Influenza season

I guess it had to happen: me succumbing to a big influenza attack again. I'm always susceptible to colds and influenza and every time it happens, usually I would end up with irritating phlegm in my throat. Once the initial flu attack ends, my phlegm would thicken until it starts off bouts of coughing fits and I'm put on a second round of antibiotics.

But today, for only the second time in my life, I lost my voice as well. Haven't been able to speak above a whisper. So I haven't been very communicative at all, save for text messages.

I had taken an anti-influenza injection before but it was so long ago. The jab quite effective and for a long while, I didn't have to endure the misery of a flu attack. At that time, the doctor had told me that the protection couldn't last forever. She said that because of new strains of the influenza virus appearing, it would be necessary to take the injection once a year. But I had been holding off partly due to procrastination and partly due to wanting to find out how long I could go before having another injection.

Well, I guess with today's brush with influenza, it is about time that I seriously think about getting another anti-influenza jab again.

I had to search through my archives on this blog to find out when exactly I had the first injection. Took me quite a while to go through the archives but I finally uncovered an entry dated in May 2008. Wow, that would be almost 4½ years ago. The protection had lasted so long. It was well worth the RM60 paid for me to remain relatively influenza-free all this time.

Let me recover from this latest bout and I'll definitely go and get covered again...