Tag: flu

Hot

Today will hit over 105F (40C) where I live – inland, temperatures are 10 to 20 degrees F hotter. We stay indoors, close the windows and shutters, keeping the house dark and gloomy, only opening the shutters as the sun travels east to west. The air conditioning is put on when the house reaches about 80F. Then, you plop down, to conserve your own energy as well as electric energy – air conditioning is set no lower than 76F to help the grid and hopefully avoid a black out. Everything you can charge gets charged before the heat of the day begins, just to be safe: phone, laptops, tablets. I just wish I could charge myself as all this makes me a blob.

The first year after we moved inland 20 miles from the coast was pleasant in our valley. The next summer was like the weather we are having now – hot, hot, hot. It was hot all that second summer. This summer we have had a few weeks of such heat mixed with cooler periods. I guess I shouldn’t complain. However, that second summer I got what I thought was the flu. I was exhausted, sniffly, and weak for days. It wasn’t the flu. Instead, I was dehydrated despite drinking water and close to heat exhaustion. Flu symptoms and overheating symptoms are very much the same, at least for me.

Enter the coronavirus. So many different symptoms. And the heat is here. What is going on? Yesterday, I was dead tired – again, not my usual feeling. Chills. Flu? Coronavirus? Heat? No fever, drinking Gatorade, and two naps later, I was still tired. This morning I feel more human, but still tired.

It is a strange feeling when you don’t know what is going on. Is it real? Is it a symptom of something serious? Do I have coronavirus, the flu, or am I just in need of more water and Gatorade? Are my allergies the reason for the cough or is it the air conditioning?

Heat makes you crazier than you already are.

‘Snot What I Want

The Sniffle

In spite of her sniffle,
Isabel’s chiffle.
Some girls with a sniffle
Would be weepy and tiffle;
They would look awful,
Like a rained-on waffle,
But Isabel’s chiffle
In spite of her sniffle.
Her nose is more red
With a cold in her head,
But then, to be sure,
Her eyes are bluer.
Some girls with a snuffle,
Their tempers are uffle,
But when Isabel’s snivelly
She’s snivelly civilly,
And when she’s snuffly
She’s perfectly luffly.

—Ogden Nash

Fever and Ague

Also known as the flu.  Or maybe malaria.  I feel like crap.

Ague: A fever (such as from malaria) that is marked by paroxysms of chills, fever, and sweating recurring regular intervals. Also a fit of shivering, a chill. Hence, ague can refer to both chills and fevers.

Pronounced ‘A-(“)gyu with the accent solidly on the “A”, the word “ague” is an example of how medical terminology changes with time. Not only are new terms introduced (with great speed these days) but old terms such as “ague” may decline in usage (become archaic) and eventually may be dropped entirely (be obsolete).

“Aigue” entered English usage in the 14th century, having crossed the channel from the Middle French “aguë”. The word share the same origin as “acute.” It descends from the Latin “acutus” meaning “sharp or pointed”. A “fievre aigue” in French was a sharp or pointed (or acute) fever.

Where’s Mary Poppins and her spoonful of sugar when I need her?