F-L-U Future Lessons Unfold

When I was around 7 or 8, I came down with some kind of flu. 

Those days it was just “flu” without letters or numbers or other scary identifiers attached to it.

I had the usual high fever, no appetite, no energy and general feeling of “I’m going to DIE” that came with the flu. 

Back then kids got the flu, several kinds of measles, mumps, chicken pox and a medley of infections.  Considering we didn’t wear seat belts or wear bicycle helmets, it’s a wonder we lived long enough to get the flu, measles, mumps, chicken pox and medley of infections.  

A vaccine for the scariest childhood disease, polio, had just been developed.  I remember standing in line to eat a polio vaccine injected sugar cube in grade school.

Surely my parents wanted us kids to kill ourselves, or each other, because my brothers and I had BB guns, pellet guns, real bow and arrows, mini bike, motorcycles and given a free range with a plethora of explosive devices every 4^th of July, along with a few cigarettes to light them with.  Oh boy …  We also knew that if we shot an eye out, crashed and burned or blew off a finger or two, we’d get zero sympathy and likely a band-aid and a spanking,  It kept us on the careful side.  All 4 of us survived, taking both eyeballs, 10 fingers and 10 toes with us into adulthood, in addition to some great scars to show off!

OK, back to the flu.

The fever passed, the appetite returned but every single muscle in my body hurt like the devil.  I’d never experienced that before and it had me worried!  Since I didn’t want to look like a sissy and complain to my parents (refer to paragraph above regarding their obvious disregard for my welfare anyway), I headed for our set of Encyclopedia Britannicas (kind of like Googling it today) to research this new symptom. 

After careful consideration, I was convinced that I had Multiple Sclerosis, would surely die a long, painful, miserable death and would never be the happy-go-lucky teenager I fantasized becoming.  Woe is me….

For 24 hours I was terrified. 

Then something unexpected happened.

I got angry.

I wasn’t ready to die, much less in such a crappy way!

I remember thinking, “OK, if I’m going to die a young painful death, let’s get it over with!”

I walked and walked, ran, stretched, did sit ups, toe touches, jumped rope and any other movement I could think of to make my aching muscles SCREAM.

The next day, the pain was gone, vanished.

It’s crazy the stupid things you remember from childhood. 

It was my first lesson in overcoming fear, one painful step at a time.

It was my first lesson in don’t believe everything you read.

It was my first lesson in adapt and overcome.

Who knew the flu could lead to such wisdom?

Who knew?