It's Flu Season Again

As I sit here typing I can feel as my sinuses fill up like a heavy water balloon ready to burst. The pressure pushes against my eyes causing an annoying pain; they feel as if they are about to pop out of my head. I can barely see the screen as I continue to write the story I am working on.

My throat dry as the desert, tortured by the blast of the powerful coughs that push there way from my lungs. It is now raw and torn as if tiny little blades have sliced me from the inside out.

The acrid taste of phlegm crosses my crusty coated tongue making me feel nauseous and dizzy. I have to snort constantly to try and keep my nasal cavity clear to allow me to breathe. This action however has me swallowing more snot into my gullet adding to my upset stomach. I don't even know how I am able to keep from throwing up.

My head swims through a myriad of twisted dreams as I float between the conscious and the unconscious. The medications I am taking never seem to keep me in either state, so I stay in the dismal unknown my head floating as I struggle through this purgatory. Always asleep yet never feeling its warm embrace completely I am left tired and worn.

This cold has me regressing back to my days of an infant. I feel helpless and needy as the third and worst day drags on. Men are horrible when they are ill and on this third day I am one of those men, useless and sucky. My wife laughs a tiny laugh as she sees me typing away watching the sinus tears travel down my cheeks. I know what she is thinking because she had the same cold just a week ago and for some reason, a mystery still unknown to man, unlike me she continued as though her wall of cold was a mere step compared to the mountainous hurdle I am faced with. All I can think of is "How the heck do woman do it?" Like the torturous pain of child birth the flu is an obstacle women have seem to conquer, while we men are still left at the starting point.

It could be worse though, and I know I have been lucky. I have had the cough, the cold shivers as my body feels on fire and of course the constant drippy nose. Thank god I have yet to experience the two worst symptoms from this flu. I do not look forward to when I am trapped on a toilet with the copious fluids rocketing from my backside. Or even worse when you are trapped on that cold throne wondering if you should keep your behind there or if you need to quickly replace it with your head as the acidic liquid travels from your stomach over your taste buds and out your mouth like a violent projectile splashing into the ceramic basin. For a split second you feel relief from the escaped vomit, your settled stomach thanking you for the relief but then you taste it the bitter sourness of bile that urges on a companion for the basin.

How I hate these days of the flu, my brain doesn't seem to work correctly and the simplest of tasks become monumental. Your body cries out with each touch as if you are left a human voodoo doll and every touch is the witch pushing his pins deep into your skin, even putting your socks on leaves you breathless and sweaty.

The days seem like weeks, the hours like days and the minutes like days as time drags to almost a complete stop. All you can do is wait for the cycle to end and when you have the flu these days are endless. The world still turns and there are things you must still do though they are the last thing on your mind. How I wish I could just crawl away and hibernate in my soft warm bed to escape its clutches.

I know today is going to be the worst day, the middle of a cold cycle always is. They say three days coming, three days staying and three days going. At least I have something to look forward too and my hope drives me on. If the statement is true I have four more days of this madness so I will struggle on, trapped in this unseen bondage. It could have been worse though and I am thankful for that. My holidays are just around the corner and nothing is worse than being sick on your days off!