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Serious question, what happens to your body temp when you are sick?
I was reading some medical blog last week called something like 'Fever Science' and it said your core temp can actually drop a half degree before you even feel the fever kick in. That kind of blew my mind because I always assumed the chills were just the fever starting. Turns out your body is doing this whole complicated thing where it resets its thermostat and you shiver to generate heat. For freelancers like us, that first hour of feeling weird is probably when we should shut the laptop and rest, not push through. I tracked my temp with a cheap oral thermometer during my last cold and I swear I felt awful a full two hours before the reading showed 100. Has anyone else noticed that delay between feeling bad and actually having a fever? Makes me wonder if I should just call it quits earlier.
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gracej998h ago
That actually makes so much sense now that you say it lol. @oliviabutler I used to think the chills were just the fever acting up, not a separate thing your body does to get ready. For me, I always wait until the thermometer reads over 100 before I admit defeat and rest. But after reading that blog, I tracked it once and yeah, I felt terrible like two hours before the temp showed anything. It's wild how your body has this whole pre-game warmup phase where you're freezing cold but not technically feverish yet. I think I'm gonna start listening to that initial "off" feeling way earlier and just stop working instead of fighting through it.
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Wait, is that why I always get super cold right before I get sick? Like I'll be under three blankets shivering and then boom the fever shows up a few hours later and I'm sweaty. I never connected that it was my body doing a pre-game warmup.
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casey2684h ago
Hang on, I gotta push back on this a little. @oliviabutler, I think that "pre-game warmup" idea is a bit overblown. Those chills could just be your body reacting to the virus early on, not some separate thermostat reset. I've had plenty of times where I felt cold and miserable and then just never got a fever at all. Maybe it was just my immune system fighting it off normally, not a fever coming. I'd say don't count on that delay as a reliable sign, you might waste a whole day in bed for nothing.
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