NORMAL LIFE: When It's 39.7°C

No, Finland hasn't suddenly warmed up! This is the temperature that my body registered last Wednesday, rendering me no more useful than a pair of flipflops. When Bree returned from work that day, he held me up as he drove me less than one kilometre to the nearby private hospital.

Totally lacking in energy, he held me up as we took the lift to the second floor reception. The fever was once again taking hold, as I entered yet another seizure of chills as we registered my arrival. I was shown to a room where I could wait, which had a bed where I could rest. The nurses were great, covering me with blankets until a doctor was available. In a daze, somebody arrived to take a sample of my blood, but also took a swab from deep in my nose.

Twenty minutes later, the doctors arrived, telling me that I had full-load Influenza. For the first time in my life, I realised that I had never actually had influenza before. I - indeed many of us - have had flu-like symptoms, but never before had I had the kind of flu that was in your blood and, if left untreated, could kill. I was immediately put on Tamiflu, one of the drugs that the UK is stockpiling should birdflu mutate so that it is transmittable from human to human.

Within 24 hours, all seizures had stopped and the redness in my face had disappeared. I still felt fatigued, and the other symptoms of sore throat and aching limbs were more pronounced. I was just absolutely amazed by the speed in which the doctors had analysed my blood, reached a diagnosis and started my recovery.

Out of curiousity, I visited Wikipedia and downloaded the pages relating to Influenza (see here). I was blown away by how little I actually knew about Influenza, suddenly realising how few of us had actually had the 'real' flu. Last night, on the Finnish news, we were told that the A-Virus was slowly making it's way through the Finnish population. I only hope those unfortunate enough to catch it get themselves to hospital and get the treatment I had - there's still another week or so of recovery, but the first 24-48 hours makes you feel like death warmed up.