I usually don't run through my yearly allotment of five sick days here at China Daily USA, but I managed to knock them all out last week - in January no less. Yes, I caught the flu.
I don't think I've ever had a single illness that was so persistently debilitating for so many days in a row (about nine). Usually, the few times over the years that I've had the flu there would be two bad days and then some gradual improvement.
I spent my time home with the chills watching old movies and TV shows (I recommend The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and reading obsessively about how dangerous this flu season was.
I would daily drink a concoction of green tea, honey, lemon, ginger and turmeric. It really didn't do anything, nor did the overpriced over-the-counter remedies.
When you're healthy and you hear all the TV news reports about the flu, you tend to view them as background noise, such as weather reports.
But what was really scary about some of the news stories was how many young, vibrant, previously healthy people across the US have succumbed to the nasty virus.
Thirty-seven children have died in the US of flu-related illnesses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That usually happens when pneumonia sets into the lungs, which could lead to sepsis, septic shock and eventually organ failure.
There is incredible sadness for a family that suddenly loses a child or a parent. They are probably left reeling, thinking that all their loved one had was a bad cold, and even if it were the flu, it's not supposed to kill you.
It's not that those unfortunate people didn't address their illnesses; many of them made an initial trip to a doctor and were given medications. Then they would make a second trip when things weren't getting better, and finally, the third trip, which was usually the last, to the hospital.
I've gotten flu shots intermittently over the years, but like a lot of people, this season I had a roll-the-dice attitude. And there is a particular strain (H3N2) going around that disproportionately affects baby boomers, of which I am one. It made me think that this self-satisfied generation finally ran up against something it couldn't control.
"Baby boomers have higher rates [of hospitalization] than their grandchildren right now," Dan Jernigan, CDC influenza division director, said on Jan 26.
This isn't just a thing in New York, which has to be the US city where you come into contact with the most people incidentally. Influenza has been epidemic in 49 US states, sparing Hawaii. (How miserable would it be to have the flu in that paradise?)
I saw one TV report about how to protect yourself from the flu at this Sunday's Super Bowl parties.
The flu is pervasive in China, too; in fact, two of my colleagues based in Beijing already have written about their maladies this flu season.
One, like me, wrote about the mistake of not getting a flu shot. Another explained a futile effort by his wife to treat him with traditional Chinese remedies of hot water and light food.
In Beijing, the city's health commission reported 9,500 cases of flu the first week of 2018 - a 20 percent year-over-year increase.
What's that old saying? If you treat a cold, it lasts seven days. If you don't treat a cold, it lasts seven days.
I would settle for it sticking to the seven days.
Contact the writer at williamhennelly@chinadaily.usa.com
