It started as a little tickle in the back of my esophagus the other day at work. I found myself clearing my throat and drinking lots of water, prompting co-workers to ask if I was okay. Sure! I was fine! I never get sick and cannot remember ever getting the flu, so I have consequently never seen the need to get the flu vaccine. Why press my luck?

At home after work, congestion started to clog my nose and my speech became nasal. Oh, dear. I was getting a cold, possibly the flu…bummer! This illness then started to ravage my whole body. Soon, hearty coughs emerged sounding like the bark of the sea lions in on the San Francisco piers. Coughing hurt, but the pain was not to be avoided as the coughs came uncontrollably, wracking my chest like a battering ram and completely shocking Hubby who decided to shutter himself in the bedroom, alone, far from my germs.

A visit to the pharmacy resulted in the purchase of five different types of “severe cold” medications. Science is great and we can clone a woolly mammoth, surely there was something to make the coughing go away, something for the congestion that filled my lungs and nose with cotton, and something for the immense headache that made me feel like my head was in a vice. With all the modern inventions, surely medicine had come up with a way to stop the torture of the flu that invaded my body. Alas, none of the purchases adequately controlled the symptoms, and sounds of my sneezing and coughing soon filled the room, causing Hubby to shut the bedroom door tight.

Exhaustion took over my throbbing body, and for four days I slept on the couch almost non-stop except for the grunts, coughs and sneezes that would arouse me from my slumber only to spew more germs around the rest of the room. Hubby stayed in the bedroom where he had moved a small refrigerator and a microwave, making it almost like a hotel room. Sometimes he would venture out to use the bathroom, covering his nose and spraying the bathroom fixtures with sanitizer so as not to touch any wayward microorganisms that might render the same fate to his body.

Days turned into nights and vice versa with little let-up of my agony. On the fifth day, I found I could slightly breathe out of one of my nostrils and my cough, which had been deep and ragged, turned phlegmy and loose, both signs that the illness was receding. The end was in sight! I jumped up from the couch to do a little dance, but dizziness forced me to sit back down again. Perhaps my body required some substantial food rather than the chicken broth, tea, and popsicles I had been sucking down for the past five days.

I added toast to my tea drinking, and soon found I could sit up and watch television. Oh, joy! My once scourged body was starting to come around! Although some aches and pains lingered, and a minor sneeze or cough escaped here and there, I was on the road to recovery.

I could have been annoyed that this illness had taken over my life, but instead, relief swelled inside me, elation that I had survived this torture and made it through unscathed. This illness made me appreciate the healthy existence I have lived so far. Oh, what a lucky life I have led!