BEEN SICK

To say I have been sick recently 

is a HUGE understatement.

I have been beat up and felt better.  Even my hair hurts.  

Don't get me started on the racking cough.

I literally had to slide out of bed and crawl to my clothes 

to get ready to see the doctor I was so weak yesterday.

He scolded me for waiting so long, 

saying he had seen CPR dummies with more color.

(Red Cross Workers prepare for flu patients in St. Louis. 1918)

Now, unlike the deadly Spanish Flu Outbreak in 1918 which killed up to 50 million people, 

this Flu Season is only "Moderately Severe!"

This Flu Season is dominated by the H3N2 strain, the most deadly of the four flu strains.  

Lucky us, right?

In Southern California and Central Texas, 

some hospitals have become so overwhelmed that they have had to turn patients away.

Even in mild flu seasons, the flu kills 12, 000 Americans.  

In bad years like this one, it can kill up to 56,000.

This year, this flu has killed a 10 year old boy in Connecticut, 

a 21 year old body builder, 

and a four year old boy in Dayton, Ohio.

Different people have differently composed immune systems, 

and sometimes those immune systems are part of the reason so many "healthy" people die from the flu.

Don't be like me.

Seek a doctor's help without delay if you feel you may have the flu.