Monday, November 2, 2009

The Effects of H1N1

I received my H1N1 shot on Thursday evening. I was not one of those "healthy"  people who seemed to jump ahead of everyone, almost in a panic to get the shot. I work in an area where there are very sick people, so I was considered a "health care worker" and was able to get my shot early. My wife has not got her shot and my daughter, who just turned 5 years old, will wait to get the shot in school. I believe there are many other people out there that should be allowed to get the shot if they wish due to them having illnesses that could be detrimental to their overall health.

It is now Monday morning so I have had the shot over 3 days ago, and the effects are still with me. Immediately after getting the shot, my arm felt like someone took a hammer to it. I was surprised by the amount of pressure the needle had as it was going in. About 15 minutes after, I had trouble lifting my arm. Later that evening I had to go to work.

As the night proceeded on, I could move my arm, although it seemed to hurt even more. About 3 am (roughly 9 hours after the shot) all the energy totally drained from my body. I started aching all over and just felt really bad. It was a real struggle to drive home that morning and really I probably shouldn't have been on the road. But since this is St. John's who would have noticed! But that's a whole other topic!

I managed to get a nap when I got home Friday morning and was up again by noon. All day I felt like crap. My arm was still hurting and then it started to spread to my other arm and then my legs. Soon all my limbs were aching just as much as the original arm in which I received the shot. I struggled on with no improvement. I went to bed Friday night about 9:30 pm, then the sleeplessness and hallucinations began.

I would sleep for about 15 minute intervals and every time I would have the same recurring dream; a nurse would put a needle into my car tires and let all the air out of them. When I would wake up I would get hallucinations. One was a little boy standing at the bedside saying, "You'll be alright". Another was that my dresser was a large truck and I was lying in it's path.

Before getting up on Saturday morning I remember thinking,"My God, have they injected me with LSD or some other hallucinogenic drug?" It was quite the trip I was on. I started taking some Tylenol as all Saturday I had a very bad headache; probably from lack of sleep.

Thankfully I was able to get a good sleep on Saturday night and my arm and body stopped aching. All Sunday I still had a headache, although not quite as bad as on Saturday.

Tonight while sitting here at work I still don't feel 100% and still have a touch of a headache, but I think by the end of Monday I should be back to normal, I hope.

Now I can say officially that if I did not work in an area where there are very ill people, I would not have gotten the shot. In my case the effects were brutal. I still believe the media has blown it all out of proportion; for example in 2008, 2500 people in Canada died from effects of regular flu. To me that is way more scarier than the effects from H1N1; so far.