Getting sick is never any fun

It wasn't enough that my wife would have to suffer from the loss of her full-time houseboy and yard man when I got a job after a year of unemployment, but she came down with a nasty case of the flu on Friday, the day before her older brother was getting married. As a result, she'd be the only immediate family member to miss the wedding.

That might have been the worst thing about her sickness, but the fatigue, fever, congestion and general yucky feeling was a close second. She initially discounted the headache and congestion as just another change-of-season cold, but it quickly became apparent this was something else. And it came at a particularly busy time on her job, which made matters even worse.

The exact nature of the illness remains unclear: Was it plain old seasonal flu or the new and scarier swine flu? When I was in for a checkup last month, my physician said authorities weren't doing tests any more in most cases. You treat both kinds of flu the same way, so why bother? My wife didn't go to the doctor because there's not much an M.D. can do for a routine case of the flu. Bed rest, plenty of liquids, fever reducers — no need for a prescription for that regimen.

I haven't come down with any symptoms yet, and I certainly hope I don't. When I was at the doctor's last month, I got a flu shot — the regular kind — so maybe I'll avoid getting sick if what my wife had was seasonal flu. If I get sick, it might mean that it was swine flu, or H1N1. But there have been some suggestions that people of a certain age — born before 1950 — might have immunity from H1N1. I fit that cohort. So it may be that, if I don't get sick, it won't prove a thing.

I hope I avoid whatever that nasty bug is and, even more, I hope my wife recovers quickly.