January Journal: Ugh – the dreaded flu hit us

About a week after we arrived, we both came down with the winter, nasty flu. I actually tested positive and Marc did not, but they treated both of us with Tami-flu and antibiotics, as well as some cough suppressant. For almost 2 weeks, we did pretty much nothing more than the absolute minimum of work, movement, and travel. Marc was really sick for about 4 days, and he was able to bounce back and make the trips to the grocery store and various fast food joints to provide us with sustenance. I spent about 9 days eating nothing more than toast, and the occasional bowl of chicken noodle soup.  Ugh!! Not my idea of a great time! And no, the flu we had was the version that the flu shot didn’t cover, so that wasn’t helpful!
I eventually started to come back to life, except for a rough cough that lasted another 10 days.  I went from eating almost nothing to cooking every kind of ‘comfort food’ I could think up – grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, soup, stew….. you get the idea.
On the rare occasion when I get sick with a cold or flu, I try to just burn-it-out with green chili. Probably my New Mexico heritage – green chili cures everything, especially the hotter it is. So I kept eating green chili with salsa, soup and everything else.  Guess it finally worked!
Part of the pain of being sick was the cost of visiting a Dr and buying prescription drugs.  We do have some health coverage from Liberty Healthshare, but with a large deductible, we knew we would be paying for the visit ourselves.  Between the 2 Dr visits, and the medications, our bill was more than $600!  Wowzer!  The Tamiflu alone was $200.
We choose to use supplements and regular chiropractic visits to help keep us healthy and keep sickness at bay. Many years ago, we were told that if regular travel to other regions was going to be our lives, we would be exposed to ‘regional’ viruses.  As a permanent resident in a particular area, you become immune to most viruses around – but when you move, you are exposed to lots of new ones, with no immunity.
We are – thankfully – generally very healthy people and haven’t needed medical services for quite a few years.  At that price, I’m hoping it will be a long time again!
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