How It Started

   Let me paint you a picture. I was a seemingly healthy kid, about to finish Grade 8, exams were coming up, it's the end of May and the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico is escalating and. As usual, I was worrying I'd somehow get the virus. I got sick quite easily in general my whole life and it resulted in maybe a little paranoia regarding germs. I was one of those kids that always gets whatever bug is floating around the schools and when there's such uproar over the swine flu pandemic it's easy for me to get frightened. Even the parents of the friends I carpooled with started to suspect I was simply lazy. I would miss so many classes that some teachers started questioning if I was missing class just because I was bored or something along those lines. I wasn't surprised they didn't believe me. When I heard classmates were getting sick I even skipped school for a couple of days but came back because I was about to make honor roll and wasn't willing to let some media hyped bug stop me from achieving my goals. Most would agree skipping school before exams isn't the best strategy for making honor roll either though. So back to school I went, but not ill prepared, not by a long shot. Not only was I being excessively paranoid (not letting friends touch me, not using stair rails, etc) but I carried my own portable Purell bottle! When my friends asked why I was being so weird I informed them off the swine flu crisis. As soon as I finished my explanation they all asked for some but that would kind of defeat the purpose of not touching people wouldn't it? It was fine though, I happily squirted some into their hands without letting them touch the bottle itself. The day goes fine, I'm not coughing up blood, so I'm happy enough. How quickly things changed.

    The H1N1 Influenza Virus is spreading and spreading across the globe and has began working its way through my school. I was squirting purell into my hands at each class and still staying away from friends. Soon after the school day ends Facebook explodes with the news that a kid at my school (no naming and shaming) has been confirmed to have contracted the virus. Parents get notified that it's not an isolated case, four students have been infected. It was a good thing I had been been taking all the necessary precautions right? The school claims they will only shut down if the number of infected students reaches ten. Sounded like a recipe for disaster to me, so I didn't go, along with half the school. I spent the day playing games, studying for exams, you know the usual and, uh, coughing. Coughing? Why am I coughing? Huh, must be allergies... or so I thought.

    If the foreshadowing wasn't enough let me explain that I was now officially sick, but this was just the beginning. At this point in time (June 1, 2009) I thought I was getting a measly inconsequential cold. Good thing there's plenty of crap in the news about H1N1 being declared a pandemic right? No. It didn't even cross my mind. I must simply have a cold; but then I woke up feeling like death. The sickness simply wouldn't go away. I spent the next few days lounging around, playing video games, what most teenage boys do when they're sick home from school. Your probably thinking to yourself, "This is a pretty boring story."Yep, you're right. Might as well stop reading now because surely I'll be all better tomorrow right?

   I was a few days into the initial sickness It was very possibly a glorious day outside. The hell if I knew though, I spent the entire day lying on the couch watching TV. I didn't even have the energy to play Call of Duty! That's how you know I must be really sick.  At this point I had the balls to admit to myself it was no cold. But swine flu? Nah. The next day was my birthday. I was just waiting for my awesome present to get better, because god loves me and always does what's best for me. That last line is open to your interpretation. Back to to my sickness, I was somehow getting worse, I began vomiting and my throat was so soar I could barely talk. I probably coughed enough times to infect all the imaginary friends that were keeping me company. I was home alone most of these days.

   It was June 3, 1995, my *cough* birth- *sneeze* day! *vomit* You get the idea, I was very very sick. What do I decide to do while I'm still lying on the couch all day? Watch a House TV show marathon! Not really sure why I did this, seeing people die in hospitals while you're more sick than you've ever been is great for your mental well being I hear. No one remembered it was my birthday. I was too busy being sick. I finally gave it away by saying, "This virus is quite the birthday present, eh?" All conversations took part from my nice comfy quarantine spot on the end of the couch, which is right across the kitchen. No one paid it much heed... except for my sister. She went to make me a birthday card which is still on Facebook, and it is the only picture of me while I had swine flu (even though you can only see my hand holding the card... it still counts! Happy birthday to me. Now the enjoyment of birthdays is tainted because it also coincides with getting sick. Over the next 2 weeks I spent all day lying on that same spot on the couch and watched the first 4 seasons of House. I was getting sicker everyday, I knew this was all building up to something.