Sick with an upper respiratory infection

I'm sick... I mean really sick... with an upper respiratory infection. I get them several times a year, but this one is extremely bad. It started Thursday night when I was working, but the symptoms didn't seem too bad that day. Friday, which was Christmas Eve, started with me suddenly feeling light-headed then having a massive nosebleed. The rest of that day I was coughing up a storm and my throat was so sore. I'd sneeze and tear up from pain. My tongue had lost all color on the top, and was totally covered in a white coating, and it's still that way now. Christmas Day I started having severe pain in my jaw on the right side, and my sore throat got even worse. My nasal passages became so dry and scratching that I was bleeding bad out my nose. The day after Christmas, I woke up with my right cheek swollen as all hell. It felt like my throat was so closed off that I couldn't breathe without pain. The gums around two teeth that are really weakened still from last year's gum disease were swollen also and hurt so bad I wanted to cry.

Turns out that it's an upper respiratory infection that's much worse than the ones I normally get. The infection apparently creeped into my gums, and that's what's causing the gum/teeth pain. I'm still not quite sure why my cheek was swollen, but it was right around where the infection got into my gums, so I guess that's probably related.

Here it is Tuesday night, and I'm still just lying down all day. Mostly I've just slept all day every day since Saturday. I have left home only when I absolutely have to. Every time I cough I want to cry because it hurts. I keep sneezing and each time it feels like I'm just a step away from another nose bleed. I'm afraid to be around anyone because I know I'm contagious. I'm so drugged up on pain medicines and heavy-duty cold medicine that I probably shouldn't be out driving anyway or out in public at all. I'm severely hoping tomorrow will be better, but who knows. Off to bed ....