A Not-So-Fantastic Voyage...
Let's see, is that "feed a cold, starve a fever", or the other way around?

WHEN A PERSON COMES DOWN with a bad case of the flu, it can be so miserable that it is easy to feel as if one is literally trapped inside the body. All of a sudden, walking a few steps can be totally exhausting, putting on clothes can seem like an insurmountable task, and it's all one can do just to get to the next room without collapsing in a heap of quivering, chill-racked flesh. The slightest action causes sweat to form on the brow, and as far as "functions" go, I'll just say that there are times when one should be thankful that there's not a parking meter located next to the commode.

THIS IS ABOUT HOW I have felt for the last couple of weeks. I'm beginning to come out of it now, but wow, it is so amazing how helpless I felt while I was suffering the worst of it. I could barely keep my balance and put one foot in front of the other for several days. Going out to the kitchen and trying to fix myself something for breakfast took all of the planning of a major foreign policy decision. I'd get out to the kitchen, drag out a chair to sit on, reach up into the cupboard for a can of peaches and then I'd collapse back into the chair and sit there for 10 or 15 minutes while I got my bearings before actually OPENING the can. Then I'd go through the same thing making coffee. If you've got the flu, and you can fix yourself a really good cup of coffee, it tastes like the nectar of the gods. And the canned peaches packed in heavy syrup...all of a sudden, they taste sooooo good. MMMMM. Experiencing sickness like this makes me think of senior citizens who succumb to the flu, or pneumonia, or whatever...I know I used to get thru it a lot easier when I was younger; but these last few years, every time I get the flu (once every 2-3 years) it seems to dig in just a little bit deeper.

I WAS LITERALLY CRAWLING back and forth between the bedroom and bathroom. My body went totally bad two weeks ago; I'd had a funny feeling in my sinuses, and when the flu hit me, early on a Saturday morning, I couldn't keep my balance, my eyes seemed to be working independently of each other, and I couldn't even get into bed...I have a carpet on my bedroom floor and I laid on that and went to sleep, curled up in a fetal position. All of a sudden I couldn't think about anything; all I could do was exist in some sort of foggy sub-primal condition where all I could do was breathe. If I tried to think about something, my brain spun 'round and 'round and I'd feel queasy...so I'd breathe. Breathe. Breathe. And I existed like THAT for two days. At that time, the kitchen seemed as if it was 27 miles away; there was no way I could go all the way out there. And I didn't eat for the better part of three days. I've probably lost some weight. And believe me, I can think of safer (and far more pleasant) methods of weight loss. And right now, I'm thinking about food. Food that I've missed out on while suffering this affliction. I haven't had pizza, or egg rolls, or Sausage McMuffins, or a good big breakfast in half a month now, and I'm afraid my appetite is going to come roaring back....FEED ME!!! NOW!!! ROARRRR!!!

THIS IS HOW I'VE BEEN FEELING, but I think I'm turning a corner here; there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm now feeling better than I have in a while. I am hopeful. I'll get to do the little things again. You know, like actually go to a store and buy things instead of paying a cab driver to deliver them. Or, perhaps, actually spending an hour outside and taking a walk. I haven't seen the ocean for 2 weeks, and I live maybe a mile and a half from it. I mean, I've been feeling better...playing the occasional game of video pinball on my computer...listening to TONS of records...when the eyes are malfunctioning and dizziness is prevalent, well, the ears still work well; thank God for music, huh? It has really helped get me through the last couple of weeks. This has been a sort of really warped "fantastic voyage" where I have taken a voyage inside my own body; it's shown me that I can have all sorts of lofty goals and philosophies and feelings and emotions, but that when the body takes over, all of a sudden, I'm trapped inside it and there isn't a lot I can do until the sickness runs its course. And that's amazing in a way. How, all of a sudden, I became so small, waaay down, deep inside of me while my body was mustering, somehow, the energy to pull itself back together. Actually, tho, I'm thinking it was a "not-so-Fantastic Voyage".

LIFE WILL GO ON; I'll get better, the sun will continue to shine; there's still a lot of warm days left in the year, and from mid-September thru about the end of October, things are just glorious here on the coast. And I look forward to breathing the ocean breezes again. And, maybe I can just enjoy things again, sorta like these not-so-little guys below...

Let me leave you with a little bit of advice, which I've mentioned before in a fairly recent post: GET A FLU SHOT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE ON THE HIGH SIDE OF 50. JUST DO IT! If I'd spent $20 or whatever on a flu shot, I could've saved myself a whole lotta grief this time around.
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Anyway, have a good weekend. And drink your Orange Juice. And eat your Chicken Soup. That, too, can taste like nectar of the gods.