A week ago, I would have considered a four-day doctor-ordered stay at home more of a break than a burden

That was before I encountered the infamous swine flu.

No, unlike my bout with kidney stones earlier this year (lucky aren't I?), I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow recap of my symptoms. In this case that might be, for lack of a better word, gross.

After I first fell ill over my "weekend" - Wednesday and Thursday of the week of Oct. 5 - my fever was far too distracting for me to do much but sleep and try to eat soup. After a day off that Friday, the fever dropped and I came back to work - I figured I was lucky. By Sunday, the worst headache I've had in my life and a fever that was all over the place proved me wrong - not to mention my girlfriend wound up in the ER diagnosed with swine flu. A few hours of work that night (telecommuting from home) followed by a half day of work (also from home) Tuesday would be all they heard of me at the IPT for the week.

It started after my girlfriend's doctors told me that I was probably contagious with the flu, too, and should not come to the office. That was good enough for Sunday, but Monday I made my way to the doctor's office myself to see when I could be back in the swing of things.

I didn't feel too bad - some body aches, coughing and a weird fever, so a day of rest would be fine, right? Wrong.

Before I even told the doc my whole story, he stopped me in my tracks. Swine flu, sure enough, and I was to stay out of public for four more days. I felt bad when he told me even his staff hadn't been vaccinated - all as I hacked away in their office.

The first couple of days, even when I managed to work from home before my cough took over and I had to turn to prescription medicine, went fine. I got to take care of my girlfriend when I could manage - she ended up much more ill than I - and get well-needed rest so I could recuperate.

Then the third day it hit me - with no television and Internet that was spotty at best, I found myself restless. After all, I can only sleep for so long, and I still wasn't back up to par to work.

Reading - that made me sleepy or I just couldn't manage. Cooking - that was just pointless even if I had the energy because neither of us wanted the end result. Cleaning - when you're bouncing between rooms wrapped in blankets, what's the point? Not to mention that's not my idea of relaxing and recovering.

So, we were pretty much stuck in the house or backyard. On top of it all, most anyone we could call to bring us something or help us out, was avoiding us like the plague.

Needless to say, I was very happy when I woke up today, symptoms all but faded, a little tired, but able to walk out my door and head to work. And not only that, I'm able to interact with other people again. My heart goes out to anyone who finds themselves with this illness, stuck and suffering.

Personally, I never thought I'd be so happy to return to a week of work.