Swine flu - it could be you

If you're sitting there watching the news about swine flu and feeling quite smug that you're a normal, healthy person who won't fall foul of the flu and even if you did, would shrug it off with a day or two in bed, think again.

Last summer when swine flu made its first rounds, I was a normal, healthy person who thought I'd never fall foul of the flu and even if I did, would shrug it off with a day or two in bed. 

And then I got the flu.

I had two and a half weeks off work, most of it spent in bed with a temperature and a fever. When I finally felt well enough to back to work after the course of Tamiflu, I was there for four days before I had to go off on sick leave again for a further two weeks.  Holidays to Spain that we'd looked forward to for months had to be cancelled. When I did return to work, I was useless, tired, spent. Fortunately, we have a very good Occupational Health office where I work and they put me on a phased return over five weeks, which helped a great deal.

The flu virus had triggered off in my systerm something particularly nasty that affected my energy, my muscles, and left me with what the doctor called post-viral fatigue.  I'd never heard of it before, but even now, more than a year after the swine flu, my energy level isn't the same as it was before last summer's flu. At one point in the post-viral fug, my legs wouldn't even work properly and it was all I could do to manage a short walk to the local shop before collapsing on the sofa for an hour to recharge my batteries. Anyway, in short, it was really nasty stuff.

I know everyone reacts differently to all kinds of disease but if you're sitting there watching the news about swine flu and feeling quite smug that you're a normal, healthy person who won't fall foul of the flu and even if you did, would shrug it off with a day or two in bed, think again.  And get your flu jab now.