Hi all, I'm having a rough week
Happy holidays to everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and didn't feel too stressed out.
I am, unfortunately, extremely stressed right now. Someone I work with, came down with the flu this past week. I work at a bank, so we were closed on Thursday for thanksgiving, so here is how the story goes. Right now I am over thinking and wondering if I'm in the "incubation period" and I'm freaking myself out, like literally obsessing over this for the past 2 days.
So Monday this week I wasn't at work because I have school on Mondays, no possibility of transmission there. Tuesday I WAS at work, and I worked with the girl who has the swine flu right now. She seemed fine at work, apparently she had told others that she had a slightly sore throat, but that was it. I wasn't in super close contact with her. I may have passed her a few times, I may have swapped cash with her, or had a short conversation with her, but I was never right in her face, and I don't believe that I was ever super close to her if she coughed or sneezed, seeing as she has her own office and I was not in that office but maybe once that whole day. Okay, so as you can probably tell, Tuesday is the day I am worrying about. Wednesday I wasn't there because I have class on Wednesdays as well. Thursday we didn't work because of Thanksgiving, and that's that.
NOW:
All she had was a sore throat on Tuesday, she had wednesday off because it is her normal day off (as is mine) so she wasn't at work, but apparently she felt fine all day that day as well other than the fact that she lost her voice that night. Thursday she felt alright, had a sore throat, and still lost her voice, but then at around 8:30 that evening she began to feel n* and she v*'ed until 6am on Friday morning. I asked her for details so I heard this directly from her (via texting). She went to the doctors on Friday and she did a swab that tested positive for Influenza A (which from my research is the same thing as the swine flu or H1N1). I last saw her on Tuesday, I don't believe I had much direct contact with her, but it is now Saturday and I have not had any contact with her in 4 days obviously. As soon as I found out that she had the swine flu and was throwing up after just having a sore throat, I freaked out. I began to google the symptoms and on over 50 websites that I did research on, it looks as though the swine flu incubation period is a tad bit longer than the seasonal flu, and it is more likely to cause n*, v* and d*. The incubation period is 1-7 days after exposure, with most people getting it between 2-5 days. Tuesday was 4 days ago. This morning I woke up feeling pretty normal, but as the work day went on I began to have a tad bit scratchy throat, and I felt as though maybe one of my glands in my neck is swollen. My throat isn't actually sore, and I wouldn't say I have a cough. No runny or stuffy nose, and I have taken my temperature about 8 times today and it was always between 98.2-99 degrees so I don't believe I have a fever. After showering a little earlier I noticed I had an area of my side near my hip that the skin was really sensitive to the touch, and I have a slight headache as well, but those are the only "symptoms" I am having at the moment. This 7 day incubation period is killing me though. I have been literally obsessive about this. I almost want to go to the doctor tomorrow just to get my blood tested to see if it's positive for the flu, even though I know that sometimes those tests aren't accurate. I am going crazy. I don't want to do this until Tuesday, analyzing my every body movement and feeling. I'm just so scared that out of nowhere I will feel like really n* and stuff because that's what happened to her, she felt fine and then boom! What do you guys think the chances are that I have this? be honest. Tuesday, minimal contact, as I said we work at a bank so we were in the same building all day, but as far as I know, no one else from my work feels ill right now either and other people worked on Tuesday. The CDC says that the person is contagious up to 1 day before they start showing symptoms, so I'm assuming she was at least somewhat contagious on Tuesday since she had a sore throat. Please help! I am losing my mind, I need to talk to someone who can rationalize with me a little bit and maybe keep me from going crazy. What is your opinion!!?