virus 23 November 2008
I am not a hypochondriac. Lately, as you all know, I brought the G to the vet with sneezing and a slight cough and the result is that she has a dust allergy, but for myself it was a top over the counter antihistamine. I am slightly asthmatic, but I have inhalers for that and really resent having to go twice a year to get prescriptions for those when I really don’t need to, at least not that often. In other words, I have to be actually sick before I will bother anyone. But there are some things which, even if I do get, will have be rampant before I give in and admit that I have them and need help, which will also, by that time, be a little late for interventional help. Those things include SARS (remember that?) and Bird Flu. They turned out to be damp enough squibs in terms of pandemics (still don’t want them, by the by). And although each year there is a flu vaccine I get free (if I remember to go get it – usually while getting the asthmatic inhaler prescription I feel I shouldn’t have to go for so I make the doctor’s visit count) I don’t have it as a huge priority. However, I wrote a book with a character who has Alzheimer’s, MISSING YOU ALREADY, which you’ll all see in shops from January 8th, and I am convinced I have a little of that as a result. In other words, I am susceptible. So I should not watch dramas on the tv about the whole world dying of the flu, barring a handful of survivors, like the one screened tonight by the BBC – already I HAVE IT.
