Thursday, February 20, 2014

Crud update


Miss D. and I both seem to have got over the feverish light-headed stage of the flu, and hopefully we'll no longer be infectious within another day or so.  We're still coughing (hacking would be a better word for it), and relying on nebulizer and inhaler treatments to keep our lungs reasonably operational.

I can't stress too strongly, friends:  if you get the flu that's going around now, take it seriously.  It's not to be trifled with.  The CDC reports that death rates due to flu and pneumonia are 'above the epidemic threshold'.  That should give you pause for thought, right there!  The son of friends volunteers at a hospital out West, and he reported that all available beds in that institution are filled with flu patients.  They're having to turn others away due to lack of space.

I can see us needing two to three weeks to fully shake off the effects of this season's flu bug.  Again, friends, please take good care of yourselves.  I don't want to lose readers, and I'd sure hate you to lose an author!

Peter

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang, that sucks. I have to ask, did you not get flu shots, or did you get shots and they didn't work? If it's the latter, I'm worried...

Peter said...

Miss D. had a flu shot - it clearly didn't work as a preventive measure (although it may have lessened the initial impact, and spread it over a month now instead of hitting her all at once).

I had a pneumonia shot, but no flu shot, and for the first three weeks Miss D. was ill I wasn't affected. Unfortunately, our housemate and his GF both came down with the crud, and the combination of germs finally broke down my defenses (and probably reinfected Miss D.).

Next year, I'm getting the flu shot for sure! The pneumonia shot is good for 4-5 years, I'm told, so I won't need that again for a while. Nevertheless, the way my chest feels right now, I'm extremely glad I took that precaution . . .

:-O

Anonymous said...

Anecdata, and info from a source in the regional medical center out here, indicates the the flu shot attenuates the crud, even if you do happen to get the beastly bug. Think of it as an under-weight shotgun shell. It won't do what it was supposed to do, but it will still slow the little buggers and stop a few of them.

LittleRed1 (aka TXRed)

Paul said...

When I got my Flu shot it had three strains it was good against. The had a 4 bug version as well and I wanted that one, but the wife nixed it. She did not get one as having spent years in the company of children she has a pretty good immunity.

So far this year I have had minimal distress. She did catch something that took her out for about a week or so.

I am thinking a shot is pretty cheap prevention at this time. You can get then anywhere for 20 bucks or less. Pretty good insurance if you ask me.