Memories of Influenza

I think I've had the flu badly only twice in my life. I think. My mother tells about the time I was sick as an 18-month-old child and they had to hospitalize me in isolation. I don't remember anything about it, but I think it rather significantly traumatized me. Today I think they would allow your mother to be with you. That's the part she talks about, because that's the part she would be most traumatized about. I've only come away with abandonment issues and a strange affinity for women in uniform. Heh.

In 1980 when I was 25 I got the flu. I remember that episode quite well. I was really sick for a good two weeks. If it weren't for liquid Sudafed and a bottle of port I had stashed under the sink, I'm not sure how I would have gotten by. The Sudafed helped me breathe, and the alcohol helped me sleep.

Actually, my girlfriend had gotten sick with it, first. I remember going out to buy a humidifier and medicine about four hours before I came down with it. I'm sure I spread my bugs to the people I came into contact with, but what could I do?

I think when I was sick at Christmas in 1996 was also a flu bug, but since we (my girlfriend of the time) were only sick about a week, I don't count that among the bad ones. Yeah, it was no fun being stuck sick in a dreary apartment in Atlanta. No tree, only a few presents, and both of us hacking and coughing.

I didn't say my memories were fond. Influenza can suck out loud. It can kill you, too. I'm just lucky I was young and pretty healthy in 1980, because that one was pretty damn bad. I googled for references to a 1980 flu outbreak, but found nothing. There was a swine flu scare in 1976, but it's hard to say what strain the bug in 1980 was.

Well, I don't know where I'm going with this post. I just thought I'd write about what's going on in the "influenza epidemic/pandemic" news, these days. Just in case I get sick and can't write about it, later.