I recommend the seasonal flu, but please allow me to comment.
About a week ago I suddenly felt tired and weak. I just wanted to sleep.
I didn’t think about it then. At the moment, my family is facing some challenges, challenges that we all need to face now and again – and we are all being beaten.
But it was not just fatigue.
Was it a big C, I wondered?
I have never been tested for having a positive COVID-19. Did that terrible virus finally find its way to my blessed health feast?
It turned out that it was just normal flu – but there was nothing normal about it.
A particularly horrific and highly contagious bug that spread rapidly in my area, it was the worst flu condition I have ever had in my life.
With the intense national and global focus on a deadly “new coronavirus” in the last three years, it’s easy to forget how deadly normal flu is.
According to the CDC, which has always been difficult to pinpoint in exact numbers, the flu has killed between 17,000 and 97,000 Americans annually since 2012.
Healthline says the flu has caused at least “3.5 million flu cases, 34,000 cases and 2,000 deaths” in the United States this season.
And I was among its victims.
I went to ER to make sure it was a mistake that caused my problems and my heart and foundations were healthy – and I’m very happy that they were (and are).
Then I went home and for the next four days I immediately began to sleep in the same place without moving – no food, nothing -.
I have a toothache. I could feel the piano sitting on my chest. Nausea did not subside.
It was one of the best weeks of my life.
This is a very common problem in affluent America: you can easily forget that you are so good, so long as you are reminded that bad things can happen.
I remember recently filling my truck with $ 40 for a tank – and now a tank costs $ 70.
When I pump water there, I just think about how much effort I put into it a few years ago and how I was able to put a good buffer in my savings account to get ready for a rainy day.
Now I think the 1% refund on my savings account will pay off 8.4% compared to last month’s inflation rate – and the 9.6% rate that will be this month – and I can see how low inflation is. -I accepted the past. the price we’ve been enjoying for decades.
Suddenly your good health is taken away from you – but in my case, temporarily, fortunately, it forces me to focus on important issues, not trivial ones.
From now on, I don’t want to waste a part of a second discussing politics on social media, but I want to spend as much time as possible with my parents to enjoy them.
Every time I see them now – and I haven’t been able to do that in the last week – I ask them a new question about their lives and the lives of other family members.
They are a source of wisdom and I want to gain as much experience and knowledge as they can while they are still able to share it.
And now you know why I recommend the seasonal flu!
Tom Pursell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.