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| Me before flu shots - April 1977 - no bad colds |
This is Week Two of my cold. After a telephone conversation with a guest who was making a hotel reservation tonight at the hotel, I have determined that I have the flu. She also has the flu. Has had it for the past two weeks and just wants to get away from her New Jersey home to the sunshine to our sunny little town of Lewes on the East coast of Delaware.
She said this is a new strain of flu that LASTS THREE WEEKS! She described all the symptoms:
- Begins with a sore throat
- Moves to the sinuses
- Then a dry cough
- Achy body
- Exhaustion
- Shortness of breath
- Lethargy
Those symptoms are the same symptoms I have!
My whole past history of getting colds is that they last two to three days. I never get colds in my sinuses. I almost always get chest congestion. I know how my colds work. This one is different. I've never had a "cold" like this before.
Up until a few years ago I never got a flu shot. Last year I got a flu shot. I had the WORST COLD in my lifetime last year. I thought I was dying. For the first time in my life I had to go to a doctor because I feared that I would not recover. I was afraid to go to sleep because I couldn't breath. It was a good thing I went to the doctor because she said one of my lungs was full and the other was filling up. I was a few days away from Walking Pneumonia. Even though I felt like dying, that's how miserable I was, I survived after taking the antibiotics that my doctor prescribed.
So this year comes along and all the bombarding notices come out about "GET YOUR FLU SHOT!" So I got my flu shot at the VA Outpatient Clinic. A month goes by. Last week at this time I wake up with a slight sore throat. Uh oh. "Cold coming on Ron!"
I thoroughly expected this to be another typical "Ron Cold." I was wrong. Oh boy was I ever wrong.
I struggled through work at the hotel on Wednesday and Thursday with my cold. I looked forward to the weekend so I could recover. Lots of rest and sleep which I did. Then I get a call from my manager at the hotel. "Could I come into work this week on Monday and Tuesday in addition to my regular Wednesday and Thursday shift?" Of course I couldn't say "No." I got through last night and I'll get through tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night. Hopefully by then my "cold" will be gone.
My question is, what good is it for me to get a flu shot? For the past two years, in spite of my flu shot, I've had the worst "colds" in my lifetime. Either this is a new strain of flu or else I'm getting the flu by the flu shot.
Next year I'm going to bypass the flu shot. I bet I don't get a cold. In the meantime I'm hitting the sack again until I have to go into work this afternoon.
