Flu is Wretched – The Greek Soution – Sedatives!

It all started last Tuesday night; my daughter woke me up.

I usually have no problem falling asleep, the problems begin if I am woken up and then there is the possibility that I will be tossing and turning all night.

That is exactly what happened.

My daughter was returning to Athens, after staying two weeks with us in Loutraki, I had a busy day ahead on Wednesday, and, had specifically told her not to wake me to say goodbye; she did!

Daughter takes blame number one.

MGG (My Greek God) can take blame number two.

He had been ill with flu for a couple of days, as had my daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

I, so far, had escaped this, no surprise to me, as I very rarely catch a cold, I honestly can’t remember the last time that I was ill.

Anyway, after being woken up, there was not much chance of dropping off again, especially with MGG coughing, sneezing and squirming around next to me, so I decided to move myself to my daughter’s bed, time was getting on, and I needed to sleep!

Just as I was starting to fall asleep: the bed collapsed on one side.

I chose to stay where I was and spent the night on a slant, the lesser of two evils, the other being MGG and his flu.

The bed does not take blame number three, if it had not been for MGG, I would have been in my own bed!

To say that I had a sleepless Tuesday night, Wednesday went very well, no signs of sleep deprivation.

Or so I thought, not long after arriving home I began to ache, then to feel extremely cold; to the point of shivering, “Better go to bed” I thought, even though it was only nine or so in the evening, “this lack of sleep is catching up with me.”

“I’ll sleep like a log, after last night’s shenanigans”

None of it!

First off, MGG was in there, had been all day, his flu was worse, as I also went from bad to worse, the awful truth sank in: I had caught the dreaded flu!

Lack of sleep; makes you more vulnerable to colds and flu. Flu virus, caught from MGG, do you get my drift on blame number one and two now?

So began three days of hell.

When I wasn’t shivering, (My teeth were actually chattering), I was burning up!

Every bone in my body ached, my throat was dry and itchy and I had a cough, my head was

somewhere about ten feet above my body!

By Friday, blame number one (daughter) was home again, and very kindly offered to go to the pharmacy, for miracle cures.

She arrived back with the usual, over the counter, colds and flu capsules, plus throat lozenges, but the most interesting thing, was something called Atarax.

Neither of us knew what it was, on the box was written “By prescription only”, and “do not drink alcohol while taking “but hey, this is Greece!

After asking Mr Google; it turns out it is a tranquilizer.

Why on earth had the pharmacist given us this for a case of flu?

Was it someone else’s, put into our bag by mistake?

Who cares? I’ll take it!

I need sleep; it’s been over two nights now!

Was it the tablets, lack of food, was I worse than I thought, or did I have a high temperature? (This I never did find out, we couldn’t find the thermometer) but I swear I started having illusions, or delusions!

I convinced myself that I had written terrible, offensive things on my blog, I had to, when I was able, switch on the computer, to make sure I hadn’t!

Maybe I should eat something, MGG can’t cook, and he was bringing me Greek gyros, delicious, but stinking out the whole bedroom.

 I made myself some porridge and stuck to that: until Saturday, that’s a lot of porridge!

Evening again, I can’t sleep, so I’ll take one of the strange tablets, and read until it takes effect.

I have read Axel Munthe’s “The Story of San Michele” many times; a splendid book.

This time round though, it made not much sense at all, Axel seemed to have been on the same tablets as me while he was writing it!

Definitely something strange about the tablets, after the initial mind games, they did make me sleep!

On Saturday morning, I felt much better; I must get up because the bed is beginning to look, and fee, like Tracey Emin’s masterpiece!

It was not until today, Monday, that I could say I feel totally well again, well enough to write my blog, which has been so neglected.

I shall save the tablets for the next time that my daughter wakes me up, not for me: for her!