Well, here we go, time to talk about the viral symptoms, these are the nasty things it’s difficult to describe and explain, no it’s not just a cold!
I can write this easily just now as I can feel my glands up and throat beginning to close, my sinuses have that astringent slightly swimmer feel, like I’ve just been underwater in a pool, you know what I mean, that ‘I can feel a cold coming on’ that people say, just before being consumed with the flu. It’s time for my ‘first defence’ nasal spray, throat spray, yogi throat tea, extra paracetamol, if possible, maybe even an antihistamine for good measure, anything and everything to ward off these viral symptoms.
Viral symptoms, those enigmatic, illusive, hard to diagnose virals that take over at the first opportunity. Over done it, yes, they will be there. They lie in wait, in the blood somehow mysteriously making our cells attack each other as hostiles. How to cover this complex state. Everyone knows what Flu, is like, that total debilitating all-encompassing misery it brings, but how to explain, this is just a natural state for us, it can come and go in a moment, it’s always there, raring to break out and take over. The fever and delirium, it brings put you right out of action and oblivious to all, the tonsilitis, the accompanying chest infection it all comes, and yet we can’t even give it a name, ‘flu like’ symptoms the medics say, not even the flu in name and yet so much more in reality.
These symptoms can range from newly oncoming to full body consumption, we must at all times be wary of allowing these to take hold, full Flu like will take over 2-4 weeks of life, and it will feel like hell. Yes, in the full depths of this you will find it hard to breathe never mind move, you will beg the universe to put you down, to take away this misery, you are a dying slug gradually vaporizing, being crushed under a giant boot of darkness, falling into the vacuum of viciousness.
I hate thinking about these times, I feel lucky, I have not been that ill in months, yet I know it lurks around every corner. At the first claggy feel in my throat, I know it’s coming, time to batten down the hatches and quick! The hard rock glands push my neck out to my chin, creating an unattractive set of swollen puffy chins, the skin loses all shine and becomes sallow as death. It is hard to describe this when I am not experiencing it but when I am it is impossible to do anything and the first hint of recovery you just want to forget about it. You cling to life in those days of improvement wishing and hoping, giving up and giving in and then desperate to live to breathe fresh air again, just when you think you can take no more it gets worse and then suddenly it recedes, moves through and out of you and you can see the end of the tunnel. You want to run through this tunnel and live again.
If you carry on in the same routine that caused this it will continue in a cycle of attack, where every other week you will have viral tonsilitis, where your life is one huge bin of tissues and you are stuck in the bottom of it, reinfecting yourself with every breath.
When I try any kind of working routine, even part time commitments, I live with these viral symptoms daily, with full flu always on the horizon, every rest break helps a little but then it’s back to it, permanent cold, sore throat, sinuses blocked, headache, fever, dizziness, these are just the few horrors that plague.
Now I have control of my routine and am flexible in my activities I can go for months without any of these viral symptoms, I can nearly forget about them, until I do forget and then bam, there they are again. Now I use these symptoms as a guide, my glands come up and I know I must slow down, my throat starts, and I must rest. If it worsens it will take hold, prevention is the key. There is no beating these symptoms without resting and keeping warm. Extra vitamins, Vitamin C particularly, make you feel you are doing something and can seem to help, but serious rest is the only way to stop its path through you.
Living With ME 