around the clock and barely managed to watch a few episodes of Shaun the Sheep, which Johannes so kindly put on my computer for sick-and-lazy viewing. That's about all my brain could process; nonverbal, 6-minute episodes of fluffy sheep doing silly things. And barely.
I've been forcing myself to eat and drink. Last year's big mistake was that I didn't do this and ended up being severely dehydrated, to the point where I needed an IV drip at the hospital to perk back up. So this time around I've been gulping whatever liquids possible, munching on toast, sipping oatmilk; Johannes even made me a bowl of delicious mashed potatoes and some vegetable broth. Oh it's wonderful to have somebody take care of you when you're sick.
Well, I feel like I'm on the road to recovery. So thankful that this was only a 3-day thing and not a full-on 9 day horror story like last year's flu. Maybe I should be strategic about this flu-season thing and plan a vacation sometime in the beginning of every February, hopefully to avoid getting it altogether.
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