First Entry - Recovering from the Flu

This will be my first venture as a "blogger," and I look forward to the challenge. I am starting this Blog as a part of FacetsWoman, an organization I launched last year for professional women. If you believe there should be more to life than work and family, then FacetsWoman is for you. We have a great time polishing the many facets of our interests. For more information on FacetsWoman, go to http://www.facetswoman.com. See, I have my first link.

But back to the Blog. As a leading edge Baby Boomer, I thought it might be fun to document my slide into what used to be thought of as "old age" -- 60 and beyond. My birthday is June 3, 1946 and I have to admit looking at 60 with a certain amount of skepticism. But I am not there yet -- still a youthful 59-- whatever that means.

My challenge for the week is to recover from the flu. I tried to get a flu shot from my doctor, but none were available. My husband, Steve, brought home the virus and I promptly caught it last Tuesday. This is the sickest I have ever been in my life -- REALLY!

When Steve was sick and I was still well, I made the trip to the Super Fresh to buy all the stuff he needed to recuperate. We needed a thermometer because we finally had exhausted what had, at one point, seemed like a limitless supply of them. You see both of my parents are deceased from more than a fifteen years and when they were ill they went to the hospital frequently. Every time they came back with a water jug and a thermometer and I inherited all the thermometers! But time and rough treatment took their toll. Guess what -- no more mercury thermometers and no thermometers at all in the medicine section. I found one by Gerber in the baby section and it was, of course, digital. Whatever! It is a thermometer. It beeps when it is ready -- of course, we can barely hear it and I thought my ears were OK.

I probably should have picked up one of the kind that goes in your ear. I know the man who invented it -- a Dr. David Philips, a hypnotherapist. He told me he was struggling with the issue of how to design a better thermometer and he was taking a shower. He thought he heard one of his children yell "stick it in your ear." That was where he got the idea. He also invented the plastic speculum, but that too is another story.

Anyway, I have been fighting this stupid flu for eight days now and still have no energy at all. I have had to cancel meeting after meeting. Will I be better tomorrow? Maybe. Right now I can't wait for my nightly dose of NyQuil so I can slip into unconsciousness and hope I feel less rotten in the morning.