The Incubator

I have had an interesting semester with my health. Generally I get sick once a semester with a cold that lasts about a week, but that's about it. This semester was different though. The morning of my birthday I woke up with a sore throat and by the end of the day my nose was running, and I was coughing and sneezing. I woke up the next morning feeling miserable.

I drugged myself up and went to church meetings and then church itself. When my bishop realized I was sick, he kicked me out of church (which was only the second time I have been kicked out of church...Primary being the first). After realizing how easy it was to get out of church, I might fake sick when I don't feel like going.

After a week, I felt better but still had a cough that lasted for several weeks. Finally after four weeks of coughing and telling myself that I would get better the next day, I listened to my mother and went to the Community Care (my mom was about to come to Rexburg and drag me there if I didn't go on my own). My doctor told me that I had a mild form of pneumonia called walking pneumonia. He put me on an anti-biotic and a cough suppressant.

I started to feel better the next few days, but woke up one day feeling miserable again. I finally went to the Community Care again and tested positive for Influenza A (which is what the swine flu is under). I slept the next few days in my bedroom with the heat blasting because I had the chills. My room was 100 degrees. One of my roommates who is a biology major compared my room to an incubator and my pillow as the petri dish.


My roommates posted signs saying that I had the flu and to stay away. I felt like the diseased kid. One roommate sprayed Lysol in my face, and another roommate sprayed Lysol in the shower 30 seconds after I had gotten out (even though I wasn't contagious anymore).


A few weeks after I had the swine flu, I finally felt much better. After being sick for two and a half months, I have decided to do all I can to not get sick.