I'm getting my 'flu jab

Well it’s that time of year again, the time of year when I usually ignore my letter from my doctor reminding me to go and get my winter ‘flu jab.

But not this year, oh no. No, this year I’ll definitely be subjecting myself to the joys of a slightly achy arm for the day. I’m not particularly worried about swine ‘flu (oink), as from what I can see it doesn’t seem to be much worse than usual seasonal ‘flu. I suspect it’s been, perhaps, blown a little out of proportion. After all the British press absolutely loves a health scare – especially rancid rag The Daily Mail, which seems to be made up of little else. If I’m wrong, however, please feel free to crow over my cooling corpse saying “we told you so…”

Anyway, I’m just terrified of the usual plain old common or garden ‘flu. Why? Because last year I actually got it and I have to say that it was far from being a week-long chucklefest. I picked it up at a family birthday in France from my brother – yeah, thanks Ben – and on the return trip spent a merry afternoon in Gatwick airport waiting for connecting flight  steadily feeling more and more awful (and, coincidently, probably passing on said ‘flu to 30,000 passers-by who were flying to every corner of the world – go me!)

The next five days or so were spent in bed, sweating, shaking, coughing, spluttering, checking my BG every hour, injecting extra insulin and generally wishing I was dead. Everything hurt and I could hardly summon the mental energy to get up and do something as simple as visit the bathroom (I did eventually go, you’ll be pleased to hear). It was the second most miserable five day period I’ve ever had. The first most miserable was the last time I had ‘flu – at boarding school in Northern Ireland. What fun that was!

So, never wishing to experience the misery of proper ‘flu again (man flu’s fine – I can deal with / put that on any day) I’m ignoring the inevitable health scares concerning vaccines and I’ll be at my doctor’s next Saturday at the front of the queue for the jab.

I have to confess that despite all that, I probably would have ignored the doctor’s reminder as usual. But after consistently disregarding her advice to “go and get your bloody ‘flu jab” last year, Katie very sensibly just made an appointment for me yesterday. I have been told.