Flu

I don’t believe anyone should be compelled or coerced to get a flu shot, for either regular seasonal flu or H1N1.  But whether or not one chooses to get one ought to be based on a realistic knowledge of one’s own health history and status, and that of one’s family or those with whom one comes into regular contact.

 

 They offer flu shots every year where I work (for Federal employees only, not the contractors, of which there are many), and most years I get one.  It seems to help ward the flu off, not infallibly, but a flu shot has never made me sick.  I have occasionally come down with it later in the year anyway; but there are lots of varieties of flu out there, and the seasonal flu shot is only good for whatever the popular flavor was the previous year and might be again this year.  I get the shot not only for me, but also for my immediate family (wife and daughter), who tend to get sick a lot and have chronic illnesses (diabetes and fibromyalgia for my wife, and asthma for my daughter).   And for myself, I seem to have an annoying tendency to develop pneumonia if I get a decent bug going.

 

This year, I did not get a flu shot at work, because I was sick when they were offering it.  With the flu.  Which I have had off and on for most of the last month.  By the time I felt better and was thinking about getting the shot anyway, they had run out of their supply.

 

I do not know for sure if I have had the H1N1 flu, since I did not get tested for it, and by the time I had decided that might be a good idea, it was really too late to bother.  It first appeared the last week of September, and then eased off (I thought it was gone) long enough for me and my wife to travel to Oregon for our nephew’s wedding.  Then it came back; went away again; and came back again.  It is mostly gone now.

 

Now, I had been led to believe that denizens of the geezer generation like me, who have been through an iteration or two of the swine flu and its kin in the past, are supposed to have some immunity to the current H1N1.  I still hope that is true, because I sure do not want anything worse.  This is a cruddy flu that, for me, made everything hurt, dissipated ambition for anything other than sleeping and sometimes listening to my new Woodstock box set, threw in some slight chills and yecchhiness early on, and hung on and on like your layabout offspring who can’t seem to find themselves a job.

 

Trust me, you do not want this.  I would not wish it upon anyone, not even the racists and fascists that some people see lurking under the kitchen sink.  Whether or not you get a flu shot (seasonal or H1N1) should be up to you, but at least remember to wash your damn hands whenever you get the chance, sneeze and cough into your sleeve or a tissue, and if you get sick, stay the hell home.  After a while, you will feel better, and so will everyone else.