TORONTO - It seems celebrity skin is just as susceptible to H1N1 flu as everyone else's.
Former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur says she's recovering from a bout with the H1N1 influenza strain.
"It turns out that, somewhere between a video shoot in Vermont, a heavy metal concert in London, and my own musical showcase in Toronto, I had indeed fallen victim to a world pandemic," Auf der Maur wrote in a first-person account at online magazine, the Mark.
"I am now officially on the mend -- thanks to a combination of naturopathic treatments and heavy-duty antibiotics, among other survival tools."
Auf der Maur says she initially started feeling symptoms in May, suffering from a stuffy nose, a sore throat and body aches.
"But they came all at once, and were far more intense than I had ever experienced," wrote Auf der Maur, who spent five years in Hole and played on 1998's "Celebrity Skin." "For a person who only gets ill once or twice a decade, it was scary."
She went to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a sinus infection and prescribed antibiotics, which she says she took reluctantly. She said she didn't feel any effects from the medication for days, and then suffered a nightmare about taking the wrong medication.
But she travelled to London anyway to play shows. She then went to Toronto to perform at North by Northeast and showcase her new multimedia project, "Out of Our Minds."
By late June, she still felt unwell and had to begun to suffer from shortness of breath, but still didn't put the pieces together until she read a newspaper article about swine flu. Then, she took a turn for the worse.
"Suddenly, a week into my shortness of breath, it really hit: a roller coaster of fever spikes," she wrote.
"Over the course of 48 hours, my temperature went from 95 F to 101, and back again. It was a very strange feeling, being pulled back and forth between severe illness and feeling fine."
She returned to the doctor and this time, she was diagnosed with swine flu. She says she was treated with another round of antibiotics, and is now beginning to feel better.
Looking on the bright side, she hopes she's now immune to the virus.
"When many other swine virgins will be falling ill, I'll be good to go!" she wrote.
"However, have no fear friends: it's a terrible flu, but it is manageable, and we swine veterans will be here to help you through it. Here's to good health."
