Worst Flu Ever!

[chadknowslaw]

My Phoenix Forum ended early this year as I was coming down with the worst flu of my life. Not since chicken pox have I been so totally decimated by illness! Although I made it to the barebacking forum Saturday morning, I was hurting. I left the Palms before the sun went down and crawled into bed Saturday evening, not to get out until Thursday afternoon. It started with a heavy cough that felt like it was coming from the center of my chest, then constant feeling of exhaustion, body aches, fever, alternating chills and sweats, and diarrhea that would have made tub girl proud. I drank plenty of water but still lost 5% of my body weight in 5 days. I could not talk and just rolling over caused a coughing fit bringing up some nice thick globs for the bowl next to the bed. A trip to the bathroom was so exhausting I would nap for an hour afterwards.

Since I was at the Forum, you may call me Typhoid Mary. I hope I didn't give it to anyone!!

Anyone trying to reach me this week -- this is why I have not been available. Thursday afternoon was the first time I had the strength to get out of bed and get online.

[basschick]

damn, chad - sounds like the king of all flus i hope you're feeling lots better and continue to get even better.

[hdkbill]

Chad,

You've just got to quit staying up all night running around with all those cute boys and wearing yourself out!!

Glad you are feeling better. The flu can be a real bitch as you found out.:crybaby: I had it once and man, I haven't missed taking a flu shot ever since. Most folks who get a bad cold think they have the flu..but they don't. If they get it, they'll know it! It will knock them on their butt.

Get well soon stud!

Bill

[gaybucks_chip]

This flu, or a variant of it, has been going around this year. All four of the Gaybucks staff (AJ, Pat, Brandon, myself) plus my housemate and three of my friends that were hanging around the house got it. The minimum anyone was down with it was about 3 days and for most people it was at least 5 to 10 days, and in some cases longer before they were fully recovered.

Chad, hope you're feeling better by now. It took me about 2 weeks to get back to full speed.

[cbl_chaz]

Zac's partner Jonathan came down with strep throat and tonsillitis here in Orlando while zac and I were at the Forum. He was down for two weeks! Even now he isn't 100% himself. Seems as though the stronger the meds we come up with to fight these viruses, the stronger the virus itself becomes!

I hope you feel better soon Chad! It was great meeting you at the Forum and I am so sorry your experience had to end on such a sour note. The closing parties were a lot of fun and you were definitely missed!

[desslock]

April 3, 2008 -- The surprising course of the latest flu season -- one of the most unpredictable in years -- has been a headache for companies from tissue makers to hospital owners. <snip>

In recent seasons, the flu has generally hit hard in December and peaked in February before petering out in March. But this year it followed a different pattern, getting off to a tamer start than usual and then roaring back in late February with the strongest surge in years. One reason: Vaccine planners failed to accurately predict the strains of the virus that would emerge this winter, making the flu shots most people got less effective than usual. <snip>

By February, every state in the country was reporting widespread flu outbreaks except Florida, which as an exception had been hit earlier in the season. Maine was one of the last states to see an outbreak, but it got walloped in March. One high school in the central part of the state reported in early March that 40% of its some 1,000 students were home sick, and dozens of other schools have reported absence rates of at least 15%. "This definitely is one of the worst seasons ... in my 12 years on the job," says Dora Mills, the state's public-health director.

Through the second week of March, the flu remained rampant in more than 40 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was still widespread in 17 states as of March 22 and persisted in pockets in most other states, according to the latest data available from the CDC.

A confluence of factors seem to have contributed to this year's flu season. The strains of flu that have predominated in the U.S. in recent years are known as H1N1. Health officials predicted last year that that trend would continue, so pharmaceutical companies pumped out vaccines to target those strains. But H3N2 strains proved more prevalent this year. To make matters worse, H3N2 is a particularly nasty variety of the flu.

Moreover, flu season is inherently unpredictable, starting as early as October and sometimes peaking only in April. Even the right vaccine doesn't prevent outbreaks altogether, as a relatively small number of people get vaccinated. Manufacturers distributed about 115 million doses last year, so no more than about a third of Americans were vaccinated at all.

[Squirt]

Since I was at the Forum, you may call me Typhoid Mary. I hope I didn't give it to anyone!!

Anyone trying to reach me this week -- this is why I have not been available. Thursday afternoon was the first time I had the strength to get out of bed and get online.

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Been sick here too .. the flu sucks :frog:

[chadknowslaw]

The worst part lasted over a week. I couldn't roll over in bed without having a coughing fit and spitting out a giant gob of goo. I still don't feel back to normal yet either but I am back to functioning again. Thank you everybody for the kind words! It is so rare that I get sick at all and then this comes and hits me like a brick. I hope this means I can go another 10 years without getting sick again!

[DonMike]

Chad, I had a throat infection at the end of last year that left me feeling worse than after my appendix operation. I know how horrible that can be. I hope you are getting better now and back to your normal pervy self soon.

[chadknowslaw]

Thanks DonMike! I am not back to 100% but much better than this time last week when I could not get out of bed without having trouble breathing.

I don't know about my pervy self -- since coming to work at Kink.com I have realized just how vanilla I really am!!!

[DonMike]

I don't know about my pervy self -- since coming to work at Kink.com I have realized just how vanilla I really am!!!

No problem, just spend some time with me. I tend to rub off on people. Just ask Jasun. :donmike:

[LiveTwinksCam]

Oh Chad, you poor thing!! I wish I was there, I would had came over and nursed you back to health. Glad you are feeling better. ((hugs))

[TropixxxStudios]

Glad to hear you are ok. I was wondering where you went. I wrongly guessed you were shacked up with some model.

[Squirt]

I am not back to 100% but much better than this time last week when I could not get out of bed without having trouble breathing.

I don't know about my pervy self -- since coming to work at Kink.com I have realized just how vanilla I really am!!!

Great to see you are back to work... contact me when you are ready to make some deals.

xoxoxoxo Squirt :bunny: