Stay away from me.
No, really, it’s for your own good.
If we lived in medieval times, I’d paint a red cross on the door and wait for the wagon to come by with the driver shouting, “Throw out your dead!”
In spite of getting my flu shot last September, I have a case of it so bad that when a friend came by with food from the church, she had to leave it on the porch and run away. At a distance, she said, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
My answer was two words, “Shoot me.”
My head is full of rocks; my nose is completely unusable, and I’ve become a mouth breather. The body aches make me think of what it must feel like to fall down a flight of stairs. I wake up in the mornings with my eyes glued shut, and have to run warm water over my face to unstick my lashes. I’ve coughed away five pounds (actually, that’s a bonus, but a tough diet technique).
My son has severe sinusitis and coughing. My daughter-in-law has double pneumonia. So far, my three-year-old granddaughter is the only family member who’s healthy. She doesn’t understand why she can’t visit grandma and why everybody has stopped hugging and kissing. Not to mention the obsessive hand washing. And all that chicken soup.
Several neighbors are sick as well. The fine concrete dust and flying dirt rolling into our houses and covering our cars as a result of Kelly Street construction worsens breathing problems. I feel sorry for the workers in the middle of it.
After thinking I could beat this thing, I gave up after a few days and went to Immediate Care at White Wilson Clinic on Airport Road. The waiting room was filled to overflowing with fellow sufferers, including a lot of sick children. I think I scared a few of the little ones because of the mask I was wearing. But I didn’t want to share my abundance of germs with others. I’m selfish that way.
So, what makes this winter more severe for upper respiratory illness?
The 2014-15 flu season is at the midway point, and it’s shaping up to be a difficult one, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Director Dr. Tom Frieden says it’s been particularly bad for people 65 and older. (That would be me). Sadly, pediatric deaths are up to 26 since the season began in the fall.
The CDC had predicted the season would be a bad one after most of the samples taken from people with the flu tested positive for the H3N2 strain. That strain of virus is “nastier,” according to Frieden, and generally makes people sicker than with strains reported in previous years. Even if they’ve had a flu shot.
“Nasty” would be my word for it. And, worse, it’s predicted to last into spring.
With that in mind, Frieden suggests getting a flu shot if you haven’t yet been vaccinated.
This year’s shot is not a perfect match for the mutated virus, but it’s the best protection available for people and can lessen the severity of the illness.
I think my flu is quite severe enough, but if having gotten a shot has mitigated my symptoms, I shudder to think what I’d be feeling like if I hadn’t been vaccinated.
Still, I count my blessings, and if you too are suffering from this “nasty” flu, you might also consider the “could be worse” things to which the frail human body is vulnerable. This malady will pass for most of us, and we’ll survive, really no worse for the wear.
I pray each morning for friends of mine and for others who are not so fortunate. Two friends have just had leg amputations necessitated by the ravages of diabetes. Because of my late husband Frank, I know the cruelty of that disease. I pray for those who have cancer, another vicious killer of good people. For those whose hearts are failing. For those who live with unrelenting pain. I pray for the little four year old with leukemia whose time is short unless a miracle happens.
For all those whose illnesses will not pass by spring.
Mary Ready of Destin is a twice-retired English teacher and long-time area resident. Her columns are published on Saturdays