With a fever, bone-chilling body aches and difficulty breathing, H1N1 is the worst flu she’s ever had, says an Edmonton woman.

“It was brutal. I’ve never had a flu like that,” said Tabatha Pound, 33, a cemetery director and mother of one.Last Tuesday, her symptoms got so bad that she went to a clinic where a doctor told her she had a mild case of H1N1 and advised her to take time off work.Pound said the chills became so bad that she would lie in nearly scalding baths to warm up.She also had a sore throat, cough and loss of appetite and was confined to her couch and her bed for a week.

“It’s definitely a flu, but it’s like a combination of flu, cough and everything put together. It’s horrible,” said Pound, who’s usually healthy.”If this was just a mild case, holy cow. I wouldn’t want to go through what the people that are really, really sick are having to.”Pound’s case wasn’t confirmed by a lab because most people with symptoms aren’t being tested if they’re at a low risk for complications.

Meanwhile, officials are today expected to announce a new plan to give the H1N1 vaccination to those in the high-risk category first  pregnant women, children under the age of five and those under 65 with chronic health conditions — before allowing the general public to get shots again.

While it may be easy to spot a woman who is pregnant or a child under five, other high-risk people will have to prove they are before they’ll be allowed to get a shot — for example, by bringing their prescriptions along.

“We do need to be really strict now because we have a limited vaccine,” said Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett.

Pound, who didn’t get the shot, said she expected the government to better handle the pandemic that has led to 14 deaths in Alberta since April.”You would think that the province and our health-care system would be more prepared for something like this,” said Pound, who plans to return to work today if her cough subsides.

She said she plans to get vaccinated even though she’s already been sick.