Monday, September 21, 2009

Small Piglet Flu

I might be coming down with something. Ug. Wouldn't that be awful? I blame my students and their dorm-room, crowed dining hall, beer pong existence.

Can you think of a more germ ridden game than beer pong? And no, 6-8% alcohol does not kill germs on contact so, no, those cups and ping pong balls aren't being sanitized between when the ball falls on the floor and when your buddy rubs his nose then grabs the ball and throws it in to your cup of beer. A cup that a few other random guys were drinking out of a few minutes ago that you refilled and reracked.

Anyway. I'm staying in today and taking it easy. Sleeping a lot and getting my liquids. Hopefully this is just a sleep/caffeine/allergies issue. Hopefully. It's tough because this is the right time of the school year (about one month in) for everyone to get sick due to contact with a bunch of fun new people with fun new germs.

Am I worried about swine flu? Yes, but not in an everyone's-going-to-get-it end-of-the-world sort of way. I'm selfishly worried about me getting it because (a) the US population under 60 does not have any resistance to the strain because nothing similar has been doing around in the past fifty years or so [therefore, if I were to contract a normal flue it would be much milder than what I'd go through with our piglet friend], (b) it loves to spread in dorms and summer camps and as a teacher of first year writing most of my students are freshmen living in dorms and (c) when I've gotten the flu before I've gone down hard. Out for two weeks. Fevers with hallucinations. I thought I was floating up off the bed only to have the sheets yank me back down; it was an awful sickening feeling that I do not want to repeat. Ever.

I'm waiting on tenterhooks for the flu shot to come out so I can have a little bit of armor other than hand sanitizer.

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