I had the HIN1 virus last week, better known as swine flu, and I’m doing just fine, thanks.  It probably helped that I didn’t know I had the dreaded  virus until I was in the final stages. If I had known, I might have been sicker purely for psychological reasons.

After all, according to media reports, I should be on my deathbed by now, or at least wilting away Camille-like into my germ-ridden pillow after having infected most of the populace. Instead, I’m a bit tired and weak, but still able to meet an OS friend from out of town today.

As deadly pandemics go, this flu was one of the mildest I’ve ever had. It hit me – and that is the right verb – about 10 days ago. I got into my car after a day of teaching and was half-way home when I started feeling like I’d been run over by a Mack truck a few dozen times. I was gripped with such fatigue that I had to force myself to focus on driving home since I was already on the freeway. I collapsed into bed and stayed there off and on for about five days.

My symptoms were mostly severe body ache, some head congestion, a sore throat on day three, and an omnipresent headache. I also had a weird pain just below my collarbone for a couple of days. No fever, no coughing and no sniffling. I haven’t been tested for H1N1, but my doctor told me I had it. He also told me he’s seen hundreds of cases in recent weeks. I also know that I caught it where I teach, and that many students and faculty have had it, or are about to get it.

Dirty little secret

The last time I had the flu nearly three years ago I was much, much sicker. I was out for 10 days and suffered nearly two months of related infections such as strep throat and pleurisy. I had the Hong Kong flu many moons ago when I was 17, and that nearly killed me. I was delirious with fever and remember praying to either get well or die rather than continue being that sick.

Having the swine flu is ironic enough for someone who doesn’t eat pork for ethical reasons. What then, am I to make of official reports from Health Canada that say anyone who routinely gets flu shots has a greater chance of catching swine flu, and at the same time, has a lesser chance of getting it if they were born before 1957?  That, I believe, is a paradox, and I fit both categories.

But feeling sick and crappy and losing a week of my life isn’t the worst thing about having the H1N1 virus. It’s being afraid to tell anyone. Apart from this blog post, I have told one person, who immediately said not to come near her for a long time. This from a journalist covering the story who ought to know better.

But that’s the dirty little secret about H1N1. It’s already in full swing, but no one wants to admit it, much less talk about it. A few stories have surfaced about outbreaks in schools and northern aboriginal communities, but that's about it. Nobody knows exactly when the vaccine will be available, but the B.C. government announced today that only children and people over 65, or in  long-term care facilities, will get it before 2010. That may be just a little late.

When the story first broke last spring, people were walking around wearing surgical masks and freaking out at the very thought of coming into contact with anyone who had it. That fear obviously still holds sway.  Even my normally rational husband filled a prescription for Tamiflu yesterday just in case, and is keeping his distance from me. He has a garden-variety cold, and insists that I gave it to him. I wonder what would happen if I went to work tomorrow and told my students that I had swine flu, and that I caught it from them?  I'm not brave enough to find out.