Your immune system is gambling that the invaders will die before you do.
It’s gambled and won before, that’s why it keeps gambling.
There won’t be another time for it to gamble once it loses once.
It will know the folly of its ways then and pass the information to all children you have post mortem.
Immune System:
If you’ve never had a really REALLY high fever, it’s a hell of an experience. Like, literally hellish. Your brain starts to function less and less normally, as it begins to…well…get damaged. It’s like being just on the edge of blackout drunk, for hours on end.
Your sense of time gets weirdly compressed and extended, alternately, so first you’ll be feeling like something that only took 30 seconds is taking an hour, but then you’ll basically make no short-term memories of another whole hour of time, so you’re like “when did THAT even happen? It got WAY darker outside, all of a sudden.”
You also find yourself extremely confused and lethargic, even in your basic thoughts. Like, MAJOR confusion, about even the smallest things. And because you didn’t take any substances that could explain why you’re loopy, you basically deny that there’s even anything wrong with you.
I didn’t experience any waking hallucinations, but I am pretty sure I experienced the classic “fever dream” symptoms, when I was asleep. I don’t remember any details of the crazy-ass dreams I was having, but I know they were very bizarre and provoked intense fear.
How bad of a fever was that exactly?
My worst ones (in the 104°F range) were awful. I don’t remember losing time or having time distortion. I didn’t have major confusion so much as being too sick to bother even trying to think or understand anything.
Definitely have had fever dreams. And maybe also awake but it’s been a long time since it happened. The line between awake and asleep was probably kind of blurred. I wouldn’t say I had hallucinations. More like a really weird perception and like semi dreaming… Or something?
Anyway, 0/10 would not recommend.
Mine was like 107.8 F. I didn’t realize that was so very close to the maximum that your body can handle. Ya know, like, before you actually die from the fever itself. Usually because it literally kills your brain cells. I just didn’t know about that, at the time. I was just like “wow, I’ve never had a fever this high before.”
And yeah, weird perception and semi-dreaming was very much my experience, too. It was horribly unsettling at the time, but MUCH MORE SO LATER, when I heard and/or read about how close I’d come to death, without ever knowing it.
This was a case of influenza, by the way. I got such a bad case of it, around the turn of the Millennium. I never went to the doctor, either. I was just a vigorous young man, in robust health…but I also totally, absolutely could have died. I told someone with actual medical knowledge about it, years later, and they were like “OH MY GOD, YOU COULD HAVE JUST DIED IN YOUR SLEEP, YOU DUMBFUCK,” or words to that effect.
Sweet baby Jesus. I thought 106 is the big-time danger zone and you go to the hospital… Nearly 108? Fucking hell.
Oh, yeah. I only survived by pure luck. And I mean, I did have the internet. I could have looked up how hot a fever can get, before it’s really dangerous. But really deep ignorance has a cleverness all its own, in terms of making sure you avoid doing anything sensible.
I never actually had the thought of “hey, could the temperature of the fever itself actually endanger my life?” I knew people died of the flu sometimes, but I somehow thought of it in the same context that people die of coronavirus style infections. In other words, I thought the only way a coughing-and-wheezing style virus would kill you would be a lack of oxygen, from inflamed lung tissue, total exhaustion of the breathing muscles, etc. I knew enough about my own condition to be pretty sure I didn’t have fluid in my lungs, and that I was getting plenty of oxygen. And I was still able to walk around and stuff, so I knew I wasn’t on the verge of deadly exhaustion.
So I just sat around the house, taking cough drops for my hacking cough and over-the-counter painkillers for my tremendous muscle aches and headache. Annnnnd I could have just gone off sleep, never to wake up again, never even seeing what the new millennium was like. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, indeed.
I recently got hit with the seasonal flu like a month ago that was going around and stubbornly didn’t go to a doctor. Ended up with a fever of ~105 on average and peaked at like 106 while still having chills as well.
There was a period of 3 days where it was the worst and I have no idea what happened during that time except scant bits of random memories of drinking water and passing out on the couch covered in blankets. The fever dreams you mentioned is definitely on point to what I experienced as well. Was never sure if I was really awake or dreaming with my eyes closed. Which like… I’m not sure how to phrase that in a way that makes sense or differentiate from regular dreaming cause reading it right now just sounds dumb
Time made no sense during that whole period and still doesn’t. It’s like my body, even two weeks later, still hasn’t registered that I existed for those days. Very surreal in a bad way, do not recommend
I had a fever dream too as a kid when I had around 104°. I’d been reading some YA book about some kid with a magical uncle and in my dream he became my uncle, then when I came out of the dream I was still convinced I had the uncle and couldn’t understand why my brother didn’t remember him.
Even though (or maybe especially bc) I was young it was pretty crazy to have reality distort like that.
Bad for you, good for the pack I guess
I have altered the temperature, pray I don’t alter it further
fever is a friend
The ends justify the means
Removed by mod
What’s this from stamets? I feel like I recognize it but maybe that’s just bc in low res she reminds me of Fern Brady.
I want to say fuzzy cops but I think it’s hot fuzz.
Hm, I don’t remember fuzzy cops looking so sci-fi before :)
Oh sorry I thought you were replying to the image above your comment :D
