Erik Gulbrandsen, D.O.

My wife and I have had the flu since about Sunday (I even got both flu shots, oh well). It has been a rough week. I just ate a hotdog. So, my intake since Monday has consisted of 1 order of mashed potatoes and grilled chicken (that barely stayed down), 1 hotdog, 2 vanilla shakes, and copious amounts of water, apple, and grape juice. It is no wonder people lose thirty pounds with this thing.

when I got my diagnosis, I asked my doctor if she could write my wife a prescription for tamiflu because my wife had very similar symptoms (she is also my wife's doctor). I picked up the prescriptions and went home. When I got home, I looked at my wife's throat and saw something like this:


my poor wife, did she have strep pharyngitis on top of the flu?

so, my daughter got sent home today from school because of "pink eye". Well, she doesn't have "pink eye", but I didn't want to rock the boat at school. However, tonight she comes up to me and says her ear hurts. I grab my otoscope, and, yup, she's got otitis media.

What did we do to deserve this?

I got the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine, yet I still happened to get the flu.

It was silly this morning in the hospital I read the signs that have been there for the last couple of weeks:

"help protect your loved ones. Nobody with these symptoms is allowed in the hospital:

Fever, cough, chills, sore throat, bodyaches"

I realized that I had every single one of those symptoms. What was i supposed to do? I was under the impression that I couldn't take a sick day while on service, which my senior mockingly responded, "ya, cause I really want to have another 20 patients on the list with the flu". Needless to say, he sent me home.

By the way, tamiflu makes me want to vomit. It is similar to the time when I "siphoned" gas and got a nice swig.