Saturday, February 10, 2018

Pa Rock Gets Clobbered by the Flu

by Pa Rock
Sickly Typist

Up until yesterday afternoon I felt fairly certain that this year's flu epidemic would pass me by.  I get the shot each year, and I haven't had the flu in many years.  Over the past three weeks I had two very close encounters with the noxious bug, and seemed to have survived both unscathed.  I was apparently leading a charmed life.

Miss Patti had such a serious (and sudden) case of the flu in Hawaii that she had to be taken to a local hospital in an ambulance.   There she was officially diagnosed with influenza.  While we were at the hospital I talked to the doctor about the advisability of flu shots.  I had mine in November and wanted to know just how "protected" I was from the dreaded malady.   The doctor told me that at best flu shots were a crap shoot, and that the particular one being issued this year might give me a protection level of 15 to 20 percent.

I would hate to take those odds to Vegas!

Patti got better quickly and a week later we were home.  Then, soon after my arrival back at The Roost, my son, who lives with me, got extremely sick was was down for about a week.  He self-diagnosed his ailment as the flu.  By Thursday, after five or six days of being very ill, he appeared to be on the mend, and then yesterday he was much better.

And at almost the very moment tat Nick began showing signs of recovery, the damn thing sneaked up and grabbed me.  I spent last night dealing with being stopped-up and having a fever.  This morning I am somewhat better, but still thinking about seeing a doctor anyway to try and score some anti-biotics.

Yes, West Plains is a small town by almost anyone's standards, but the town has a nice, modern hospital with an emergency room - and the clinic that I go to advertises that it has a doctor on duty 24/7 for emergency visits.  I guess this morning - Saturday - I will find out if that's true or not.

(Many of the Japanese that I knew while living overseas were quick to put on hospital masks when going out in public.  That sounds like a sensible precaution - with a likely higher success rate than this year's flu shots.     Stay safe - being sick is no fun!)

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