According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms for the H1N1 influenza virus (aka swine flu) are... well, let me just cut and paste from their website.

"The symptoms of 2009 H1N1 flu virus in people include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea. People may be infected with the flu, including 2009 H1N1 and have respiratory symptoms without a fever. Severe illnesses and death has occurred as a result of illness associated with this virus."

Near the end of last week, I saw a list of those symptoms in an article about how the CDC should be telling anyone with these symptoms to say home instead of just those with a fever.  As I was reading it, I jokingly thought, "Cough, check.  Sore throat, check.  Runny nose, check.  Stuffy nose, check.  Headache, check.  Wow!  I've had 5 out of the 11 symptoms in the past couple of days!"

Since then, lets go on over the weekend.  Fever, check.  Body aches, check.  Chills, check.  Fatigue, check.  I've also suffered from a mild loss of appetite, upset stomach and slight dehydration.  Fortunately, there has been no vomiting or diarrhea.  *knock on wood*  Maybe I should take tomorrow off as a rest and recovery day, or rather, a don't get anybody else sick day.

Although I know I probably don't have the swine flu, I know people who know people around here who have gotten it in the past week, so there is a possibility that I have it.  It's around here and only two degrees of separation from me.  That's like Val Kilmer was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise and Tom Cruise was in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon.  Huh.  That was a short one.