So maybe that wasn't the flu... THIS is the flu!

The 36 hour bug I mentioned in my last post was NOT the flu after all. Perhaps a run in with a simple *common cold* virus, at least for Sam and I. Tom had the flu blown influenza virus, which did NOT run a simple 36 hour course. Yesterday was day 8 since it first came on him, and he was finally feeling up to leaving the house. In the hours after I posted my blog post on Thursday, I went downhill on a jet ski. My *normal* temperature runs in the low 97* range. By mid-afternoon, I was almost 101*. The aches- oh my! and coughing and miseries. In comparing notes, even our eyeballs ached. My sweet daughter Becky, in Texas, has also had the flu, and still had to cope with mothering  five kids. Small kids don't stop needing fed and clothes and diapered, and stop dirtying dishes just because Mom is sick. Then, the kids began succumbing to this. Yikes. If there is anything worse than feeling this bad, it is having your babies feel this bad and nothing that can be done to really help it.

Today is day 6 for me. I feel heaps and tons better, but still 'disconnected' and dizzy. I was beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel yesterday, when Tom did, in fact get hold of the Lysol Spray. I was not heeded in warnings that I needed to be out of the house, or at least behind closed doors for several hours. He sprayed down our bedroom and bath, doors dutifully closed... then came out and left the doors open. The airborne particles hit my lungs, and.... my breathing goes spasmodic. I rushed out into the cold on the front porch... where an apologetic Mr C brought me blankets. He shut the door back, but you know, like Pandora's Box, the deed was done. I sat outside in the sunshine awhile, then came back in, where a wave of self pity hit and I huddled in a heap on the couch and cried.

Yeah. Not pretty! Still, we are very seldom this sick. It happens once in awhile. Even if it happened every year, a few days of feeling this awful in trade for NOT having to deal with a destroyed pancreas resulting in Type 1 diabetes... worth the illness. We know two young women who now have Type 1 diabetes as a result of a Flu shot. This is a listed possible side effect, and has been known since the 70's. The doctors of these young women both told them the flu shot was the likely culprit, but that it is so *rare*, they still recommend the shot. The Flu shot that is hit or miss in its make-up annually, which missed its make-up this year, the newscasters tell us... "But there is still time to get yours!"

Anyhow.... keep your hands washed! Use those sanitizing wipes on the carts when you go shopping. Use hand sanitizer as soon as you get back to your vehicle. Keep your coughs and sneezes covered, and STAY HOME while you are sick!