So Sunday night, I was sick. I had a sore throat and a stuffy nose, and my temperature was going up. I looked at the CDC website and read the symptoms and was convinced that I had not only contracted H1N1 through my interactions with some random visitor to Mexico, but that I had also spread it to the audience of Wicked, the graduates of the University of Phoenix, and dozens of family and coworkers who wouldn't be too happy with me.
I was relieved when I woke up the next morning to find that I felt OK (still some coughing and sneezing), but no fever. I should have known that I was OK though, because, according to my mom, I'm genetically immune from the swine flu. In fact, I would not exist were it not for the malady. Here's the deal:
My great-grandmother was married when the flu of 1918 struck. Her poor husband did not survive the flu, and many around her also died. She tried to nurse all around her back to health, and her hair even fell out, but she lived. And my mom thinks great-grandma passed those survival genes on to us, thus making me immune to the swine flu. Also, following the flu ordeal, my great-grandmother married her second husband, my great-grandfather. So, in some bizarre way, I have the swine flu to thank for my existence.
Here are some other fascinating facts about the flu of 1918:
1. It was transmitted during WWI, especially among soldiers. Usually, when someone is really sick, they stay home and don't pass on their germs, while people who aren't as sick are out mingling among the people, passing their yuckiness around. This means that the milder strains get spread, while the more intense strains don't. Well, during the war, the really sick soldiers were being sent home, which meant they were on trains and boats and whatnots, infecting everyone. The soldiers with milder cases stayed put. At least, that's what Wikipedia says.
2. According to my dad (who read it somewhere; I don't think he made it up), people in 1918 were told that smoking cigarettes would cure the flu. Insert your own punchline here.
Song of the day: Definitely not this screechfest that I'm hearing on All Songs Considered right now. I'll see if I can find something more peaceful.
3 comments:
but it sounds as if you have had swine flu since the day the Bean entered day care, so truly you are immune.
That's quite the story. It has all the elements of a great, romantic work of historical fiction. Especially the part where tragedy resulted in the immunity of future generations.
Kirsten: This is so true. I think that all bacteria that have ever existed end up on The Bean's head and then they're passed on to yours truly.
MBC: It's like "Love in the Time of Cholera" only not in Spanish.
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