The Flu

I must have thought to myself at least 50 times through the fall that I needed to get a flu shot. I had great intentions, and if intentions were a vaccine, I would not have been sick last week, and Tim and the kids would not have been sick this week. This was one of those viruses that you only get about once every ten years. This was not one of those viruses where you take ibuprofen and power through. In the 6 days I was sick, I drank warm peppermint tea with honey, warm honey and lemon, took every cold medication imaginable trying to find one that would give some relief, and even though I was in bed most of the time, I got very little sleep. In addition to honey and lemon and peppermint tea, I tried other home remedies. One particularly disgusting remedy was gargling with cayenne pepper and vinegar. I owe this one to my dad. It actually helped a little, so I kept doing it. So far as other family members have become ill, they've turned down my home remedies in favor of cough medicine and ibuprofen.

The last time all of us had "THE flu" was the week of New Year's 2000. Any guesses how we welcomed in this new millenium? I remember sitting there that night looking at my three sick chilren and having the realization that once every 30 or so generations we welcome in a millenium. We happened to be alive during one of those years, and our celebration took place to an orchestra of coughs, sniffles, and the drone of the cold mist humidifier to mark the occasion. If this only happens once every 9 years, we'll stop complaining. Less than a century ago, millions were killed by the flu. I've decided health is a gift you don't realize you have until you don't have it.